Summary by †Seán Manchester

Ramsey Campbell and I are very different people. When I first clapped eyes on him all those years ago I never gave him another thought. It was accidental contact; I would not call it a meeting because we were not introduced, and I cannot remember any words being exchanged between us. 

After the television programme I didn't think it likely I would see him again. I never referred to him or mentioned him publicly; certainly not in print. Whether he was busy mentioning me hither and thither I have no idea, but before long he was in the business of maligning me and my wife in print, ie Shock Xpress. I saw it as opportunistic exploitation, something I was quite used to in those days, but he defamed my wife, whom he has not met, and that began the ugly situation in which we now find ourselves.

His interest in me has, in my view, become toxic. Our beliefs, needless to say, are not shared. Yet I have many acquaintances with whom the same beliefs are not shared, and we get along absolutely fine. Friends, too, do not have to agree with me in order to be my friend. So why exactly is Ramsey Campbell so different? What makes him so antipathetic?

I suspect he disliked me on sight, but that is conjecture. There must be many people he finds outside his comfort zone, but doesn't spend his time and energy writing about in no less than three publications. He also comments about me, raises questions and makes asides on groups where I am trolled.

I have only made mention of Ramsey Campbell (in passing) in a publication in two very brief paragraphs on page 94 of my Handbook, published six years after Shock Xpress, in order to clarify that the libel was never put right, as promised by the publisher, in a further printing because there were no further printings. Thus I wrote:

"No correction or apology ever appeared in print or on public record. After two years of pressure from his publisher (Titan Books), Campbell privately conceded in a letter to myself:

"Dear Bishop ... I apologise for any distress this has caused you and your wife. ... It remains a mystery to me what could have influenced me to pen such a grotesque and obvious error. Yours sincerely, Ramsey Campbell."

My wife, of course, did not receive an apology directly, and had to content herself with what is written above. The nature of the libel is such that it is impossible to repeat here. It is probably the worst thing imaginable.

You might have thought the matter would have been allowed to be effaced with time, but Campbell was busy resurrecting his essay from Shock Xpress to a new book, ie Ramsey Campbell, Probably, where the precise libel is omitted, but referred to nonetheless. He explains his original error, tongue in cheek, of course, as him having fallen under the influence of demons. The irony of that suggestion is not lost on me.

Sarah Manchester, wife of Bishop Manchester, at Glastonbury.