Chills, issue 10

The final Chills, issue 10, edited by Peter Coleborn and Simon MacCulloch, was published by the BFS in 1996 (£3.00/$6.00). The cover illustration depicted a bearded gent reading a tome of some dubious ancient lore. Some people assumed it was a picture of your equally-bearded editor; I assure you it’s not – besides, gent’s nose is too large.

Once again, sadly, we had no artwork illustrating specific stories. In fact, artwork is only represented by the fabulous cover (by Russell Morgan) and one spot piece by Martin McKenna. The contents were:

“How the Buckie Was Saved” by David Sutton
“A Musical Calling” by Raymond Nickford
“Beal’s Scrapyard” by Peter Bayliss
“A Cry For Help” by Martin Plumbridge
“Carousel” by Debbie Bennett
“Someone Else’s Problem” by Michael Marshall Smith
“The Lady With Little Friends in Her Hair” (verse) by Mark McLaughlin

So why did Chills end with its tenth issue? For starters, the ten issues covered a decade, more-or-less, and I felt that it was time to give the magazine a rest, at least for a while; and I wanted to pursue some other activities, including joining the editorial team on the BFS’s elder journal, Dark Horizons. Mike Chinn and I co-edited and co-produced DH with Phil Williams (and with Joel Lane in charge of poetry).

Contributors to Winter Chills/Chills were: Allen Ashley, Clive Barker, Roy Bayfield, Peter Bayliss, Debbie Bennett, Gilles Bergal, David F Bischoff, Sydney J Bounds, Ramsey Campbell, Dave Carson, Alan Casey, R Chetwynd-Hayes, Mike Chinn, Richard Coady, Bob Covington, Ken Cowley, Charles Dougherty, Phil Emery, Frank Forte, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Gallagher, Dallas Goffin, Jim Garrison, Phoenix Hitch, Mark Hockley, Peter A Hough, Tony Hough, Alan Hunter, Ian Hunter, Stephen Jones, Andrew S Jordan, Rick Kennett, Rick Kleffel, Allen Koszowski, Arke Kriske, Joel Lane, Alan W Lear, Ben Leech, DF Lewis, Thomas Ligotti, Steve Lines, Brian Lumley, Martin McKenna, Mark McLaughlin, Brian Maycock, MB, Chris Morgan, Russell Morgan, Russ Nicholson, Raymond Nickford, Jeffrey Osier, Norman Partridge, Nigel Pennington, Jim Pitts, Stephen Player, Martin Plumbridge, Andrew Pye, Mark Rainey, Paul Roland, Nicholas Royle, Jeff Salmon, Guy N Smith, Michael Marshall Smith, Sylvia Starshine, John Stewart, David Sutton, Stephen Skwarek, Steve Rasnic Tem, Tia Travis, Peter Tremayne, Lisa Tuttle, Ian Watson, William Thomas Webb, Conrad Williams … and of course my fellow editor Simon McCulloch. My thanks and appreciation to all of you.

Very quickly BFS and other UK small presses were upping the ante as far as production values are concerned – all down to access to home computers and DTP programs. In comparison, Chills looked a little primitive. But the magazine, along with others in that era, was part of the evolutionary process. Whatever, I look back on it with fond memories.

Glancing through Chills 10, I note that BFS membership was still a mere £15.00 a year. FantasyCon XX was scheduled for 4-6 October 1996, at the International Hotel in London. The guests of honour were Christopher Fowler and Tom Holt, with Kim Newman acting as the master of ceremonies. FCXX was the trial run for the following year’s World Fantasy Convention. The 1997 WFC took place in the same Dockland’s hotel, over the weekend 30 October-2 November. This was the second time the event was held in London.

Winter Chills 4

Winter Chills 4, edited by Peter Coleborn and published by the British Fantasy Society, appeared in 1990. It was a slim affair -- just 36 pages. Cover price was £1.50/$3.00. The magazine included seven stories:



"Copyright Infringement" by David F Bischoff. Illustrated by Dallas Goffin
"Flossie Fraser" by D F Lewis
"The Boat of Sighs" by Allen Ashley. Illustrated by Allen Koszowski
"The Law of the Land" by Mark Hockley. Illustrated by Stephen Skwarek
"The Portrait" by Ian Hunter
"Silver" by Andrew S Jordan. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
"Approved to Scrap" by Rick Kennett. Illustrated by Jeff Salmon

The cover was by Martin McKenna, with additional artwork by Dallas Goffin and Martin McKenna.

Note: "Copyright Infringement" originally appeared in RAM (aka Micro Worlds) edited by Thomas F Monteleone in 1984, "Approved to Scrap" first appeared in The Cygnus Chronicle, volume 5, number 3, in 1983.

Winter Chills 3

Winter Chills 3 appeared in January 1989 and was not included in the BFS booklet series. The cover price was £1.50/ $3.00.


Winter Chills 3. Edited by Peter Coleborn. Published by the British Fantasy Society © 1987

"Samathiel’s Summons” by Ian Watson. Illustrated by Jim Pitts
“Safe House” by Steve Rasnic Tem. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“The Authors of Prendergoth” by William Thomas Webb. Illustrated by Martin McKenna
“The Earth Wire” by Joel Lane. Illustrated by Dallas Goffin
“When the Bucket Stilled” by Stephen Player. Illustrated by Stephen Player
“We Can Get Them for You Wholesale” by Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by Sylvia Starshine.

Front cover illustration by John Stewart. Additional artwork by Dave Carson, Dallas Goffin, Allen Koszowski and Martin McKenna.

Note: “Samathiel’s Summons” first appeared in Fantasy Book (1984) and “We Can Get Them for You Wholesale” first appeared in Knave (1986)

Winter Chills 2

The second issue of Winter Chills also appeared in 1987 – just in time for Christmas. WC2 was number 12 in the BFS booklet series. The cover price was £1.00/ $3.00. And meanwhile, the Stephen Jones & David Sutton produced Fantasy Tales was seeing its tenth anniversary.

A quick comment about fanzine production. I was using a daisy wheel electronic typewriter at the time -- no internal memory, no cut and paste with clicks of a mouse, no easy layouts. The titles were all created with Letraset, and put together with scissors and glue. Things are so much easier now.

Winter Chills 2. Edited by Peter Coleborn. Published by the British Fantasy Society © 1987


“The Wishing Ball” by Stephen Gallagher. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“Call to Me, Call to Me” by Alan W Lear. Illustrated by Stephen Jones
“Thanksgiving Dinner” by Mike Chinn. Illustrated by Dallas Goffin
“The Void Within His Head” by Peter A Hough. Illustrated by Allen Koszowski
“A Man Between Two Worlds” by Gilles Bergal. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“The Doll” by Guy N Smith. Illustrated by Jim Pitts
“The Miracle Man” by Paul Roland. Illustrated by Martin McKenna

Front cover illustration by Dave Carson. Additional artwork by Peter Coleborn, Jim Garrison and Dallas Goffin.

Note: “A Man Between Two Worlds” was translated from the French by Stephen Gallagher. It was originally published in Creatures des Tenebres by Gilles Bergal (1985)

Winter Chills 1

Before The Alchemy Press, I edited/produced a number of titles for the British Fantasy Society. Way back in 1986 the BFS’s journal Dark Horizons was failing to appear regularly. I pitched to the then Society chairs (Stephen Jones and Jo Fletcher) an all-fiction, complementary magazine. They gave me the go ahead and so I contacted a number of authors and artists. And in January 1987 Winter Chills debuted. Originally, I aimed for a magazine of ghost stories, to appear in time for Christmas ’86. But WC1 was just a month late and it very quickly spread its coverage over the horror fiction field. I remain very grateful for everyone who contributed to issue one.

With issue 5 the title of the magazine dropped the ‘Winter’ bit and became, simply, Chills. There were ten issues in total, appearing more-or-less annually, with the final issue appearing in March 1996.

I hope to include on this website a complete list of the magazine’s contents in order to provide a useful resource for future reference. WC1’s cover price was 90p/$3.00. And BFS annual membership was just £8.00.

Winter Chills 1. Edited by Peter Coleborn. Published by the British Fantasy Society © 1987

“The Hanging Tree” by R Chetwynd-Hayes. Illustrated by Jim Pitts
“A New Life” by Ramsey Campbell. Illustrated by Dave Carson
“Something Old, Something Evil” by Sydney J Bounds. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“Deathstone” by Peter Tremayne
“Lady Megalith” by David Sutton. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“Late Shopping” by Brian Lumley

Front cover illustration by Dallas Goffin

Notes:  “The Hanging Tree” originally appeared in A Quiver of Ghosts by R Chetwynd-Hayes (1984).  “Late Shopping” originally appeared in Weirdbook 18, edited by W Paul Ganley (1983)