Fabulous Whitby Review

Liz Williams re-emerges in /Fabulous Whitby/ as both contributor and editor, along with Sue Thomason. This collection is about all things fabulous and all things Whitby, with stories woven around some of the subjects I might have associated readily with the town (Dracula, goths, Whitby Abbey, jet), and some things which, if not tenuously linked, are certainly less obvious... at least to me – like pterodactyls.

The contributors have rendered new fables and legends and woven them into the history of the town. There are some fantastic sea-based stories, which have the best effect if they do not get bogged down in the beauty and mystery of the ocean and give a meaty story, such as Neville Rhys Barnes’s ‘Heritage Ocean’. I have no idea if Julia Rudford is a real councillor, but I hope her ideas bear fruit after battling that strange whale.

Morris dancers emerge in a couple of the stories, but most strangely in Jacey Bedford’s ‘The Whitby Jets’, where continuing with the dance is a subversive act aligned with terrorism by those too ignorant to realise the sun really can’t rise without it.

Most of the stories, though, are firmly rooted in the tradition of folklore, in both the content and style: Dayle A. Dermatis’s ‘Proof of Devotion’ explores the true bride/false bride tale in which a little blood always needs to be spilled. In Deirdre Counihan’s ‘Jettisoned’, an archaeological dig provides a modern framework for a story of witchcraft, unrequited love and necklaces. Meanwhile, Ruth Nestvold and Jay Lake flesh out Christina Rossetti’s poem /Goblin Market/, in ‘Hobdale’, where the metaphorical fruit are a distraction from the threat of sex, rather than a symbolic representation of it.

The anthology also offers opportunity for the quirky, whimsical and comic, such as Mark Colcannon’s ‘Thick Hides and Furry Hearts’, or Esther M. Friesner’s ‘How Thorvald the Bloody-Minded Saved Christmas’. However, the story that I found the most memorable was ironically the straightest: Melanie Fletcher’s ‘Lost in Whitby’, in which time–travelling correspondence between a prospective landlady and Lewis Carroll is documented on Live Journal.

As only a handful of the contributors’ names were familiar to me, I was able to read the anthology with few preconceptions, and enjoyed the variety of stories on offer. As I worked my way through, it was also fun to try to spot which character from the story was depicted on the cover and whereabouts. The editors allow the stories to present themselves, which speaks volumes for the quality of stories. That said, the curious part of me would have liked some author detail or note from the editors to explain the various myths and facts about Whitby that may have fired the imaginations of those involved. Nevertheless, this anthology provides a very satisfying read – and reminds me, I really must go to Whitby one day.

- Reviewed by Donna Scott in BSFA's Vector Magazine