My collection of Ghosts and Scholars issues begins with Issue 7, (though I've subsequently picked up a copy of the rare Issue 4) so I can't comment on the contents of the earliest editions. However, "The Best of Ghosts & Scholars" is a handy selection from the first half dozen issues.
THE BEST OF GHOSTS & SCHOLARS (1986)
Editor - Rosemary Pardoe
Editorial Consultants – David Rowlands and Harold Cranford
Published by Richard H. Fawcett
Guest Introduction by Karl Edward Wagner – An amusing discourse on the state of small press publications at the time and the then current trends in short horror fiction ("Urinating has been very big of late").
Introduction by Rosemary Pardoe – A brief history of G&S and an explanation of the selection of particular pieces for the current collection.
"An Incident In The City" by A.F. Kidd
(from GHOSTS & SCHOLARS – 1979)
The discovery of an old guidebook leads an academic called Sandford to attempt to find a particularly elusive church in the heart of the City of London.
"The Catacomb" by Peter Shilston
(from MORE GHOSTS & SCHOLARS – 1980)
An unexpectedly prolonged stop at a small town during a coach tour round Sicily finds Mr Pearsall at a loose end, during which he unwisely decides to investigate a dilapidated church filled with more than usually grotesque frescoes.
"The Fifteenth Evening" by David G. Rowlands
(from MORE GHOSTS & SCHOLARS – 1980)
A tour round his friend's old boarding school (clearly Eton) leads to Father O'Connor hearing the story of how his friend was once locked in the choir school after dark and what he saw clambering up an outer wall.
"The Burning" by Ramsey Campbell
(from GHOSTS & SCHOLARS 3 – 1981)
Blake seems to see a bit too much when he looks into the faces of the crowd that are gathered on bonfire night.
A story that seems to have been a little controversial on its first printing in G&S 3, as it's not immediately Jamesian.
"The Poor Nun of Burtisford" by William Fairlie Clarke
(from GHOSTS & SCHOLARS 4 – 1982)
A walking holiday in the Cotswolds brings the narrator and his friend, Cyril Trollope, into conversation with a fellow traveller, who shares a tale of his own youthful visit to the town of Burtisford, where a nocturnal funeral service and the peculiar inscription on an ancient vault reveal a long-ago tragedy.
According to the Introduction, the Reverend William Fairlie Clarke wrote a number of ghost stories before his death in 1950, though had made no attempt to have them published. Thanks to Hugh Lamb, the tales, which were in the possession of Fairlie Clarke's daughter, Monica, reached Rosemary Pardoe, who published two in a separate booklet "99 Bridge Street" and the current tale in G&S 4. Coincidentally, Fairlie Clarke's godfather was M.R. James' father.
"Conkers" by David G. Rowlands
(from GHOSTS & SCHOLARS 5 – 1983)
A second appearance from Father O'Connor, this time narrating his own tale of a recent trip to the Essex village of Little Bradbury, where tradition insists that the local horse-chestnut trees are to be treated with respect. While there, his mind is cast back to a previous visit, just before the Second World War, where he found there was more to the tradition than mere superstition.
This story features a "guest appearance" from "Mary Anne Allen's" church restorer character, Jane Bradshaw. The Little Bradbury tradition that as long as the trees stand, the coast is safe, is a nice echo of the legend of the Three Crowns of Anglia in "A Warning To The Curious".
"The Malice Of Inanimate Objects" by M.R. James
(from GHOSTS & SCHOLARS 6 – 1984)
A genuine scoop when reprinted for the first time in G&S 6, this forgotten ghost story by MRJ himself had been uncovered by Michael Cox while researching his biography of James. The story had first appeared in an Eton "ephemeral", "The Masquerade" in 1933 and had seemingly lain undiscovered for 50 years. It has since been included in several collections of MRJ's stories. Nowhere near as terrifying as James' finest works, it's still very effective as a black joke with some chills.
"The Watchman" by Roger Johnson
The story of two attempts at burglary, separated by centuries, on the church of Stockbridge Minster. But the church is well protected for, apart from the night watchman, there are other guardians watching from on high.
Roger Johnson's "The Scarecrow" had appeared in G&S 6 and would have appeared here if it hadn't since been reprinted in "Year's Best horror Stories XIII", therefore "The watchman", originally intended for G&S 9, was substituted and is the only story to make its premier appearance in the current collection.
There are a number of illustrations in the collection, the artists being Tony Patrick, whose cover illustration is for "The Watchman", Alan Hunter, Allen Kozowski and David Lloyd (pre- V For Vendetta).
An excellent collection of first-rate stories, my particular favourites are A.F. "Chico" Kidd's "An Incident In The City", which I first read in her excellent collection from Ash-Tree Press, "Summoning Knells", and "The Catacomb", which is surprisingly chilly despite its sunny Sicilian setting.
