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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
@PulpLibrarian
Oct 8, 2018 • 12 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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As it's #LibrariesWeek let's look back at Britain's favourite library book*: the 1977 Usborne Guide to the Supernatural World!

(*according to my readers)
Supernatural World was an anthology of three existing Usborne pocketbooks: Vampires, Mysterious Powers and Ghosts. As an Usborne hardback it was deemed perfect for the nation's libraries.
Usborne had previously fascinated and frightened readers with its 1977 World Of The Unknown series: a terrifying triptych of ghosts, monsters and UFOs. Supernatural World would continue in the same vein.
The Supernatural World series was written by Eric Maple, Lynn Myring and Eliot Humberstone. Illustrations were by a range of artists including Oliver Frey, Sarah Simpson and Elaine Lee.
Each section of the book starts with an introduction to its topic, setting up the horror in a matter of fact way...
...before quickly diving into the gruesome details of a terrifying story!
Being an Usborne book Supernatural World has a fair amount of educational content in it. However it's always presented in a spine-chilling way.
Usborne did not try to talk down to its young audience. The prose is brisk and to the point, with clear illustrations driving that point home.
Supernatural Tales was translated into many languages and the book remains popular in Spain, Finland and Russia. Tales of terror work well in any language.
But it's the images in Supernatural World that stick in the mind. Many adults still shudder today when reminded of them!
Supernatural Tales was an instant hit in 1979 but has only been reissued once, in 1990. Perhaps it's a book of its time, when children's morbid curiosity was valued and catered for.
Copies of Supernatural World can still be found on Ebay. However if you did 'borrow' it from your school library some years ago please return it: other readers are waiting!

More stories another time...

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More from @PulpLibrarian

Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 2, 2018
It is the greatest frog-worshiping zombie biker occult horror film ever made. Possibly the only one. It's certainly like no over movie you've ever seen.

Today in pulp, I look back at the 1971 classic Psychomania...
By the early 1970s British horror films were trying to get 'with it' to attract a younger audience. So it wasn't surprising that in 1971 screenwriter Arnaud d'Usseau tried to create a biker horror movie.
d'Usseau had previously written Horror Express, an Anglo-Spanish sci-fi/horror movie loosely based on John W. Campbell's novella Who Goes There. Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas did their best with the material.
Read 18 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Oct 9, 2018
"The gun is good! The Penis is evil!" bellows a huge stone head floating over the Irish countryside. It's quite a strange start to any movie, but it's about to get even stranger...

This is the story of John Boorman's classic 1974 film Zardoz.
In 1970 director John Boorman began work on a Lord Of The Rings film for United Artists. It would be an unusual adaption; The Beatles would be the Hobbits and Kabuki theatre would open the movie . Alas the studio said 'No', but the idea of a fantasy film stuck with Boorman...
So in 1972, following the commercial success of Deliverance, John Boorman started work on Zardoz - a fantasy film into which he would cram many unorthodox ideas. Initially Burt Reynolds was to play the lead role of Zed, but pulled out citing other filming commitments.
Read 13 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Oct 7, 2018
It was a university course for the price of a packet of cigarettes: Pelican Books! Maybe the blend wasn't to everyone's taste, but there's no denying the addictive nature of the range.

Today in pulp I look back at the autodidact's bible...
In 1937, two years after Allen Lane founded Penguin books, the company decided on a new imprint to provide academic and intellectual non-fiction for the general public. Lane believed there was a market for “intelligent books at a low price” which he was determined to serve
Over its lifetime Pelican sold a quarter of a billion books covering almost 3,000 subjects. Lane apparently came up with the Pelican name when he overheard a woman at King’s Cross railway station mistakenly asking for a Pelican book instead of a Penguin one.
Read 14 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Oct 7, 2018
📩PULP POSTBAG TIME!📩

And today's letter is home computer related...
Mr Derrick Wibley from Penge writes: "Dear PL, I recently invested in a 48k ZX Spectrum to help run my stationery business 'Penge Pens'. However I'm worried it's not powerful enough to meet the needs of my ambitious business expansion programme. What should I do?"
Well Mr Wibley fear not! The ZX Spectrum is a fully-scaleable integrated solution to your business needs - provided you buy the right peripherals!
Read 13 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Oct 6, 2018
The Time Machine, Brave New World, 1984: these weren’t the first dystopian novels. There's an interesting history of Victorian and Edwardian literature looking at the impact of modernity on humans and finding it worrying.

Today in pulp I look at some early dystopian books…
Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1863, was the second novel penned by Jules Verne. However his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel rejected it as too gloomy. The manuscript was only discovered in 1994 when Verne’s grandson hired a locksmith to break into an old family safe.
The novel, set in 1961, warns of the dangers of a utilitarian culture. Paris has street lights, motor cars and the electric chair but no artists or writers any more. Instead industry and commerce dominate and citizens see themselves as cogs in a great economic machine.
Read 26 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Oct 6, 2018
"It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white."

This is how we are introduced to Michael Moorcock' s anti-hero Elric of Melniboné...
Elric, also known as The Albino Emperor, Elric Kinslayer and the Pale Prince of Ruins is the 428th emperor of Melniboné, and the last. A sickly sorcerer sustained by enchanted herbs, he is a brooder and an outsider to his people.
Elric is the sole heir to the Ruby Throne of Melniboné, after his mother died in childbirth. Like Hamlet he was a prince who studied the world and questioned his role. He was also a moral person, which made his people think of him as weak.
Read 16 tweets

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