INTERVIEW WITH MARY DANBY

The Pan Book of Horror Stories' main rival in the anthology field, was The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories. Volumes 5 through to 17 were edited by Mary Danby. As the quality of the Pan Horror series markedly slipped with each passing volume - the Fontanas leapt ahead with classic tales that remain as fresh and invigorating as when they were first published.

Mary Danby herself faded from the literary scene in the late '80s and pursued another career. It is with great affection and pride that I present to you, an exlusive interview with the one and only Mistress of the Macabre.....

JOHNNY: Mary, you took over the editorship of the Fontana Books of Great Horror Stories and the Armada Ghost Books simultaneously in 1970. What had you been doing before this, and what were the circumstances of you taking them over?

MARY: After a good education, of which I took far too little advantage – I left in the middle of A-levels, went down to Hastings and threw my school hat in the sea – I did a secretarial course (or half of it, anyway). A few crazy jobs later (working for a firm that made skins for skinless sausages, organizing a society ball, etc.) I ended up in a television company. This led to a six wonderful years as a TV Production Assistant, working on all kinds of shows and meeting lots of exciting people. In 1969 I changed course and was (rather surprisingly) engaged as Editor of Fontana Paperbacks, where I had a secretary who taught me what I had to do. The person who had that job before me was Christine Bernard, who had compiled the Fontana Horror Books 1 – 4 and the first two Armada Ghost Books. She didn’t want to continue them, so I simply took over.

JOHNNY: The Fontana books were a marked response to the Pan Book of Horror Stories. What pressures were you under as editor to better the Pan series?

MARY: None at all. My boss at Fontana was Mark Collins, and I don’t think he was all that interested in the content of the books. He must have been very trusting to give me such a free hand. He would certainly have been very involved in getting the covers right, though.

JOHNNY: The Fontana books are famous for the wealth of new talent and stories – something that the Pan series didn’t always achieve. How did you go about sourcing the authors – or did they all come to you?

MARY: When I took over at Fontana, the Pan series had been around for ten years, and I was already a fan. All the obvious authors and stories had already been snapped up. At the start, I had very little original material to draw on, so I haunted second-hand book shops and libraries to find good stories to reprint. As time went on, more and more manuscripts were submitted to me, and I began to build up a very reliable “stable” of authors. Writers such as R. Chetwynd-Hayes (who went on to compile his own series), Rosemary Timperley, Sydney J Bounds, Catherine Gleason (aka Roger Malisson) – there are too many to list – became regular contributors.

JOHNNY: I believe that you have a confession to make. Are you really the lady/budgerigar that graces the cover of the 5th Fontana book? How did that come about – and what did you think when you saw the finished article?

MARY: I showed my story, Quid Pro Quo, to John Constable, who was the Art Editor at Fontana, and he thought it would be fun to do a photographic cover of the woman turning into a budgie. He had a beak specially made and asked if I would like to model it for the photograph, holding my mouth open in a scream. Why not, I thought. When I saw the cover I was at first thrilled – this was my first book – then somewhat dismayed, as I realized all my fillings were on display!

JOHNNY: The Fontana series became renowned for your own stories as well as the other authors’. Was it hard to decide to include your own work, as this could potentially leave you open to criticism from some quarters if a particular volume was poorly received?

MARY: I always wanted to write. It’s in the family – my great-great-grandfather was Charles Dickens, and my aunt was the novelist Monica Dickens – so when this opportunity came up I grabbed it. I did get Mark Collins’s approval for Quid Pro Quo, but after that he just let me get on with it. I’m happy to say that I never came across any criticism of the fact that I included my own stories – not to my face, anyway.

JOHNNY: Can you remember if there was any advertising involved with the Fontana books in newspapers/magazines? Also, was there ever anything like bookmarks/stickers produced?

MARY: As far as I can remember, not a thing. One of the great things about a series is that new additions need no introduction or special promotion.

JOHNNY: Did you ever read any of the Pan Books of Horror Stories – and, from an editor’s point of view, did you think they were any good?

MARY: I thoroughly enjoyed them in the years before I went to Fontana, and I’m sure I must have read the others as they came out. It’s a long way back to remember, but I rather think the series struggled towards the end to maintain its reputation.

JOHNNY: Did you ever meet Herbert Van Thal?

MARY: No. And I didn’t know anyone else who had met him. I think I thought of him as a not-very-real person, perhaps just a name.

JOHNNY: What stories do you feel were the absolute standouts in your series?

MARY: In my opinion there were many, but among those I will never forget are William Sansom’s A Woman Seldom Found (5th Book) and Harry E Turner’s Now Showing at the Roxy (10th Book).

JOHNNY: The Fontana Horror series ended with No. 17 – six years, I believe, before the Pan Horror series. Why was the decision brought to bring the Fontanas to an end?

MARY: I’m afraid I can’t remember. I only worked in the Fontana office for three years, but continued with the Fontana Horror and Armada Ghost series until they finished. I suppose the sales must have been tailing off – probably for both series. Perhaps real life was becoming too like the fiction …

JOHNNY: Do you think that the series could have held out for longer?

MARY: Probably not – for the reasons given above.

JOHNNY: What are your feelings now on producing such a celebrated run of books?

MARY: I am somewhat bemused by that description. I never thought of them as being celebrated, and I suppose I look on my past horror fiction career as something a bit weird and shady. I think I have lost my taste for it (comes with age!). I am, however, amused and pleased by the apparent interest there is in the books, after all these years.

JOHNNY: What have you been doing in the years since your last work – The Famous Five & You books? Why did you fade away from the literary scene?

MARY: In the 1970s and 80s I wrote a couple of novels and wrote or compiled at least a hundred books for adults and children – joke books, How To books, story books, etc. etc. Then, around 1987, I licensed a board game (believe it or not, it was called The Dickens Game) to a major manufacturer, and that was the beginning of a whole new career. I now have a small company that invents toys and games, which we license worldwide. It’s a wonderful job, but I do in some ways miss the writing. (However, I like to think our game instructions are more readable than most!)

JOHNNY: Have you kept tabs on the short story anthology recently? Any series that you are a fan of?

MARY: Sorry – no and no.

JOHNNY: And talking of fans, do you have many people ask you about the Fontana days?

MARY: Most people who know me have no idea of what I used to do. But it’s been fun to be asked to reminisce. Thank you!