'The only critics worth reading are the critics who practice, and practice well, the art of which they write.' ---T.S. Eliot
The New Ghost Stories of D.F. Lewis (2023)
Des Lewis is a writer, publisher, editor, photographer and reviewer of that most original species, one who not only knows what he's talking about but practices well the art he critiques. He's a writer's writer, having delighted readers with both his own fiction and the marvellous Des Lewis Gestalt Real-Time Reviews. Active in the small press, in fact one of its flying buttresses, Des won the British Fantasy Society Special Award (the Karl Edward Wagner Award) in 1998. The Gestalt Real-Time Reviews started in 2008; it would be lovely to see them in book form, though with the images possibly a daunting task. But what a coffee-table book it would make!
I first met Des through our work in the Horror field, when his 'Muse of Murder', illustration below, appeared in my small zine Not At Night. However you care to label him, if you can label him, Des is one of the most original writers of all time. For me it is an Event to be celebrated that he is writing new stories again. Enjoy!
Des' Gestalt Real-Time Reviews
Photograph courtesy Nothing Ahead on Pexels
Des' story appeared in the Summer 1991 first (and last) issue of Not At Night (ed. M.R. Scofidio)
Illustration by Susan James for 'Muse of Murder'
Photograph of a German Expressionist train for the cover by Christian de la O