I have just bought all the books by Deric Longden. I have no idea what happened to the collection I had before I moved, but I have a vague memory of a box sitting forlornly in the garage ...

Anyway, the first book is called "Diana's Story" and is the story of his wife's battle with what they subsequently have decided must have been a form of M.E. It is a very humourous book, even though the subject is not. One enduring memory from the book is a medical person asking him "How are her periods" when she is sitting right there as well.

Diana's struggle in life, and her subsequent death, are told with love and humour which shine thru the pages. Her death is told so well that you feel the numbness yourself, and then as Deric experiences his grief, you are right there with him.

The next book in the series is "Lost for Words" in which his mum takes the starring role, and it tells of her eccentricity, and her eventual stroke and then her loss. Another humourous book - he has the sort of point of view of life that sees the funny side.

He then goes on to write :

I am a Stranger Here Myself
The Cat who came in from the Cold
Enough To Make A Cat Laugh
Play on Words
Paws in the Proceedings

which cover his life and adventures, meeting and marrying the author Aileen Armitage, and the cats that move in with them.

All the books are very amusing and entertaining, and aren't hard or deep reads.

I last read Lovecraft at the impressionable age of 14 when I demolished The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a fair tale of a fellow possesed by a sorcerous ancester. This is just one of the stories in this collection. Bizzarely it was filmed as The Haunted Palace by Roger Corman, as part of his Vincent Price/Poe series in the 1960s.

Sadly the rest of the collection just does not do it for me. The title piece takes place in the Antarctic where a mission from the Miskatonic University has uncovered the remains of long lost lfeforms and their civilisation. While the plot development is initially very atmospheric (very much like john Carpenter's The Thing with which the story shares some characteristics) where it loses me is when we meet the creatures. They just make me think of giant sushi rolls with octopus tentacles and little batty wings. They just ain't scary.

Lovecraft was a fair writer, but he had a tendency to make 100 words do when ten would and the shorter novellas and stories in this collection really could really have done with being savagely pruned.

So aside from Ward all a bit of a disappointment.

My new novel 'The Idea of Love' will be published this summer by Penguin. There are a couple of extracts on my website www.louisedean.com and lots of bits and bobs about it, amongst other utterly irrelevant happenings at my blog which you can access via the site. I'm wondering about releasing bits of my books via blogs....anyway if you're interested in writing, fiction, novels do take a peek, and let me know what you think. I write dark comedies....my other books are 'Becoming Strangers' (longlisted for Man Booker) and 'This Human Season'...we don't really ever get reader feedback....I'd like to know what bits readers really like and wonder if this is a way to understand that in vivo.....

best Louise