Ghosts & Scholars 15

[dem bones]

It really has been too long since I revisited one of these ...

Rosemary Pardoe (ed.) - Ghosts & Scholars 15 (Haunted Library, 1992)

Douglas Walters (The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas)

Rosemary Pardoe - Editorial

Fiction:

William I. I. Read - Dennistoun Goes to Burnstow (An Admonition To The Inquisitive)
John Whitbourn - Justice Without Respite
Antonio Monteiro - The Diary of Jasper W. Marston

Articles:

Richard Dalby - William Croft Dickinson
David Rowlands - M. R. James's Women
John Howard - In Memoriam: Fritz Leiber
Rosemary Pardoe, David Rowlands & John Alfred Taylor - "Two Doctors"
Jamesian Notes & Queries: Darroll Pardoe - A Visit To Seaburgh
Rosemary Pardoe - M. R. James and Demonology
Andy Sawyer, Muriel Smith, Steve Sneyd - Miscellaneous Notes & Queries.

Reviews

Rosemary Pardoe - Richard Dalby (ed.), The Collected Ghost Stories Of E. F. Benson (Robinson, 1992).
Andy Sawyer - Robert Westall, The Stones Of Muncaster Cathedral (Viking, 1991)
Roger Johnson - Laurence Staig, Shapeshifter (Lions, 1992)
Rosemary Pardoe - John Gordon, The Burning Baby And Other Ghosts (Walker, 1992).
Mike Ashley - Ramsey Campbell (ed.), Uncanny Banquet (Little Brown, 1992)
Rosemary Pardoe - Jonathan Aycliffe, Whispers In The Dark (HarperCollins, 1992)

Artwork:

Douglas Walters, Dallas Goffin, Nick Maloret, Jim Pitts, Alan Hunter, Simon Rowson.

First the fiction. Enjoyed all three stories, probably more-so today than when I first read them in - dear God - 1992, the pick of the crop being John Whitborn's animated statue offering.

William I. I. Read - Dennistoun Goes to Burnstow (An Admonition To The Inquisitive): The very dense Mr. Dennistoun ill-advisedly publishes a negative review of an unlikely "philosophical domestic science paper" in a Cambridge periodical. Rather than take offence, it's author, Oxford antiquary Slygunge, magnanimously invites him to Burnstow for a weekend's golf. This is most unusual behaviour on his part as the man has a nasty reputation for settling scores, but Dennistoun, whose one saving grace is that he's oblivious to just about everything, has his tennis racquets packed before you can say 'Casting The Runes'. So begins an adventure in which an ancient bronze whistle, an Anglo-Saxon crown and a set of recalcitrant bedsheets feature prominently. If memory serves, Mr. Read's affectionate parodies proved too much for at least one Haunted Library subscriber, but even I, the man without a smile, can't find it in me to dislike them.

John Whitbourn - Justice Without Respite: The Church of St. Nicholas in Pemsey is notable for an ostentatious marble monument to the one-time High Sheriff of Sussex, Sir Walter Salmon, 1550-1610, a pathologically miserable man whose single pleasure in life was the persecution of Roman Catholics on whom "he delivered justice without respite." Salmon's hatred of the Papists is such that it transcends the tomb. The narrator and his little boy are only spared a terrible end by the intervention of the Reverend Jagger who is wise to, and even welcomes the haunting. The doors of St. Nicholas need never be barred as Sir Walter is as intolerant of pilferers as he is we of "Roman or infidel persuasion."

Antonio Monteiro - The Diary of Jasper W. Marston: The impulsive purchase of a painting depicting a forest scene proves Mr. Marston's undoing. How can it be that the barely discernible figure in the trees is constantly shifting position? A flustered elderly fellow named Charles D. Zareth pays Marston a visit. Not only is he familiar with the painting's history but desperate to procure it, and prepared to pay a tidy sum to do so. Marston refuses to sell. A chance find in a bookshop reveals the work to be that of the late Koutchukyan, an obscure Eastern European master with a history steeped in Black Magic, Demonology, and child-abduction.

And some gems from the treasure trove that is G&S's non-fiction content.

David Rowlands - M. R. James's Women: Apparently some critics would have it that M. R. James was a misogynist. David Rowlands acknowledges but does not address the accusation, contenting himself with an inventory of the women who grace MRJ's ghost stories. The resulting piece is as jolly as it is instructive with Miss Mary Oldys and Mrs Ann Maple (The Residence At Whitminster, and the mischievous story-telling granny of An Evening's Entertainment among those to come out of it particularly well. It seems the author has a bit of a has a bit of a pash for Miss Cooper of Mr. Humphreys And His Inheritance. "Indeed, were I a young man of slight prospects, I'm sure I should not have been adverse to Showing Miss Cooper the Wilsthorpe Maze myself - chaperoned by her mother of course, who doubtless would have been easy enough to lose for a while at least."

"Two Doctors": Footnotes to help the reader better understand M.R.J.'s "weakest and most difficult story," one I've never found sufficient enthusiasm to revisit - until now.