A Quiver of Ghosts (1984)
Mar 24, 2007 9:44:24 GMT -5
Post by Gloomy Sundae on Mar 24, 2007 9:44:24 GMT -5
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - A Quiver of Ghosts (William Kimber, 1984)
A Vindictive Woman - 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural, ed. Mary Danby, 1979
The House - The Unbidden, 1971
Body And Soul
The Colored Transmission - The Tenth Ghost Book, ed. Aidan Chambers, 1974
The Hanging Tree - 15th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1979
The Ghost Who Limped - The Night Ghouls, 1975
In Media Res - Cold Terror, 1973
Dead Ghost - Ghost After Ghost, ed. Aidan Chambers, 1982
The Playmate - The Unbidden, 1971
Calvunder - The Twelfth Ghost Book, 1976
The Wanderer - The Elemental, 1974
Danger In Numbers - The Night Ghouls, 1975
The Liberated Tiger - 9th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1973
The Death Of Me - The Unbidden, 1971
A prolific writer, R. Chetwynd-Hayes has received limited critical attention despite publishing over twenty collections of supernatural stories and a half a dozen novels. A possible reason for this neglect is his tendency not to take his stories seriously: there is frequently a misplaced strand of humour that lessens their effect. But among his works are a number of serious stories with genuinely original ideas and treatments. A Quiver Of Ghosts offers a good, representative selection of fourteen shorter works, including The Ghost Who Limped, which is possibly his best.
Mike Ashley on A Quiver Of Ghosts (from Neil Barron ed., Horror Literature: A Reader's Guide Garland, 1990)
A Best of .... selection from his earlier collections supplemented with a handful of stragglers. No cover scan as I don't have a copy, but by my reckoning the only two stories I'm missing are Body And Soul and Dead Ghost
A Vindictive Woman: Robert C. Hogg is haunted by the ghost of his young wife, whose head he bashed in with a poker after she yawned in his face and ordered him out of the house he'd given her. "We all walk in our own Hells" decides the narrator in one of R. C. H.'s more downbeat (and best) offerings.
The Liberated Tiger: Roland ... her Roland, was keeping true to form, but his ordinariness, his apparent simplicity, seemed to have sinister undertones. That thing that walked while he slept was as much part of him as the mild, compliant husband she had known for years[/i]
Roland is bedridden and dying. Mary, his devoted wife of fifty years, is doing her duty by him as one would expect - she's always had his best interests at heart. But does he realise that all her nagging and 'advice' were for his own good? "While there is breath in my body, I will never reproach you".
That's hardly a great comfort in the circumstances, because whenever Roland lapses into unconsciousness, his doppelganger walks the house. He is the liberated Roland, the one who wanted children, the one who wanted to take a chance on that risky business venture, the one who wanted to do so many things that she wouldn't allow. And this Roland hates her.
Chetwynd-Hayes chose to debut this story in Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories #9, the first he edited after taking over from Robert Aickman, and its powerful stuff . He seems to have a tighter rein on the plot than was often the case, and the climax is terrific. As with so much of his work it reads like a fierce justification of his own bachelorhood.
The Hanging Tree: Christmas with the Fortesque family and friends, and the young, romantically inclined Movita is busy spinning fantasies around the family ghost, that of a young man who killed his lover then hung himself from a tree in the garden during the previous century. Her insistence that she's seen him has the household despairing for her sanity, all save Miss Mansfield who realised Movita is psychic and inadvisedly intervenes on her behalf.
Another Victorian spook show, partly told from the point of view of the vampiric spectre. Writing in the 15th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1979), Chetwynd Hayes writes of this one: "A few people might recognise the setting , but I hasten to add that this is the only authentic part about it. I am always seeking new names for my characters that will in some way fit into their personalities. Movita slipped into my brain, and yes, it did undoubtedly belong to the sad, rather sweet girl who saw the walker of the haunted path from her bedroom window. But where on earth did the name come from? I have never known a girl called Movita and so far as I can ascertain no one else has either. So maybe I have invented a new name, which I venture to suggest is no mean achievement.
Happy haunting."
A Vindictive Woman - 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural, ed. Mary Danby, 1979
The House - The Unbidden, 1971
Body And Soul
The Colored Transmission - The Tenth Ghost Book, ed. Aidan Chambers, 1974
The Hanging Tree - 15th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1979
The Ghost Who Limped - The Night Ghouls, 1975
In Media Res - Cold Terror, 1973
Dead Ghost - Ghost After Ghost, ed. Aidan Chambers, 1982
The Playmate - The Unbidden, 1971
Calvunder - The Twelfth Ghost Book, 1976
The Wanderer - The Elemental, 1974
Danger In Numbers - The Night Ghouls, 1975
The Liberated Tiger - 9th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1973
The Death Of Me - The Unbidden, 1971
A prolific writer, R. Chetwynd-Hayes has received limited critical attention despite publishing over twenty collections of supernatural stories and a half a dozen novels. A possible reason for this neglect is his tendency not to take his stories seriously: there is frequently a misplaced strand of humour that lessens their effect. But among his works are a number of serious stories with genuinely original ideas and treatments. A Quiver Of Ghosts offers a good, representative selection of fourteen shorter works, including The Ghost Who Limped, which is possibly his best.
Mike Ashley on A Quiver Of Ghosts (from Neil Barron ed., Horror Literature: A Reader's Guide Garland, 1990)
A Best of .... selection from his earlier collections supplemented with a handful of stragglers. No cover scan as I don't have a copy, but by my reckoning the only two stories I'm missing are Body And Soul and Dead Ghost
A Vindictive Woman: Robert C. Hogg is haunted by the ghost of his young wife, whose head he bashed in with a poker after she yawned in his face and ordered him out of the house he'd given her. "We all walk in our own Hells" decides the narrator in one of R. C. H.'s more downbeat (and best) offerings.
The Liberated Tiger: Roland ... her Roland, was keeping true to form, but his ordinariness, his apparent simplicity, seemed to have sinister undertones. That thing that walked while he slept was as much part of him as the mild, compliant husband she had known for years[/i]
Roland is bedridden and dying. Mary, his devoted wife of fifty years, is doing her duty by him as one would expect - she's always had his best interests at heart. But does he realise that all her nagging and 'advice' were for his own good? "While there is breath in my body, I will never reproach you".
That's hardly a great comfort in the circumstances, because whenever Roland lapses into unconsciousness, his doppelganger walks the house. He is the liberated Roland, the one who wanted children, the one who wanted to take a chance on that risky business venture, the one who wanted to do so many things that she wouldn't allow. And this Roland hates her.
Chetwynd-Hayes chose to debut this story in Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories #9, the first he edited after taking over from Robert Aickman, and its powerful stuff . He seems to have a tighter rein on the plot than was often the case, and the climax is terrific. As with so much of his work it reads like a fierce justification of his own bachelorhood.
The Hanging Tree: Christmas with the Fortesque family and friends, and the young, romantically inclined Movita is busy spinning fantasies around the family ghost, that of a young man who killed his lover then hung himself from a tree in the garden during the previous century. Her insistence that she's seen him has the household despairing for her sanity, all save Miss Mansfield who realised Movita is psychic and inadvisedly intervenes on her behalf.
Another Victorian spook show, partly told from the point of view of the vampiric spectre. Writing in the 15th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1979), Chetwynd Hayes writes of this one: "A few people might recognise the setting , but I hasten to add that this is the only authentic part about it. I am always seeking new names for my characters that will in some way fit into their personalities. Movita slipped into my brain, and yes, it did undoubtedly belong to the sad, rather sweet girl who saw the walker of the haunted path from her bedroom window. But where on earth did the name come from? I have never known a girl called Movita and so far as I can ascertain no one else has either. So maybe I have invented a new name, which I venture to suggest is no mean achievement.
Happy haunting."
