11th Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories
May 30, 2007 14:18:17 GMT -5
Post by Gloomy Sundae on May 30, 2007 14:18:17 GMT -5
R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) - The 11th Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories (1975)
Introduction - R. Chetwynd-Hayes
'The Gibsons' - Justice
Virginia Swain - Aunt Cassie
Algernon Blackwood - The Woman's Ghost Story
G. A. Minto - The Ghost Of U 65
Robert Arthur - Footsteps Invisible
Ambrose Bierce - Night-Doings At Deadman's
Margaret Irwin - The Earlier Service
Dorothy K. Haynes - Scots Wha Ha'e
G. B. S. - The Whittakers Ghost
Roger Malisson - Lady Celia's Mirror
Thomas Burke - The Lonely Inn
A. M. Burrage - The Green Scarf
Alan Griff - The House Of Desolation
Sydney J. Bounds - The Man In The Mirror
Pamela Vincent - The Attic
Peter Hackett - The Woman In Black
Oliver La Farge - Haunted Ground
Roger F. Dunkley - The Man Who Sold Ghosts
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Matthew And Luke
‘The Gibsons‘ - Justice: From my, admittedly limited, reading I gather that the short-short story is widely held to be the most difficult to pull off. In this grim 200-worder, Abel finds himself lost on an open moor with no idea how he got there. He’s not frightened as, being a God-fearing man, he knows that, if there’s any justice, the forces of evil can’t harm him …
Virginia Swain - Aunt Cassie: The old girl has lived with nephew Edward Alden and his family for twelve years, an absolute dear but with one grating habit - she will insist on seeing the ghosts of her dead at inopportune moments and passing on their (usually critical) observations. When she upsets his wife and daughter with some alarming faux pas, even Edward thinks maybe it's time she made other arrangements. Besides, one of the spooks keeps going on about his drinking. But he has a business arrangement tonight and the roads are icy. Best be very careful, especially as he knows the brakes to be faulty. Best have another shot of whiskey to keep off the chill ....
Robert Arthur - Footsteps Invisible: Times Square. Blind newspaper vendor Jorman has a highly developed sense of hearing and can identify people by their footsteps. One rainy night he gets talking to the English archaeologist Sir Andrew Carraden, a man with a guilty secret from his time in Egypt excavating the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Tothet. The ghastly guardian has pursued him relentlessly across the globe and he’s seen what it can do to a guard dog ….
Sydney J. Bounds - The Man In The Mirror: "A haunted chess set? That's a good one!" Doug Hone, mouthy Londoner (there is no other type if horror fiction is anything to go by), fancies himself as a chess wizard. Driving down to Somerset on his holidays, he stops off at a village pub, The Castle, and is delighted to find that the locals' favoured in-house entertainment is chess. Having trounced all comers, he alienates them further by going on about how much better everything is in the capital. Then he spots a set of beautifully carved pieces. These belonged to the late club champion, Thomas "Old Stew" Stewart, whose ghost haunts the pub and is still partial to a game after closing time ...
Pamela Vincent - The Attic: Frank inherits the old house on his aunt's death. His fiancee Sybil is uneasy about the place, particularly the attic which she detests and fears on first sight. In her nightmares, she sees a figure in shadow swinging from a beam ...
Peter Hackett - The Woman In Black: Jeffrey Layne , commuting home from Fenchurch Street to Southend, awakens from his nap to find a waxwork-like woman in widows weeds sitting across from him in the carriage. Ruffled, he tries to engage his fellow passenger in conversation but the only words he gets from her are the hardly reassuring "He ... lost .... his ... head." And then she vanishes.
Badly shaken, he abandons his journey at Chalkwell Station where the ticket collector offers tea, sympathy and the tragic history of Clara Bowman ...
Oliver Le Farge - Haunted Ground: Sue, the only woman he ever loved, is dead, shot in the first burglary Quonochaug has known in twenty years. Bloody typical! George Waterson, distraught, takes his boat out to sea and writes it off, but it doesn't kill him. Instead he's washed up on the stretch of beach known locally as 'Haunted Ground' on account of its reputation as the dead folk's hang out. He visits Sue's mother to view his beloved in her coffin.
Roger Malisson - Lady Celia's Mirror: Kings Road, Chelsea. Gay antiques dealers Jed Jardine and Bertie Thompson acquire a magnificent rosewood mirror in a mansion-clearance. Bertie gets a dreadful shock when he glimpses a malicious looking old woman leering at him from the glass but Jed sees nothing and the pair have a tiff. They decide to sell it and Laurence, their hairdresser friend, snaps it up for his new Mayfair salon. When a pretty young stylist is murdered on the premises, Bertie determines to learn the history of the accursed mirror.
'Camp black comedy' is probably the phrase I'm groping for. Pop culture references: The Beatles and the Sunday scandal sheet The News Of The People ("Priory Sex Murder Shock Probe - Naked Monk Found Strangled").
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Matthew And Luke: High-flying office worker Matthew Bayswater almost drowns in a swimming accident. Fortunately a passer by is on hand to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation, but the seven minutes he spent 'dead' are all it takes for his doppelganger to get up and haunting. 'Luke' is the spectre of Matthew's dual self. As Matt went on to make something of his life, Matt screwed his up and finally committed suicide. The jokey tone - yet another know-it-all mother-in-law - takes an abrupt turn for the depressing in the final pages and a spook in swimming trunks is something of a novelty.
Introduction - R. Chetwynd-Hayes
'The Gibsons' - Justice
Virginia Swain - Aunt Cassie
Algernon Blackwood - The Woman's Ghost Story
G. A. Minto - The Ghost Of U 65
Robert Arthur - Footsteps Invisible
Ambrose Bierce - Night-Doings At Deadman's
Margaret Irwin - The Earlier Service
Dorothy K. Haynes - Scots Wha Ha'e
G. B. S. - The Whittakers Ghost
Roger Malisson - Lady Celia's Mirror
Thomas Burke - The Lonely Inn
A. M. Burrage - The Green Scarf
Alan Griff - The House Of Desolation
Sydney J. Bounds - The Man In The Mirror
Pamela Vincent - The Attic
Peter Hackett - The Woman In Black
Oliver La Farge - Haunted Ground
Roger F. Dunkley - The Man Who Sold Ghosts
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Matthew And Luke
‘The Gibsons‘ - Justice: From my, admittedly limited, reading I gather that the short-short story is widely held to be the most difficult to pull off. In this grim 200-worder, Abel finds himself lost on an open moor with no idea how he got there. He’s not frightened as, being a God-fearing man, he knows that, if there’s any justice, the forces of evil can’t harm him …
Virginia Swain - Aunt Cassie: The old girl has lived with nephew Edward Alden and his family for twelve years, an absolute dear but with one grating habit - she will insist on seeing the ghosts of her dead at inopportune moments and passing on their (usually critical) observations. When she upsets his wife and daughter with some alarming faux pas, even Edward thinks maybe it's time she made other arrangements. Besides, one of the spooks keeps going on about his drinking. But he has a business arrangement tonight and the roads are icy. Best be very careful, especially as he knows the brakes to be faulty. Best have another shot of whiskey to keep off the chill ....
Robert Arthur - Footsteps Invisible: Times Square. Blind newspaper vendor Jorman has a highly developed sense of hearing and can identify people by their footsteps. One rainy night he gets talking to the English archaeologist Sir Andrew Carraden, a man with a guilty secret from his time in Egypt excavating the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Tothet. The ghastly guardian has pursued him relentlessly across the globe and he’s seen what it can do to a guard dog ….
Sydney J. Bounds - The Man In The Mirror: "A haunted chess set? That's a good one!" Doug Hone, mouthy Londoner (there is no other type if horror fiction is anything to go by), fancies himself as a chess wizard. Driving down to Somerset on his holidays, he stops off at a village pub, The Castle, and is delighted to find that the locals' favoured in-house entertainment is chess. Having trounced all comers, he alienates them further by going on about how much better everything is in the capital. Then he spots a set of beautifully carved pieces. These belonged to the late club champion, Thomas "Old Stew" Stewart, whose ghost haunts the pub and is still partial to a game after closing time ...
Pamela Vincent - The Attic: Frank inherits the old house on his aunt's death. His fiancee Sybil is uneasy about the place, particularly the attic which she detests and fears on first sight. In her nightmares, she sees a figure in shadow swinging from a beam ...
Peter Hackett - The Woman In Black: Jeffrey Layne , commuting home from Fenchurch Street to Southend, awakens from his nap to find a waxwork-like woman in widows weeds sitting across from him in the carriage. Ruffled, he tries to engage his fellow passenger in conversation but the only words he gets from her are the hardly reassuring "He ... lost .... his ... head." And then she vanishes.
Badly shaken, he abandons his journey at Chalkwell Station where the ticket collector offers tea, sympathy and the tragic history of Clara Bowman ...
Oliver Le Farge - Haunted Ground: Sue, the only woman he ever loved, is dead, shot in the first burglary Quonochaug has known in twenty years. Bloody typical! George Waterson, distraught, takes his boat out to sea and writes it off, but it doesn't kill him. Instead he's washed up on the stretch of beach known locally as 'Haunted Ground' on account of its reputation as the dead folk's hang out. He visits Sue's mother to view his beloved in her coffin.
Roger Malisson - Lady Celia's Mirror: Kings Road, Chelsea. Gay antiques dealers Jed Jardine and Bertie Thompson acquire a magnificent rosewood mirror in a mansion-clearance. Bertie gets a dreadful shock when he glimpses a malicious looking old woman leering at him from the glass but Jed sees nothing and the pair have a tiff. They decide to sell it and Laurence, their hairdresser friend, snaps it up for his new Mayfair salon. When a pretty young stylist is murdered on the premises, Bertie determines to learn the history of the accursed mirror.
'Camp black comedy' is probably the phrase I'm groping for. Pop culture references: The Beatles and the Sunday scandal sheet The News Of The People ("Priory Sex Murder Shock Probe - Naked Monk Found Strangled").
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Matthew And Luke: High-flying office worker Matthew Bayswater almost drowns in a swimming accident. Fortunately a passer by is on hand to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation, but the seven minutes he spent 'dead' are all it takes for his doppelganger to get up and haunting. 'Luke' is the spectre of Matthew's dual self. As Matt went on to make something of his life, Matt screwed his up and finally committed suicide. The jokey tone - yet another know-it-all mother-in-law - takes an abrupt turn for the depressing in the final pages and a spook in swimming trunks is something of a novelty.