HBG: I certainly had read Lovecraft and greatly acknowledge his influence, particularly in the Cthulhu Mythos, but I always found his failure to describe his nameless subterranean horrors irritating. So I described mine in full detail!
JP: Who were some of your favorites in the horror/mystery genre?
HBG: Charles Williams — War in Heaven, The Place of the Lion. Many C.S. Lewis — That Hideous Strength, Voyage to Venus, etc. Dennis Wheatley — The Devil Ride Out, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. Peter Straub, Dean Koontz.
JP: Your daughter mentioned to me that your writing really started off with the composition of plays for your Church theatre? Was the genesis of Dark Sanctuary a play?
HBG: Yes. The idea of the family curse as a monster lurking in the crypt was there, but in the play this turned out to be a thief in an old diving suit seeking treasure. But the Abbot’s Curse was there and the Satanist “Gaunt”, (I played both parts myself!)
JP: Dark Sanctuary is based on a real place that you visited on your honeymoon, could you tell us a bit about that?
HBG: The island of “Kestrel” is based on St. Michael’s Mount, off the Cornish coast near Penzance. My wife and I spent our honeymoon nearby and visited the castle there; then the ancestral home of Lord St. Leven. Rider was worried about this and I had to write to his Lordship and submit the ms. For his approval before they would publish. Happily, his Lordship approved and raised no objection to publication. He pointed out that since the island and abbey sank beneath the waves in my book, it could hardly be identified with his stately house, which is still there (accessible by a causeway at low tide) and a well-known tourist resort.
JP: Could you tell us anything about the sale of Dark Sanctuary to Rider? Had you tried a number of other houses, or did it just seem that Rider was a good fit for a book of this type?
HBG: I wrote the novel, for entry in a newspaper competition (which it didn’t win) and then sent the ms. to Hutchinson, who passed it over to Rider (still in their imprint today) and Rider published it in 1940 with 400 copies in the first and only edition. World War II had just begun and the book was a victim. It was well-received, but failed to sell. I suppose that some returning G.I. must have brought a copy to the US. Rider is still part of the Hutchinson’s group and I tried to interest them in republishing Dark Sanctuary many years ago, but they were not interested. In 1940 they mainly published fiction of (they said) the “quaint, queer, scarce, and rare type.” That would almost fit your lot today!
JP: Interesting comparison, (and a flattering one)! Your publisher (Rider) and their parent company (Hutchinson) published a pretty wide range of books that revolved around horror and metaphysical themes, such as J.M. Mills’ two novels The Lords of the Earth and Tomb of the Dark Ones; as well as Bridge Over Dark Gods by Furze Morrish. Did you have any correspondence with other authors working for Rider?
HBG: No. I didn’t know what else Rider had published. I sent ‘Dark Sanctuary’ to Hutchinson, who passed it on to Rider. They then wrote to me and said they would publish.
JP: Considering the scarcity of Dark Sanctuary in first edition (I know of three copies in private hands, and one of them is yours); it’s not likely most of the readers of Inhuman will ever see a copy, let alone one with the dustjacket. Could you tell us what the jacket was like? Are we missing a great piece of artwork?
HBG: It was similar to the current dustjacket: an impression of the abbey and a horrified face. It wasn’t very good, and in retrospect, the publishers thought it could have been improved.
JP: Rider was pretty well-known for publishing a good deal of theosophist nonsense and seemingly published interesting fiction rather by accident than design. Were you surprised that the publishers of such silliness as A Message from the Sphinx and The Projection of the Astral Body were interested in a novel written from a strongly Christian perspective?
HBG: I would have been if I’d known. You seem to be assuming that, in those days, you selected a suitable publisher. You simply sent it off to various publishers until one accepted it. Nowadays, you have agents to do that sort of thing.
JP: You mentioned your fondness for Lovecraft’s work previously and one of the most remarkable features of your novel is the Lovecraftian tone. However, you manage to work in two unique twists; First, you show us the horror in detail (which you mentioned was intentional). Possibly an even more important divergence was where Lovecraft postulates an atheist’s cosmology of chaos, where his Mythos deities are neither good nor evil, but simply completely indifferent; your book paints the eternal struggle in very clear shades of black and white and is equally effective. Was this counterpoint to Lovecraft also intentional?
HBG: You are attributing a greater influence on me from Lovecraft than there was. Lovecraft was one of many authors I read, such as M R James, Dennis Wheatley and Charles Williams. I was not particularly concerned with Lovecraft’s mythology. I feel that there may have been less philosophical significance in both our works than you suggest. Starting from a Christian perspective, I invented a mythology in which the powers of darkness threatened the omnipotence of God. However, it was only the means by which God would assert this omnipotence which remained to be revealed (in the book).
JP: While no one can question the effectiveness of showing the horror in Dark Sanctuary, do you feel that much modern horror has become too descriptive and abandoned the writer’s strongest tool, that of the reader’s imagination?
HBG: I suppose you might say that, but I feel it isn’t what the author wants; it’s what he thinks his public want.
JP: Could you tell us a little bit about your foray into science fiction in the 1950s?
HBG: I felt that I had exhausted my capacity for horror by writing Dark Sanctuary. I wrote a short story called “Boy on the Moon”, which I offered to Boys Own Paper (a ‘serious’ text-based magazine for boys, containing stories and articles about science, hobbies etc.) The editor, concerned about scientific accuracy, submitted it to Patrick Moore (a famous British astronomer), who approved it, and they published.
This success prompted me to write three or four sequels, which attracted the attention of Frank Wells (son of H G); at that time director of the ‘Children’s Film Foundation’. They produced a serial, based on the stories, for showing in cinemas at children’s Saturday matinees.
JP: Lastly, you’ve given the world of horror fiction one of its masterpieces, any chance we’ll ever see another H.B. Gregory novel? Perhaps a short story?
HPG: As I’m almost 92 now; it’s unlikely.
JP: On behalf of the readers of Inhuman I’d like to thank you for taking the time to for this interview and sharing some of the background concerning your remarkable book! Thanks again!