Welcome, once more, dear friends to the second meeting of our most dreadful story club. Though tomorrow may be (for some) a good Friday, this evening we hope to enjoy a most wicked Thursday.

After the previous session, in which we gazed fearlessly into a terrible face of crumpled linen, we paddle our canoe in the direction of Algernon Blackwood and the cosmic, elemental horror of "The Willows".

The story – in which two travelling companions journey into a wilderness, and there find a spot where our world and an (awesome & terrifying) otherworld intersect – is based heavily on Blackwood's own adventures. In the summers of 1900 and 1901 he took two trips down the Danube (the second with his friend Wilfred Wilson) and chronicled his experiences in a two-part essay (imaginatively titled) "Down the Danube in a Canadian Canoe".¹

While those "real life" trips must certainly have helped Blackwood create a credible sense of space & place, the almost overwhelming terrors that the narrator and "the Swede" are forced to try and comprehend (and escape from) appear solely the protean products of Blackwood's fertile imagination. Or at least we hope so…

By the way, despite previous statements to the contrary we're not going to be posting a list of "observations" for you to riff off and react to. This is partly because I couldn't figure out how to phrase them so they wouldn't threaten to lead the conversation in slightly tedious directions. The more important reason is that hardly anyone emailed us any!

So, like last time, the stage is yours to say whatever tickles (and terrifies) your various fancies. Crack open the good stuff, dim the lights, kiss your loved ones goodbye (for a few hours at least) and let's get chatting.

Begin.

1. Joshi, S.T. in (Blackwood's) Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories (USA: Penguin, 2002), p. 353. [back]

Well, I hope you're all suitably recovered from the frights, delights and alcohol (or caffeine) poisoning of Monday evening. The pace was fast and furious – the vibe (I thought) fun and friendly. In other words – a cracking start, and one we can hopefully build on.

We've sifted and filtered through your suggestions for our next t-t-tale of terror and have decided in favour of Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" (selected by the very wicked Niall Munnelly).

As short stories go it is, admittedly, a bit on the long side but the small bit of extra effort is well worth it. No less a personage than (the dark lord) H. P. Lovecraft described it as "the single finest weird tale in literature", so its spooky (and dread-filled) credentials are impeccable.

There are plenty of e-texts floating around in the online ether but the ones linked to at the bottom of this post are probably the easiest on the eyes. Shall we say next Thursday, 20th March, at 8.00 pm for our second DT Story Club meeting? Merely a provisional suggestion – if it's awkward or unsuitable just holler (or shriek).

One slight change to proceedings we'd like to suggest. Though the quick-fire comment deluge on Monday was frantic fun of the highest order, we thought it might benefit the discussions to have a few "points" or "observations" to focus on. So what we're suggesting is this – read the story, make your notes in the margins, have a quick think, and email me (see sidebar) or Sinéad with a brief point/observation you feel is worth observing and discussing on the night.

These should be no more than a sentence or two (the shorter, the better) and can be as casual or enigmatic as you like. They'll be listed (and numbered) in next Thursday's post and are merely intended to give us something to refer to as we chat (as in "RE: Point 2 – I think that…" etc). Hope that meets with your approval (any questions, suggestions or queries – just pop them in the comments section below).

By the way, I'm making a note of every suggested story and we'll (hopefully) work our way through them all over time.

Story: "The Willows" (pdf), (pdf), (html), (html)

Meeting: Thursday, March 20, 8.00 p.m. (GMT).