THE SPINY CHILLER and Other Selected Short Stories by Marson Holbrook
This is an ingenious anthology of short stories with varied themes to suit every
reader. There are a number of stories using clever anthropomorphic twists,
producing nostalgic memories; sometimes with humour and occasionally with
sadness.
Readers will find they are kept on tenterhooks awaiting the outcome of some of
the stories, whilst others, such as
‘The Circle of Light’, which reflects passing life as it unfolds under the light of a gaslight, are
particularly poignant. The title story of
‘The Spiny Chiller’ is one which takes readers on a journey into the Middle East of 1969 through to
today, cleverly depicting an audacious plot which, including the use of an
encased spiny lizard, seems extraordinarily plausible.
There is much to empathise with in these stories and once read they are truly
memorable.
Marson Holbrook
The author was born in the Midlands. He joined the British Army in 1950 and
served through to 1977, with time spent in Singapore, Ceylon, France, Cyprus
and Germany. Since that time he has worked in Saudi Arabia as a Staff
Administrator of a construction camp with some 5,000 multi-national personnel,
he has been a Storeman in an iron ore mine in Western Australia and a Clerical
Assistant in the Finance Department of a London Borough. Following a short stay
as a Plateman in the Lord Mayor
’s Residence in the Mansion House he worked as a Housefather at a school for boys
with medical, social and learning problems.
He has travelled considerably, covering the world more than once by sea and by
air. In 1998 he returned to Australia and took citizenship there. Then in 2003
he returned to the UK and is presently settled with his partner Beryl in
Wiltshire.
