HOW FICTION OWES ITS ORIGIN TO REALITY......................( Article by Bridgemeister Gibson )

• Not so long ago my great grand-father told me about his university days when he shared digs with two fellow medical students. One of them, after several career changes, went on to be a writer of classic horror stories. He remembered how both of them were shocked by their other flatmate's occasional bouts of abnormal behaviour, because to the world at large he came across as a very mild mannered man. These strange aberrations occured whenever he returned late from an evening out. He would storm into the flat, slamming doors and banging his hands on the walls in total frustration. His face became grotesquely twisted and distorted, like a man engulfed by torment and pain. What on earth had brought about this frightening change of character?
• Determined to find out the answer, the two of them decided to follow him the next time he ventured out into the night. What ale-house of ill-reput was this strange flatmate going to that served up the devil's own potent brew? What hell-hole could he be entering that destroys both the minds and souls of innocents? So when their colleague walked through the front door of the local bridge club, they both seemed totally dumbstruck and perplexed. Nevertheless, after electing to wait outside for 3 hours, they saw their friend emerge with that same demonic and vengeful look.....ready to maim ...ready to kill. Yet he was not on his own in that respect. There were others storming out of the premises looking like wild rampaging savages, as if possessed by some evil omnipotent force.
• So there we have it......the truth behind the inspiration and idea for that well-known but rather disturbing tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde..........a story that later on saw my grandfather's flatmate achieve the status as a great horror-fiction writer. To the immense relief of the bridge playing community, he attributed the cause of Dr. Jekyll's transmation purely down to drinking an experimental laboratory potion.
• However, the reality is still with us. In almost every club, certain members arrive....warm, friendly people.....that is until they start playing bridge. And once they embark on that journey, the transformation begins. Nothing can stop them changing into creatures of the most unsavoury kind. The power of bridge to alter people's characters and personalities beyond recognition clearly stunned my great grand-father, and several generations of psycho-analysts. Indeed, the most eminent one in the world today, Dr. John , has done much research on this dangerous and pathological disorder. For him the fictional concept is far less scary the reality that inspired it.