Hidden beneath the streets of London is a dark and dreadful establishment known as The Monster Club, where vampires indulge in a rather different kind of Bloody Mary and ghouls tear into their gruesome repasts. Here, along with the usual monsters – vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and some of Dr Frankenstein’s more freakish creations – you’ll find other, less familiar ones. You’ll meet the frightening Fly-by-Night, the hideous shaddy, the horrible mock, and the dreaded shadmock, perhaps the most terrifying of all.
When Donald McCloud offers a starving man a meal, he unexpectedly discovers that the man is a vampire – and he’s the main course. Accompanying the vampire, Eramus, to The Monster Club, Donald encounters a whole host of strange monsters, who, in a series of five linked stories, recount to Donald their monstrous exploits. But as Donald is regaled with these terrifying tales, he can’t help but wonder: as the only human in a club full of bloodthirsty monsters, when the night’s entertainment is over, will it spell the end for him as well?
First published in 1976, R. Chetwynd-Hayes’s The Monster Club was adapted for a 1981 film starring Vincent Price, John Carradine, and Donald Pleasence, and both book and film have gone on to become cult classics. Told in a wry, tongue-in-cheek style, the tales in The Monster Club are simultaneously horrific, comical, and curiously moving. This edition is the first in more than twenty years and features a new introduction by Stephen Jones and a reproduction of John Bolton’s painting from the rare comic book adaptation of the film.
“Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes was regularly one of the top ten authors whose work was borrowed from British libraries throughout the seventies – so says Stephen Jones in his excellent introduction. … Buy the book.” – This Is Horror
“Funny, disturbing and brilliantly imaginative ... well worth the price of admission … This long-overdue paperback reissue comes with a useful introduction by Stephen Jones and a suitably lurid wraparound cover by John Bolton.” – Starburst Magazine
“[F]ive quirky, darkly humorous tales of terror that still hold up quite well.” – Rue Morgue
