Lest You Should Suffer Nightmares by Johnny Mains - Screaming Dreams

Lest You Should Suffer Nightmares
by Johnny Mains

This is the first non-fiction title from Screaming Dreams. It offers an insight into the world of Herbert van Thal, probably best known in horror circles for editing the Pan Book of Horror series of anthologies.

Extract (from the intro)

What comes across as clear as day is how utterly passionate he was about horror fiction. If he admired someone’s writing he would champion it until his last breath. He believed that ‘writing in the horror genre was an art in itself and ‘we still suffer nightmares, and we are no further advanced in our ideas about death, so the unknown still holds for us a fascination, and the supernatural story can still hold our attention and moreover, frighten us.’

While his practises as an editor and literary agent may at times seem rather odd and sometimes breathtakingly shocking, one cannot deny that Herbert’s heart was always in the right place when it came to getting stories he thought would genuinely chill out to as many people as possible.

About the Author

Johnny Mains' first book as editor was the British Fantasy Award winning Back From The Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories, published through his Noose and Gibbet imprint. He was Project Editor on Pan Macmillan's critically acclaimed relaunch of the very first Pan Book of Horror Stories, originally published in 1959, to which he supplied an informative historical background to the series. He has also published Herbert van Thal's 'lost' collection The Mask and Other Stories and his debut collection, With Deepest Sympathy was published by Obverse Books.

Author's Homepage : http://johnnymains.blogspot.com

About the Cover Artist

Les Edwards has been a professional illustrator for over thirty-five years. He has worked in many fields and areas but is best known for the huge number of book jackets he has produced in the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror genres. He is a seven time recipient of the British Fantasy Award for Best Artist, has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award three times, and for a Chesley Award on two occasions.

Artist's Homepage : www.lesedwards.com