Winter Chills 1

Before The Alchemy Press, I edited/produced a number of titles for the British Fantasy Society. Way back in 1986 the BFS’s journal Dark Horizons was failing to appear regularly. I pitched to the then Society chairs (Stephen Jones and Jo Fletcher) an all-fiction, complementary magazine. They gave me the go ahead and so I contacted a number of authors and artists. And in January 1987 Winter Chills debuted. Originally, I aimed for a magazine of ghost stories, to appear in time for Christmas ’86. But WC1 was just a month late and it very quickly spread its coverage over the horror fiction field. I remain very grateful for everyone who contributed to issue one.

With issue 5 the title of the magazine dropped the ‘Winter’ bit and became, simply, Chills. There were ten issues in total, appearing more-or-less annually, with the final issue appearing in March 1996.

I hope to include on this website a complete list of the magazine’s contents in order to provide a useful resource for future reference. WC1’s cover price was 90p/$3.00. And BFS annual membership was just £8.00.

Winter Chills 1. Edited by Peter Coleborn. Published by the British Fantasy Society © 1987

“The Hanging Tree” by R Chetwynd-Hayes. Illustrated by Jim Pitts
“A New Life” by Ramsey Campbell. Illustrated by Dave Carson
“Something Old, Something Evil” by Sydney J Bounds. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“Deathstone” by Peter Tremayne
“Lady Megalith” by David Sutton. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“Late Shopping” by Brian Lumley

Front cover illustration by Dallas Goffin

Notes:  “The Hanging Tree” originally appeared in A Quiver of Ghosts by R Chetwynd-Hayes (1984).  “Late Shopping” originally appeared in Weirdbook 18, edited by W Paul Ganley (1983)