Chill we meet again

CHILLER writer James Herbert was due in York earlier this month for a book signing, but called it off because he had shingles. The illness denied the author another chance to explore a city that, I suggest, would provide him with a suitably spooky backdrop for one of his nightmarish visions.

"I have been there a few times, once for pleasure and a couple of times for work," Herbert reveals over the phone from his large home in West Sussex.

"I should imagine that parts of York could be very mysterious. There are definite possibilities here."

It would certainly be in York's favour to star in a James Herbert novel. Worldwide exposure is guaranteed.

The books sell in their millions - 42 million at the last count; in Britain he outsells Stephen King to be the country's number one horror writer. And several of his novels have been made into movies, The Rats, The Fog and Haunted among them.

Herbert is unable to pin down with any precision the source of his dark story ideas. "It's like a comedian can make up jokes, or a musician like Paul McCartney can make up tunes. Generally the ideas just come into my head."

The two exceptions are the stories behind Haunted, which was revealed to him in a dream, and Others, his latest bestseller just published in paperback. How he came across that plot is spooky enough to be a Herbert story in itself.

"It was told to me quite a few years ago by the woman it happened to," he explained.

"She worked in a children's hospital. She was a cook. When she was on night shift she decided to take a walk around the wards. She found herself on the top floor outside this door marked 'restricted, no admittance'. It was unlocked.

"Being an inquisitive type, she peeked in. There, she found this ward full of little infants and toddlers with great defects, like swollen heads they couldn't lift off their pillows.

"She kept returning, bringing sweets and things. They started to call her 'momma'.

"These babies were taken away from their mothers at birth. The mother was told that the baby had died during the birth."

He believes the story for two reasons. Firstly, he has conducted his own investigation, which has left him saddened and angry. "I believe they are in institutions all around the country. I discovered they could live into their 40s. My questions are where are they, why aren't they part of our society, why are they locked away?"

Secondly, he trusts the source completely. "The person who told me that story was my mother," he said.

Others is told through the experience of Nicholas Dismas, a private investigator whose terrible physical deformities draw stares wherever he goes. Dismas is hired by the mother of a baby who, officially, died at birth. She is convinced the child is still alive.

His investigation takes him to what purports to be a nursing home for the elderly. It is here, in a typically chilling finale, that he discovers the secret of the Others, and at the same time resolves the mystery of his own existence.

Herbert chose to discard sensationalism and instead wrote Others with a sensitivity not always seen in horror writing. He is clearly proud of the book which, as is his custom, was written in longhand and typed up by his wife. "My wife was weeping when she brought in the last page," he said.

Yet he has not received great critical acclaim for Others. That has much to do with the horror genre, looked down upon by many in the literary establishment. Yet he and his great friend Stephen King reinvented the genre, almost simultaneously.

Herbert, 57, says he "brought working class to horror". Writing has taken him from poverty in London's East End, where he grew up living in a condemned house, to a palatial residence in the South Downs. "I have deer that come down and drink from the lake," he reveals. "It's marvellous."

The graduate of an art college, he first found success as an art director in the advertising industry, working on campaigns that boosted Harp lager and Barclays Bank.

But this did not prove to be a big enough outlet for his creativity. In the evenings, he began writing a book that became The Rats.

During one particularly dull meeting at his advertising agency, Herbert imagined the creative director jumping on the table and diving out of the skyscraper window. That daydream he translated into The Fog.

Now he is working on a "very different" book to Others. If he comes here to promote it, I've promised to take him around the city's stranger streets. That should provide him with enough potential material for the next bestseller. York could yet benefit from a dose of Herbert horror.

Bestsellers

Fiction

1 Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire - J K Rowling (Bloomsbury) £9.99

2 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Story - J K Rowling (Bloomsbury) £4.99

3 Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets - J K Rowling (Bloomsbury) £4.99

4 Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban - J K Rowling (Bloomsbury) £3.99

5 Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason - Helen Fielding (Picador) £4.99

6 The Remorseful Day - Colin Dexter (Pan) £3.99

7 Bookends - Jane Green (Penguin) £6.99

8 Man And Boy - Tony Parsons (Harper Collins) £6.99

9 The Business - Iain Banks (Abacus) £6.99

10 Girls' Night In - Fiona Walker (Harper Collins) £5.99

Non-Fiction

1 Down Under - Bill Bryson (Doubleday) £12.99

2 The Other Side Of The Dale - Gervase Phinn (Penguin) £6.99

3 Internet 2000: The Rough Guide - Rough Guides £6.00

4 Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden (Corgi) £5.99

5 If Only - Geri Helliwell (Oracle) £3.99

6 The Fools' Guide To Online Investing - Nigel Roberts (Boatree) £5.99

7 The Return Of The Naked Chef - Jamie Oliver (Michael Joseph) £16.00

8 Nathaniel's Nutmeg - Giles Milton (Sceptre) £6.99

9 McCarthy's Bar - Pete McCarthy (Hodder) £12.99

10 The Lighthouse Stevensons - Bella Bathurst (Harper Collins) £6.99

Supplied by Waterstone's, York.