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Post by dem bones on Oct 11, 2019 14:37:38 GMT
Mary Danby (ed.) - Armada Ghost 9 (1977) Mary Danby - Introduction
Guy Weiner - The Last Fare
Catherine Gleason - House of Glass
Rosemary Timperley - The Murderous Ghosts
Sydney J. Bounds - The Haunted Circus
Diana Pullein-Thompson - A Star For a Lady
Daphne Froome - Lisa
John Duncan - Child of the Future
Rick Ferreira - The Phantom Pirates
Margaret Biggs - Goodbye, Charlotte
Mary Danby - The VackieBlurb: Ten spine-chilling tales ....
Take your seat at THE HAUNTED CIRCUS .... dance with dread through the HOUSE OF GLASS .... cross the sea with THE MURDEROUS GHOSTS .... run in terror with THE PHANTOM PIRATES ....
A secret room which reveals the past ...
Fearsome revenge from a spectral horse ....
Homework written by a mysterious hand ....
More shivery, spooky fun to raise your spirits on cold, dark nights!
Interior artwork by Peter Archer
Guy Weiner - The Last Fare: "Do you know that it's nineteen seventy-three and that you've been dead for fifty years?" .... The old hansom waits on the kerb outside Baron's Court station, just as it did back in the 'twenties when Tigham Smith droned "Keb, sir ... keb, sir" at innocent passers-by. Brothers George and Harry, regular clients in those long gone days, agree the driver even looks like Tiggy. But that can't be. He was an old man even then! And then the cabbie calls to them by name .... It transpires that Tiggy overcharged on his last fare and can't move on until he's located and reimbursed the passenger. Rosemary Timperley - The Murderous Ghosts: Chucklesome supernatural hi-jinks as warring Mr & Mrs. Lake take advantage of cross channel ferry trip to be rid of one another for good. Woman overboard! Sydney J. Bounds - The Haunted Circus: Inspired by the ghost of late best pal, Charley the clown, 14-year-old Dianne overcomes a lack of aptitude for the high-wire to become much-loved star of Ringwall's circus. Word perfect as ever but underwhelming. On this occasion, he seems to have taken that "for children" proviso too much to heart. Catherine Gleason - House of Glass: "She had a kind of house etched into a mirror up there and she often used to say she wished it were real so that she could live there and dance and dance forever ...." Kevin, 13, and Millie, 11, spend a weeks holiday in Northumberland with 70 year-old Aunt Natalie Veronik and Anna, her long-time companion and fellow Russian émigré with whom she fled the Nazi's during WWII. Aunt Natalie lost her husband in the war, but the tragedy she mourns above all other is the death of her daughter. Helena Veronik, a promising ballerina, was crippled in a car accident aged sixteen, and promptly abandoned by the worthless fiancée who caused it. She didn't live to see twenty. Natalie treats Helena's attic studio as a shrine, out of bounds to all comers, especially nosey little girls with designs on a dancing career. But Helena's ghost longs for a partner and attempts to lure Millie through her wall-length mirror to fairyland. Daphne Froome - Lisa: A young girl collecting for an animal charity gets locked inside a flat overlooking St. Mary-le-Bow. The Ghost of Dick Whittington's cat to the rescue. For my 40p, Catherine Gleason's sinister ballerina has been far the best thing about #9 to date.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 13, 2019 4:08:55 GMT
Diana Pullein-Thompson - A Star For a Lady: Victorian setting. George Ledbetter, unscrupulous horse trader, has the blacksmith brand a star into the forehead of an Irish mare to make her more appealing to female clients. The horse takes unkindly to being mutilated, and nurses its grudge beyond the grave. There are enough ghost horse and pony stories in these volumes to fill an anthology of their own.
John Duncan - Child of the Future: House-hunting in the West Country, Rebecca inspects a fifteen-room property on the outskirts of Newton Dynewell, once home to the Duke of Knowle-Seymour. Passing through a door concealed behind a portrait, Rebecca steps back two-hundred years to 1777. A strange woman who bears a striking physical resemblance to her mother warns that, any repeat of her behaviour of the last visit, when she persisted in babbling on about "men walking on the moon" and the like, and there'll be nothing for it but to have her committed to Bedlam.
Mary Danby - The Vackie: a mischievous ghost relates his miserable experience as a wartime evacuee in Newbury via young John Logan's exercise book. Another of authors stories could as easily have been re-jigged as a horror had she opted to play up Mrs. Gedge's alleged child exploitation and neglect as genuine.
Catherine Gleason still top of the pile.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 14, 2019 16:05:00 GMT
Finally for #9 (far from the pick of the series by my reckoning).
Rick Ferreira - The Phantom Pirates: One night every year, the ghosts of Captain Skull and his cut-throat crew return to the beach at Tomango to dig up their treasure chest. Woe betide anyone who steals from them! Ten-year-old pals Christopher and Jonah are too sensible to believe in such garbage, but, come the anniversary, sneak down to the sands regardless, where Christopher has the misfortune to find a gold coin. The skeleton pirates give chase. The boys escape, but that only means Captain Skull will return for Chris tomorrow night.
The terrified youths consult Brit ex-pat Hippy Harry, wise man of the mountains. Will his improvised magic charm save the day?
Margaret Biggs - Goodbye, Charlotte: A new family move into the house on Denning Close, Selbury, where once stood Miss March's School for Girls. Twelve-year-old Rachel Wimbush, befriends Charlotte, the living ghost of one of the sinister headmistress's thirty unfortunate pupils, who is desperate to sneak an SOS message to her father. Another story which could and probably would have benefited from taking option horror.
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