Fiona WebsterĬlive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. No horror library is complete without them. Some of the tales are more successful than others, but all are distinguished by strikingly beautiful images of evil and destruction. These enthusiastic tales are not ashamed of visceral horror, of blood splashing freely across the page: 'The Midnight Meat Train,' a grisly subway tale that surprises you with one twist after another 'The Yattering and Jack,' about a hilarious demon who possesses a Christmas turkey 'In the Hills, the Cities,' an unusual example of an original horror premise 'Dread,' a harrowing non-supernatural tale about being forced to realize your worst nightmare 'Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament,' about a woman who kills men with her mind. Some of the simple energies that made these words flow through my pen-that made the phrases felicitous and the ideas sing-have gone. Reading these stories over, I feel a little of both. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. We are all our own graveyards I believe we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore. Reflecting back after 14 years, Barker writes:

For those who already know these tales, the poignant introduction is a window on the creator's mind. 'Everybody is a book of blood wherever we're opened, we're red.' For those who only know Clive Barker through his long multigenre novels, this complete edition of the Books of Blood is a welcome chance to acquire all six volumes and 30 remarkable horror short stories written by the British author Clive Barker.

Clive barker books of blood complete