I’m keeping all the writing on my Substack page free at the moment, and I welcome all free subscribers, but if you are able to take out a paid subscription, it helps me do more of what I love. Dragon Cottage (1978) Bored out of their tiny brains after being transported against their will to a cottage on a Welsh mountainside by their vague and foppish parents, Philippa and her thug brother David find an old ouija board in a gap in a stone wall and begin to experiment with it, calling up the spirits of the long-dead creatures of the mountain, learning in the process that animals were often far bigger and more interesting in the past. Now largely known for the overused internet meme of the scene where Philippa surveys a passing fox and says “I ain’t interested in that: it’s shit and small”, Dragon Cottage is in fact a multilayered comment on parental neglect and the bad weather that dogged the British Isles for much of the 1970s, beloved amongst true connoisseurs for its deeply moving final scene, where the constantly dungareed David is nonchalantly decapitated while Philippa, far too involved in her own burgeoning passions to notice, rides off ebulliently in the direction of Llandrindod Wells on a giant extinct species of horse.
Utterly amazing, Tom. 'Children of the Edge' reminds me just how present that sense of imminent nuclear annihilation was back in the 70/80s! Protect and Survive. I must have been around 8yo when I made a sculpture out of burnt matches and melted candle wax that I titled simply 'The Future'.
How I love your sense of humour! Indeed, most of our old photos could be the inspiration for horror stories. Come to think of it, some of them actually document a moment in an ongoing horror story.
I so wish we could pay you for these lovely, amazing stories...but I can send you encouragement to keep following what you love. Anyone living with that thought makes my heart sing.
Some Photos From My Family's Archive And The Cult Low Budget Horror Films They Became
I cannot erase The Oyster Boat from my memory. To this day, I have to boil water for a brew in a pan.
I love the photo of Dragon Cottage. It is infused with the brown that pervaded the 70s! Been there, done that, threw away the (brown) t-shirt.
Utterly amazing, Tom. 'Children of the Edge' reminds me just how present that sense of imminent nuclear annihilation was back in the 70/80s! Protect and Survive. I must have been around 8yo when I made a sculpture out of burnt matches and melted candle wax that I titled simply 'The Future'.
Brilliant! Literally LOLed.
I love how much all of these leave to the imagination but especially, "...with tragic consequenses for a local choir group."
Haha, this is excellent! And what a great idea for a writing prompt...
Thank you. I snorted my tea and now my nose hurts.
Only someone born in the seventies can have such a love for the world of these photos. (I am one of those). The dungarees. The light. The hair.
Wonderful! There’s something about the colours in old photos that evokes nostalgia for weird seventies children‘s stories.
Now I need to watch Dragon Cottage.
Ahahhahahahhaa. *snort*
How I love your sense of humour! Indeed, most of our old photos could be the inspiration for horror stories. Come to think of it, some of them actually document a moment in an ongoing horror story.
I so wish we could pay you for these lovely, amazing stories...but I can send you encouragement to keep following what you love. Anyone living with that thought makes my heart sing.
Wonderful. Thank you for sharing your photos.
I’d watch any of these but with the strange feeling I’d seen them somewhere before!
Those clothes are eerily familiar - goes to the loft to hunt for old Kodachrome slides....