Thirteen Tales of Textual Arousal — Robin Anderson

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds showed these creatures not to be our feathered friends but do the herons found in London's Hyde Park go out of their way to disprove this? Will DAVID and PETER really build their own nest or does the flighty, fledgling PETER have other plans? And while PETER plots and prevaricates with his own Mommy Dearest is the heroine of the Seventh Tale, the saccharine-inspired Mary Poppins, responsible for a spoonful of something else as opposed to sugar? As a besotted NIGEL COLLINS finds to his cost, for 'charm' read 'harm.' These cautionary tales - most with terrifying consequences - continue. Beware of what you whisper in the middle of a sex show in downtown Bangkok! This could easily cost you an arm and a leg! History also repeats itself in the reincarnation of Julia Bovary, the flawed heroine of Gustave Flaubert's historical novel. Meet the modern day Monsieur Bovary in the form of JULIAN MASTERTON and for rustic, idyllic France of the 1800s switch to the hedonistic pleasures of today's South of France. Unlike the tragic original the ruthless JULIAN triumphs! More folkloric history emerges with Hamelin's famous Pied Piper replaced by bumbling ERNEST CRAIG whose surprise Day Of Reckoning Party does exactly this and more! And last but not least, with the old still inspiring the new, while Oscar Wilde's disfigured Dorian remained banished to the attic, DORIAN MONTAGU's modern muse sits being constantly adored and adorned, the final embellishment being unwittingly donated by the avaricious TONY BURTON. With thirteen such tales offering such a combination of terror, titillation and tragedy perhaps some form of textual arousal is to be excused!