He began to breathe heavily, and his fingers played on his tie.

My personal favourite is “Wet Straw”, in which John passes the lonely hours with a visit to an art gallery where he discovers that the pictures trigger powerful and painful memories of his late wife: How it lapped up blood like a kitten drinking cream.” I love how Matheson’s short story comes with a lighthearted twist: I don’t know why we always assume the victim resists that first bite. Pressures of a wholly different kind face Jules in “Blood Son”, a vampire tale with a difference. Maybe, he thought, sullenly displeased with the idea, maybe it was only the upset of her leaving that enabled my brain to find words.” He felt as though he could never write another word for the rest of his life. Unlike Nabokov’s gentle sufferers, Chris embraces his anger: He reminded me of a turbo-charged version of Vladimir Nabokov’s heroes-broken and overwhelmed by all the demands placed upon him, slowly losing touch with reality. In “Mad House”, forty-year-old English lecturer Chris Neal is pushed to his limit by the breakdown of his marriage, the strains of teaching, and that old friend-writer’s block. The rest of the book explores a variety of themes. My son has a private pilot’s license, so I don’t believe that terror to be true, but it’s fun to suspend disbelief. The title story, the first in the anthology, explores the terror of aviation flying. He’s also written episodes for much-loved TV shows like “The Twilight Zone”.

In addition to his well-known novels, many of which have been turned into successful Hollywood films, Matheson has decades of short story publication behind him. Nightmare At 20,000 Feet (336 pages, pub Jan 5, 2002) is a collection of twenty short stories, previously published in an eclectic mix of magazines from Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine to Playboy.

Personally selected by Richard Matheson, the bestselling author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come, these and many other stories, more than demonstrate why he is rightfully regarded as one of the finest and most influential horror writers of our generation. “Dress of White Silk,” a seductively sinister tale of evil and innocence. “Blood Son,” a disturbing portrait of a strange little boy who dreams of being a vampire “Prey,” in which a terrified woman is stalked by a malevolent Tiki doll, as chillingly captured in yet another legendary TV moment “Duel,” the nail-biting tale of man versus machines that inspired Steven Spielberg’s first film

Here are more than twenty of Matheson’s most memorable tales of fear and paranoia, including: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is just one of many classic horror stories by Richard Matheson that have insinuated themselves into our collective imagination. Remember that monster on the wing of the airplane? William Shatner saw it on The Twilight Zone, John Lithgow saw it in the movie-even Bart Simpson saw it. Title: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories

Nightmare at 20 000 feet book