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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.110.23.32
Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 08:34 pm:   

Just got back from the wild and barren Northumberland where I had the pleasure of rereading the stories collected in JUST BEHIND YOU. What a joy Ramsey's prose truly is: better, clearer and more powerful than ever. 'Dragged Down', 'Skeleton Woods', 'Raised by the Moon' are unsurpassed in terms of atmosphere, plaintive characterisation and creeping dread. I was thinking all the while I was reading these pieces that perhaps folk take his work for granted: by that I mean that we simply expect artful excellence in every book, get it, and then set it aside without comment cos it did exactly what we thought it would do. Well, here's to Ramsey in his maturity. Long may he prosper. Long may he continue to write better tales than he ever has at any part of his sterling career.

(Another unique thing about this collection: all the pieces span a short period - about 8 years. It's all later-Campbell.)
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.148.243.36
Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 09:06 pm:   

Indeed!

I am really looking forward to reading both this & 'Creatures Of The Pool'.

gcw
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.202.211.71
Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 09:42 pm:   

I still don't have mine because apparently there's some delay in the traycased edition of Just Behind You
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.163.6.13
Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 09:47 pm:   

Really looking forward to both books as well!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 10:24 pm:   

I was thinking all the while I was reading these pieces that perhaps folk take his work for granted: by that I mean that we simply expect artful excellence in every book, get it, and then set it aside without comment cos it did exactly what we thought it would do.

I think you're right - in fact, I've recently been thinking along the same lines.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.198
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 10:51 am:   

JLP: I've ordered the traycase Creatures and am similarly chomping at the bit!

I would have got the traycased JBY, but I wanted to get a copy personally inscribed at FCon ("Thanks for buying the title!" Ramsey wrote in it). Now perhaps I'll never read 'Safe Words' . . . :-(
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.227.90.149
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 01:13 pm:   

I think you mean "champing at the bit", Prof Fry.

-- The Pedant
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.198
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 01:28 pm:   

Thanks, boss. You're right.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.198
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 01:31 pm:   

Ah but, yes but, you see . . . regional variations are at work: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/52.html

Apparently both forms are used. So there. :-)
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.198
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 01:33 pm:   

Q. Is there a preference for "champing at the bit," or should a person "chomp at the bit"?

A. The earlier verb was champ, making its written debut in the 16th century and meaning "to bite, to gnash, to grind with one's teeth." It's still in use, though nowadays it appears almost exclusively in the phrase "champ at the bit." The verb chomp made its appearance in the late 16th century, and was clearly an alteration of "champ," sharing almost all of champ's meanings.

"Champ at the bit" was used before "chomp at the bit" and it has enjoyed a nice, long reign. However, popular usage has been swinging towards "chomp at the bit" since it first began being used in the phrase, sometime around the beginning of the 20th century. In fact, our evidence indicates that "chomping at the bit" is used in recent print sources more frequently than "champ at the bit," so we can't possibly ignore it.

http://www.word.com/collegiate/archives/2006/09/from_the_mail_s_11.html
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.198
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 01:35 pm:   

Oh, let's just have a fight about it!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 01:36 pm:   

Yes, we also say "chomp" in my part of the world. Simon's actually pulled me up on this one before, but I couldn't be bothered to seek out a reference.
Good work, Fry: hoist the pedant by his own leotard!
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.198
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 02:27 pm:   

I just near-killed him. He lies in a stack of bones and blood, weeping fluids and spitting out ragged splinters.

Nobody messes with my spelling.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.227.90.149
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 04:38 pm:   

Make the same mistake enough times and there will always be an idiot who shows up to tell you you're right.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.197
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 04:58 pm:   

It's the protean nature of language, innit, like?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.197
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 05:02 pm:   

Still, getting back to Ramsey: does anyone ever read his publication accreditations? There's always a chuckle to be derived from them, not least in JBY.

My favourite was in the Far Reaches of Fear in which he thanks himself and shakes his own hand.

Call yourself completists! :-)
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.148.243.36
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 08:41 pm:   

"I was thinking all the while I was reading these pieces that perhaps folk take his work for granted: by that I mean that we simply expect artful excellence in every book, get it, and then set it aside without comment cos it did exactly what we thought it would do."

Not me matey.

I thought 'Thieving Fear' was slightly disappointing after the double brill whammy of 'Secret Stories' & 'Grin of The Dark'.

Also, my dislike of 'Pact Of the Fathers' is well documented...

gcw
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.209.108.232
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 09:38 pm:   

Simon's corrected me before on "chomping at the bit" so I'm glad the two Garys have vindicated me. I'm a Yorkshireman, as is Gary F.

And Gary M's defected to us now, from the Mackems.

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