4 - James Herbert - The Rats (1974)

Warning this book has outdated attitudes, language and cultural depiction, which may cause offence today. Harris, a young East London art teacher, notices that one of his students has a bloodied bandage around his hand. Meanwhile, a baby girl and her dog are killed by a mischief of giant rats. Harris takes the student to the hospital and sees the grieving mother with her dead child. According to the doctor, the number of seemingly unprovoked rat attacks have strangely increased. The rats become increasingly more vicious and daring, as more and more public places are attacked including A tube station and Harris' own school. Where did these mutant Rats come from and how can they be stopped! Herbert became inspired to write The Rats, his first novel, in early 1972, whilst watching Tod Browning's Dracula; specifically, after seeing the scene where Renfield describes a nightmare he had involving hordes of rats. Published 2 years later The first paperback edition sold out after three weeks. It received harsh criticism upon its publication, deemed to be far too graphic in its portrayals of death and mutilation. James Herbert went on to write 23 books (including 3 sequels to the Rats) selling over 54 million copies worldwide. Something horrific? Dark Harvest - Ann Pilling https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1764436.Black_Harvest The Star Wars Archives. 1977–1983. 40th Anniversary Edition https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/film/all/43957/facts.the_star_wars_archives_19771983_40th_anniversary_edition.htm The Stone Tape https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/cZHLDbJPNTcyXLHMVgxdQR/nigel-kneales-the-stone-tape-in-six-facts $£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$ Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you. https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders $£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.