Winter Chills begins...

Before the Alchemy Press I edited / produced a number of titles for the BritishFantasy Society. Way back in 1986 the BFS’s journal Dark Horizons was failing to appear regularly. I pitched to the then Society chairs (Stephen Jones and Jo Fletcher) an all-fiction, complementary magazine. They gave me the go ahead and so I contacted a number of authors and artists. And in January 1987 Winter Chills debuted. Originally, I aimed for a magazine of ghost stories to appear in time for Christmas ’86, but WC1 was just a month late. The publication very quickly spread its coverage over the horror field. I remain very grateful to everyone who supported me in getting the series up and running.

So, Winter Chills 1 was my first venture into editing a fiction magazine. I originally hoped that WC would become a series published annually; but even so, calling this publication issue one was perhaps presumptive. In fact, the run lasted ten issues over ten years.

Winter Chills 1 was published by the BFS; the cover price was 90p / $3.00, and BFS membership was just £8.00 a year:

“The Hanging Tree” by R Chetwynd-Hayes. Illustrated by Jim Pitts

“A New Life” by Ramsey Campbell. Illustrated by Dave Carson

“Something Old, Something Evil” by Sydney J Bounds. Illustrated by Alan Hunter

“Deathstone” by Peter Tremayne

“Lady Megalith” by David Sutton. Illustrated by Alan Hunter

“Late Shopping” by Brian Lumley

The front cover illustration was by Dallas Goffin. “The Hanging Tree” originally appeared in A Quiver of Ghosts by R Chetwynd-Hayes (1984). “Late Shopping” originally appeared in Weirdbook 18, edited by W Paul Ganley (1983)

The second issue of Winter Chills also appeared in 1987 – this time just before Christmas. WC2 was listed as number 12 in the BFS booklet series. The cover price was £1.00 / $3.00. And meanwhile, the Stephen Jones & David Sutton produced Fantasy Tales was seeing its tenth anniversary.

By this time I was using a daisy wheel electronic typewriter. It had no internal memory, no cut and paste with clicks of a mouse, no easy layouts. And again, the titles were all created with Letraset; and the whole thing was put together with scissors and glue (but no longer that foul-smelling cow gum).

Winter Chills 2, published by the British Fantasy Society:

“The Wishing Ball” by Stephen Gallagher. Illustrated by Alan Hunter

“Call to Me, Call to Me” by Alan W Lear. Illustrated by Stephen Jones

“Thanksgiving Dinner” by Mike Chinn. Illustrated by Dallas Goffin

“The Void Within His Head” by Peter A Hough. Illustrated by Allen Koszowski

“A Man Between Two Worlds” by Gilles Bergal. Illustrated by Alan Hunter

“The Doll” by Guy N Smith. Illustrated by Jim Pitts

“The Miracle Man” by Paul Roland. Illustrated by Martin McKenna

The front cover illustration was by Dave Carson. Additional artwork was by Peter Coleborn, Jim Garrison and Dallas Goffin. “A Man Between Two Worlds” was translated from the French by Stephen Gallagher. It was originally published in Creatures des Tenebres by Gilles Bergal (1985).


A version of this post originally appeared on the Alchemy Press blog.