The Grin of the Dark

• PRAISE FOR RAMSEY CAMPBELL
  
• About the Author
  
• Title Page
  
• Copyright Page
  
• Acknowledgements
  
• Dedication
  
• Chapter ONE - I'M NO LOSER
  
• Chapter TWO - MINIONS
  
• Chapter THREE - ENTITLEMENT
  
• Chapter FOUR - LISTS
  
• Chapter FIVE - LOST
  
• Chapter SIX - LESSER
  
• Chapter SEVEN - TOTEMS
  
• Chapter EIGHT - SMILEMIME
  
• Chapter NINE - SOME SENSE
  
• Chapter TEN - MOORS
  
• Chapter ELEVEN - INTERMENTS
  
• Chapter TWELVE - EROS
  
• Chapter THIRTEEN - IT'S ONLINE
  
• Chapter FOURTEEN - SITES
  
• Chapter FIFTEEN - MOM IS RELENTLESS
  
• Chapter SIXTEEN - OMENS
  
• Chapter SEVENTEEN - RESTLESSNESS
  
• Chapter EIGHTEEN - I'M NOT REMISS
  
• Chapter NINETEEN - SENIORS
  
• Chapter TWENTY - IT STIRS
  
• Chapter TWENTY-ONE - SOON I'LL REST
  
• Chapter TWENTY-TWO - NO STILLNESS
  
• Chapter TWENTY-THREE - MISS MOSS
  
• Chapter TWENTY-FOUR - NETS
  
• Chapter TWENTY-FIVE - IN STORE
  
• Chapter TWENTY-SIX - RETORTS
  
• Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN - SIRENS
  
• Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT - NOTES ON SILENTS
  
• Chapter TWENTY-NINE - REELS
  
• Chapter THIRTY - REMISSION
  
• Chapter THIRTY-ONE - IT SMILES
  
• Chapter THIRTY-TWO - I'M IN MOTION
  
• Chapter THIRTY-THREE - SOLEMN TRIO
  
• Chapter THIRTY-FOUR - NO ROOM
  
• Chapter THIRTY-FIVE - TORMENTORS
  
• Chapter THIRTY-SIX - LISTENERS
  
• Chapter THIRTY-SEVEN - REMOTENESS
  
• Chapter THIRTY-EIGHT - I EMOTE
  
• Chapter THIRTY-NINE - IT'S IMMINENT
  
• Chapter FORTY - MET
  
• Chapter FORTY-ONE - RITES
  
• Chapter FORTY-TWO - TESS
  
• Chapter FORTY-THREE - ST SIMON'S
  
• Chapter FORTY-FOUR - NOEL, NOEL
  
• Chapter FORTY-FIVE - IN LEMON STREET
  
• Chapter FORTY-SIX - IT ROTS
  
• Chapter FORTY-SEVEN - SOMEONE ELSE
  
• Chapter FORTY-EIGHT - RENTNOMORE
  
• Chapter FORTY-NINE - INTERTITLES
  
• Chapter FIFTY - MEMENTOS
  
• Chapter FIFTY-ONE - TIME TO TELL
  
• EPILOGUE - I'M NOT LESSER
  

PRAISE FOR RAMSEY CAMPBELL

'Britain's most respected living horror writer'
Oxford Companion to English Literature

'Easily the best horror writer working in Britain today'
Time Out

'Campbell is literate in a field which has attracted too many comic-book intellects, cool
in a field where too many writers – myself included – tend toward panting melodrama...
Good horror writers are quite rare, and Campbell is better than just good' Stephen King

'Britain's greatest living horror writer' Alan Moore

'Britain's leading horror writer... His novels have been getting better and better'
City
Limits

'One of Britain's most accomplished horror writers'
Oxford Star

'The John Le Carré of horror fiction'
Bookshelf
, Radio 4

'One of the best real horror writers at work today'
Interzone

'The greatest living exponent of the British weird fiction tradition'
The Penguin
Encyclopaedia of Horror and the Supernatural

'Ramsey Campbell has succeeded more brilliantly than any other writer in bringing the
supernatural tale up to date without sacrificing the literary standards that early masters
made an indelible part of the tradition' Jack Sullivan, editor of the Penguin
encyclopaedia

'England's contemporary king of the horror genre'
Atlanta Constitution

'One of the few real writers in our field... In some ways Ramsey Campbell is the best of
us all' Peter Straub

'Ramsey Campbell has a talent for terror – he knows how to give you nightmares while
you're still awake... Only a few writers can lay claim to such a level of consummate
craftsmanship' Robert Bloch

'Campbell writes the most terrifying horror tales of anyone now alive'
Twilight Zone
Magazine

'He is unsurpassed in the subtle manipulation of mood... You forget you're just reading
a story'
Publishers Weekly

'One of the world's finest exponents of the classic British ghost story'
Sounds

'For sheer ability to compose disturbing, evocative prose, he is unmatched in the
horror/fantasy field... He turns the traditional horror novel inside out, and makes it
work brilliantly'
Fangoria

'Campbell has solidly established himself to be the best writer working in this field
today' Karl Edward Wagner,
The Year's Best Horror Stories

'When Mr Campbell pits his fallible, most human characters against enormous forces
bent on incomprehensible errands the results are, as you might expect, often frightening,
and, as you might not expect, often touching; even heartwarming' Gahan Wilson in
The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

'Britain's leading horror novelist'
New Statesman

'Ramsey Campbell is Britain's finest living writer of horror stories: considerable praise
for a man whose country boasts the talents of Clive Barker and Roald Dahl, M. John
Harrison and Nigel Kneale' Douglas Winter, editor of
Prime Evil

'Campbell writes the most disturbing horror fiction around'
Today

'Ramsey Campbell is better than all the rest of us put together' Dennis Etchison

'Ramsey Campbell is the best horror writer alive, period' Thomas Tessier

'A horror writer in the classic mould... Britain's premier contemporary exponent of the
art of scaring you out of your skin'
Q Magazine

'The undisputed master of the psychological horror novel' Robert Holdstock

'Perhaps the most important living writer in the horror fiction field' David Hartwell

'Ramsey Campbell's work is tremendous' Jonathan Ross

'Campbell is a rightful tenant of M. R. James country, the genuine badlands of the
human psyche' Norman Shrapnel in the
Guardian

'One of the world's finest exponents of the classic British ghost story... His writing
explores the potential for fear in the mundane, the barely heard footsteps, the shadow
flitting past at the edge of one's sight'
Daily Telegraph

'The Grand Master of British horror... the greatest living writer of horror fiction'
Vector

'Britain's greatest horror writer... Realistic, subtle and arcane'
Waterstone's Guide to
Books

'In Campbell's hands words take on a life of their own, creating images that stay with
you, feelings that prey on you, and people you hope never ever to meet'
Starburst

'The finest writer now working in the horror field'
Interzone

'Ramsey Campbell is the nearest thing we have to an heir to M. R. James'
Times

'Easily the finest practising British horror novelist and the one whose work can most
wholeheartedly be recommended to those who dislike the genre... His misclassification
as a genre writer obscures his status as the finest magic realist Britain possesses this side
of J. G. Ballard'
Daily Telegraph

'One of the few who can scare and disturb as well as make me laugh out loud. His
humour is very black but very funny, and that's a rare gift to have' Mark Morris in the
Observer

'The most sophisticated and highly regarded of British horror writers'
Financial Times

'He writes of our deepest fears in a precise, clear prose that somehow manages to be
beautiful and terrifying at the same time. He is a powerful, original writer, and you owe
it to yourself to make his acquaintance'
Washington Post

'I would say that only five writers have written serious novels which incorporate themes
of fantasy or the inexplicable and still qualify as literature: T. E. D. Klein, Peter Straub,
Richard Adams, Jonathan Carroll and Ramsey Campbell' Stephen King

'Ramsey Campbell is the best of us all' Poppy Z. Brite

'The foremost stylist and innovator in British horror fiction'
The Scream Factory

'One of the century's great literary exponents of the gothic and horrific'
Guardian

'A national treasure... one of the most revered and significant authors in our field' Peter
Atkins

'No other horror writer currently active is engaging with the real world quite as rigorously
as Ramsey Campbell' Kim Newman

'Ramsey Campbell taught me how to write... There's an intensity and clarity to his
worldview that's quite beautiful' Jeremy Dyson

'When it comes to the box of nightmares into which we all reach for inspiration, Ramsey
reaches deeper than anyone else' Mark Morris

Ramsey Campbell has been given more awards than any other writer
in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror
Convention and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror
Writers Association. In 2007, he was named a Living Legend by the
International Horror Guild. He is the author of over fifteen novels,
numerous short stories and a collection of nonfiction. He lives on
Merseyside with his wife Jenny and his pleasures include classical
music, good food and wine, and whatever's in that pipe.

For more information visit
www.ramseycampbell.com

Ramsey Campbell

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

ISBN 9780753516492

Version 1.0

www.randomhouse.co.uk

First published in paperback in Great Britain in 2008 by
Virgin Books Ltd
Thames Wharf Studios
Rainville Rd
London W6 9HA

First published in hardback in Great Britain in 2007
by PS Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2007

The right of Ramsey Campbell to be identified as the Author
of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This electronic book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.

ISBN: 9780753516492

Version 1.0

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Jenny was my first editor as always, even if we disagree about the
prevalence of capital letters in primers. Tammy and Mat scouted
London locations, and Poppy Z. Brite informed me about California.
Keith Ravenscroft was my informant in Holland. The staffs of the
John Rylands Library in Manchester and the Harris Library in
Preston were most helpful. As Giant Albino Penguin, Sean Parker
inspired me with his music. To put myself in the mood for the rewrite
I often returned to Haydn's Clown Symphony (the deleted Dorati
recording). Parts of the book were written in Barcelona, in Skala in
Kefalonia, and before breakfast each morning at the Festival of
Fantastic Films in Manchester. For background details of forgotten
silent films I'm indebted to Moses Tennent's
Silent Merriment
(alas,
itself lost and forgotten).