ALWAYS THE SURVIVOR BY ANTHONY WATSON

21/2/2022

The Survivor, by James Herbert, is the author’s third novel and was published in 1976. I was at secondary school at the time and was already aware of his previous novels The Rats and The Fog as copies of them had circulated throughout the school, battered paperbacks with dog ears marking all of the gruesome/mucky bits. I bought my own copy of The Survivor though, not just because I’d enjoyed the other books but because the image on the cover was such a striking one, the original design of the aeroplane flying through the eye socket of a skull.

And so I began reading, and was drawn in immediately by the hugely atmospheric prologue describing the crash of a passenger jet in the fields near Eton with bodies falling from the ruptured fuselage and its descriptions of the aftermath of the crash with wreckage, mechanical and human, spread across the ground.

What followed was – and probably still is – the most terrifying reading experience I’ve ever gone through. There were times when I was reading The Survivor that I frequently had to put the book down as I was so scared. This was a different kind of horror to that of The Rats and The Fog; those books had relied mainly on gross-out scenes for their effect, generating disgust rather than real unease but this was something else entirely – supernatural horror that wormed its way deep into my fear centres, evoking real sensations of dread and terror.

And it did that via some hugely effective prose. The descriptions in this book are some of the best I’ve read for evoking that sense of dread. The imagery created is outstanding and has stayed with me even after all these years, scenes imprinted on my memory never to be forgotten: the early morning fisherman attacked by corpses fallen from the plane into the river, the melted doll discovered at the crash site, the demon bursting into flames in the school chapel…

Despite being utterly terrified, I lapped the whole thing up, approaching each night’s reading with a combination of fear and anticipation. The book followed a structure which Herbert used a lot in his writing, chapters alternating between plot progression and set-pieces. It’s probably where my own love of a good set-piece comes from, just one of many influences this book in particular has had on my own writing style. A set-piece is associated with films too of course and, in keeping with his other novels, The Survivor is a very cinematic book, the imagery so well created that it’s like watching the film play in your head as you read. That’s something I strive for in my own writing and might explain why I try to choose interesting locations to set my stories in.

The plot which threads its way between these set-pieces is a gripping one, a mystery that has to be solved and which culminates in a twist ending that blew me away when I first read it. (And is one which has been used to very good effect in many novels and films since).

Looking back at The Survivor now, it’s influences on my own writing are impossible to ignore. My love of the supernatural as the driving force behind the horror was born here and it’s something I always try to use in my own work. I love a good monster – and the one in The Survivor is utterly terrifying – the real horror of a supernatural foe arises from the fact that it’s an unknown quantity, lying outside the realm of the known. As I mentioned earlier, the images it created are burned into my subconscious (I can even remember individual lines – “and then his heart did burst”) and so it’s no real surprise that my first novel, Witnesses, opens with the crash of a passenger jet. I didn’t write it as a homage at the time but in retrospect it’s clear the connection was there.

I think any writer absorbs experiences and exposure to other writers which shape their work and style and there have many more of those personally since I read The Survivor. But it was the first and is undoubtedly the biggest influence on the writer I’ve become. I may have been completely terrified by it when I first read it – but I’m so glad I did.

The Damocles Files: Volume Two: Seeds of Destruction
by Benedict J Jones and Anthony Watson

The World is at War.

As battles rage in the Pacific Theatre, the academics and psychics of Damocles uncover evidence of a new threat to the Allies; a weapon that could be the greatest threat mankind has ever faced.

From its origins in Japanese occupied Shanghai, Seeds of Destruction follows a trail of discovery from the mountains of North East India via the jungles of the Philippines to a cliff-top temple in Japan as Damocles, and their American counterparts, hunt for their deadly objective.

Click here to read our review of The Damocles Files: Volume One: Ragnarok Rising (The Damocles Files. Book 1

Anthony Watson

Anthony Watson has placed short stories, novellas and novels with a number of small presses. He was co-founder of Dark Minds Press and worked as editor there for ten years before leaving to concentrate on writing. He writes supernatural horror with most of his stories set in historical timeframes.

Following the publication of Witnesses in 2017, his second novel The Fallen was published in October 2020 by Demain Publishing. His most recent novel, The Damocles Files Volume Two: Seeds of Destruction, co-authored with Benedict J Jones, was released in February 2022.

As well as writing, he posts occasional book reviews at his Dark Musings blog which can be found at https://anthony-watson.blogspot.com/

and his Amazon author page is at: Amazon.co.uk: Anthony Watson: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle