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Resurrection: Usborne's Classic Books On Ghosts To Be Re-Published

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Only Ghosts at present. Why not write and tell them how much you want the full set?
 
And if you are UK-based, you might also be able to snag some promotional badges from your local bookshop.

Screenshot 2019-09-29 at 00.24.18.png


See here for participating stores:
https://usborne.com/misc/world-of-the-unknown-ghosts-merchandise-for-bookshops/
 
They seem to be sending out orders before the publication date. I received a notification that mine is in the post now.

Part of the reason that I'm pushing this book is that the evidence suggests the other books in the series could also be re-released if sales go well. The Usborne website, for instance, has the new book in it's own new section labelled 'The World of the Unknown', which was the series name.

This would suggest that it may soon be joined by 'Monsters' and 'UFOs'.
 
They seem to be sending out orders before the publication date. I received a notification that mine is in the post now.

Part of the reason that I'm pushing this book is that the evidence suggests that the other books in the series could also be re-released if sales go well. The Usbourne website, for instance, had the new book in it's own new section labelled 'The World of the Unknown', which was the series name. This would suggest that it may soon be joined by 'Monsters' and 'UFOs'.

I've just had an email saying the publication date has been delayed to 7 October!
 
I've just had an email saying the publication date has been delayed to 7 October!

The obvious reason being that they've realised that 6 October is a Sunday!
 
ditto! I am really looking forward to this :)
 
And I've just had another email saying it's been dispatched....!

And my order, which the Book Depository told me was on the way, has just been cancelled with no explanation!

I've emailed them to ask what on earth is going on.
 
Of course there's no explanation. It's what you're paying for, after all.

There is an explanation, and friendly though they are, it's easily the stupidest reason I've ever had an order cancelled:

It appears one of our suppliers provided information to us that they were able to supply World of the Unknown: Ghosts, hence the 'pre-order is in' email, but were then not able to provide it and the system automatically cancelled the order due to lack of stock. However, it was then made available to us again from an alternative supplier. You are welcome to place a new order for this title.

*Begins clicking deliberately and patiently*
 
There is an explanation, and friendly though they are, it's easily the stupidest reason I've ever had an order cancelled:

It appears one of our suppliers provided information to us that they were able to supply World of the Unknown: Ghosts, hence the 'pre-order is in' email, but were then not able to provide it and the system automatically cancelled the order due to lack of stock. However, it was then made available to us again from an alternative supplier. You are welcome to place a new order for this title.

*Begins clicking deliberately and patiently*

Ghosts in the machine, as it were.

Hope you don't get further cock-ups.
 
Hope you don't get further cock-ups.

Order supposedly dispatched. I'll believe it when it arrives.

Elsewhere, somebody is trying it on.

In the last few days one person has listed first editions of the GHOSTS and UFOs books on eBay for £225.00 and £90.00 respectively.

No bidders yet...
 
Sticking the photo of Shearsmith on the front makes it look ugly, you just need a bit of text and there's space at the bottom under the main illustration, anyone that gives a shit about his introduction knows what he looks like.
 
Sticking the photo of Shearsmith on the front makes it look ugly, you just need a bit of text and there's space at the bottom under the main illustration, anyone that gives a shit about his introduction knows what he looks like.

I said that on the other thread.

They obviously consider it a major selling-point.
 
I said that on the other thread.

They obviously consider it a major selling-point.

"Folk Horror" and "Hauntology" seem to have really become a "thing" in recent years and The League of Gentlemen kind of presaged that, Shearsmith and Gatiss are involved in promoting loads of Horror related stuff. I like much of the stuff that could be described by those terms but the former at least is a retroactively created "genre" and both are marketing bullshit. We live in the age of branding.
 
Order supposedly dispatched. I'll believe it when it arrives.

Elsewhere, somebody is trying it on.

In the last few days one person has listed first editions of the GHOSTS and UFOs books on eBay for £225.00 and £90.00 respectively.

No bidders yet...

I have one but it's very tatty from years of my kids' loving attention!
 
I finally have mine and have just spent a few minutes comparing it with the version included in the combined edition (Mysteries of the Unknown: Monsters, Ghosts & UFO's).

Anorak Notes:
  • This is not a facsimile edition. The book has been re-edited and very slightly reformatted.
  • In addition to the already remarked-upon addition of Reece Shearsmith to the the front cover, which I could do without but am not greatly offended by, his foreword now appears on the inside cover.
  • The black skull-silhouette with the instruction to stare at it and then look at a plain wall to see a 'trick' has been removed. I can't fathom why. Its place has been taken by more copyright information and credits.
  • Some of the fonts used are slightly taller and more angular than those in the older edition. The result is that the formatting has been affected in places and the line breaks are (in some places) different. The fonts, where changed, are to my eyes no better or worse than before. You wouldn't notice the difference unless you took the trouble to check.
  • The old edition moved text to prevent hyphenated words being divided across line-breaks. The new edition does not do this, which actually makes those few occurrences slightly less readable--a trifling criticism.
  • At first I thought that the colour saturation had been turned up 'across the board'. Even the standard black print for most of the text seems 'jet' where once it was 'matte'. I'm now of the opinion, however, that this is a product of the glossier paper employed. It's again a slight difference, but as a result the illustrations look more 'glorious technicolour' and remind me of those slightly-garish cigarette card images. Side by side, the old version seems slightly faded; perhaps the Platonic ideal is the holy halfway-point between the two.
  • The richer colours do create a single problem: the monochrome greys of the famous ghostly photographs have been darkened to charcoals and, as a result, are not as clear. The old ones are actually a smidgen better.
  • Punctuation has, in a handful of places, been 'modernised': non-defining relative clauses have acquired commas, some introductory phrases have also gained them, and 'so' is no longer allowed to mean simply 'thus'. There are also a couple of qualifying adverbs added, but you'd likely never notice.
  • The 'Creepy Quiz' with its 'mirror written' answers has been replaced by an index and a 'further reading' list.
  • The 'Dictionary of ghostlore' has correctly (but pedantically) been retitled a 'glossary'.
  • The inside rear cover now has sixteen examples of praise (mawkishly dubbed 'love'). The majority are anonymously attributed to 'Reader review', and I don't recognise the three named writers whose opinions feature. This is, to use a dated phrase, naff, and shouldn't be there.
Conclusion:
It's still bloody great, and given that decent quality originals are now expensive and elusive— and that this is extremely cheap—it's a bargain.
 
Excellent review!

Any news on them doing the others?
 
I've never read it, but Haunted magazine have published a tribute edition to the World of the Unknown Ghosts Book.

188025.jpg


Small preview and publications details here:
https://pocketmags.com/haunted-magazine#

It's bi-monthly and the digital edition is very cheap.
 
@DrPaulLee this is good news!

I like to think that the publicity here and teh number of us who have bought the ghosts one has contributed to the decision ;)
 
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