Avid Essex Terror reader Daniel Cairns, from Chepstow, Gwentshire, has recently written to us concerning this extraordinary find.
“During a recent job interview I was briefly left unattended in the Chepstow Records Office Document Room. Unable to resist the charms of the filing cabinet marked “Forbidden” I opened it up and quickly flicked through the folders within. Most of the folders had incomprehensible names like “T.V. Relocate Requisition Order” and “Necro/Micro/Animate Res. – URGENT”, but one of the folders was called “Ladybird/Lovecraft – t/anom”.
“Inside was a single book and a handwritten note. The book was a pristine copy of a ladybird book from the 1950s. It was book number 15H in the Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme Series, entitled Trouble At The Market. The author was credited as H.P. Lovecraft N.F.U and the artist as Terry Oakes. (I remember this as I have a photographic memory). The story inside, however, was so nauseating and disorientating I have involuntarily stricken it from my mind (except for the excerpt below, which is my sole proof that this chain of events ever happened). The full-colour illustrations were so vivid and inexplicable I was afriad I might begin to scream. Fortunately the photocopier in the corner of the room could only replicate them in blakc and white.
“I only had time to photocopy this single page before I could hear my interviewer scrabbling his way along the corridor. I hastily put the book back in the folder, and the folder back in the filing cabinet, and myself back on my seat. I don’t think the single bead of sweat on my cheek gave me away. In fact, I suspect he mistook it for a tear.
“Anyway, I know Wales is not in Essex, and although that is a shame I cannot expect you to excuse lightly, I thought you should be informed of this find as quickly as possible.
“Regards, Daniel.”
