Charles Birkin
Sir Charles Lloyd Birkin (* September 24, 1907, † 1986) was a British author of the uncanny and the supernatural.
Birkin published between 1936 and about 1971 several story collections, which today are considered the most famous horror classics of England in this period. Birkin was also also the editor of major horror anthologies of other writers. While the author in Germany was known from the beginning only as Charles Birkin, he is known in his native country, especially under the pseudonym Charles Lloyd. In Germany, only two of his books (after all, but very essential) have been published, The finger of fear and so pale, so cold, so dead, both works in the early seventies at Heyne; these two small volumes, which nevertheless experienced some reprints, are now sought-after rarities for collectors.
Work
Birkin's specialty was the horror short story in all its facets and genres: Crime, SF, ghost stories, Paranormal, Drama, Psycho and monster stories. Criticism has its finely spun, seemingly very soberly told stories often compared in the seventies of the last century, with Edgar Allan Poe, but he should content and all kind after so as to be comparisons, an English Robert Bloch approach, although its style much ground and selected as that of his American colleagues. In most cases, and after, Birkin has specialized downright masterful, his stories such as everyday stories read in the suddenly breaks a driven to the extreme tragic event and reveals the demonic throughout the previous, so harmless published events. For example, in the famous story Kitty fisherwoman, is deceived away in a skillfully woven by the author psychological network of appeasement, euphemisms and downplaying about the true state of an initially completely commonplace acting family - until the end of the catastrophe for all occurs. A hallmark Birkin is to leave almost every one of his stories end with a begütigenden sound as if the author of the horror which he described a moment ago, himself completely overlooked. Another very important characteristic of his stories lies in the refined and very elegant choice of their titles, which are particularly ironic in retrospect or underline the tragedy of the content.
Title of nobility
Charles Birkin is titled 5th Baronet Of The Baronetage of The United Kingdom