Ah, now, this is my favourite anthology. As far as my memory stretches back, it was the first I owned, so that might have something to do with it. However, a majority of the tales within have certainly held up on multiple reads over the last twenty years. Aged 10, my primary school teacher decided to read the class the Goosebumps book series, which stirred the horror interests, and she moved on, as we reached Primary 7, to tackle the Richard Dalby Christmas horrors series. This had me scurrying to Dillons and Waterstones and the like to hunt down my own copies, only to find that Mum was slightly perturbed, to say the least.
Finally, after what seemed like centuries, but was probably a few weeks, Dad arrived home from work one night brandishing a copy of this book. He'd found it in a second hand shop in Paisley during his lunch break, and he'd picked it at random from a few other similar Fontana/Armada type books.
So I stayed up all night reading this book, and swiftly had nightmares. Looking back at it, this book introduced me to two of my top 5 favourite British short horror story writers, and to the one story which no one ever seems to remember which stuck a chord with me.
I tend to lurk rather than post on this forum - most forums, in fact - but I figured if I was going to say anything, I might as well say a few words on this book.
(I aim to avoid spoilers, but spoiler warning none the less!)
R. Chetwynd Hayes - Introduction: This is how I like my introductions. No lengthy essays on the nature of ghosts. Just short and snappy "Hello, I'm your editor" with some teasing descriptions and biographic details of each tale and writer to get the excitement going. He wishes he'd come up with the Timperley and Eyre stories first. He supplies a story of his own which wont overshadow the rest of the book.
L.P. Hartley - Fall in at the Double: One of the aforementioned top five writers, this was written towards the end of Hartley's life, so I am led to believe. Alfred the butler/servant, is straight out of a more sardonic tale: ghost story as told by Wodehouse, perhaps. There's no doubt to my mind that if Osgood had been in nearly any other Hartley tale, he's a doomed man. Though, whenever people get these big houses in the country for cheaper than the going rate in horror stories, they never seem to wonder if there's a catch!
James Turner - The St Christopher Medallion: Now, here's the story which has stuck in my mind for twenty years without budging. And yet, hardly anyone has ever heard of it! Our narrator takes his son, Raymond, to his old school, Lancing, and while being nostalgic about his childhood, stumbles across the ghosts of two of his class who died during their time together. Hildreth was the first to die, a lonely, bullied boy who showed signs of being gay, and committed suicide. One of his few worldly possessions was a medallion of St Christopher. Soon after Bryant, a popular lad who was one of Hildreth's only friends, drowns swimming across to the other bank of the River Adur. Our narrator looked over him in the college chapel, and finds the medallion, buried with Hildreth, now around the dead boy's neck. With his return to Lancing, the man starts to see the horrific manifestations of his childhood everywhere. But what are they trying to warn him about?
Warn. That's one perspective on things...
Turner wrote a number of short stories before his death in 1975. There's an anthology, Where Shadows Fall, but I've not got a copy. I have been told this is the standout tale, however. Lots going on in this one.
A.M. Burrage - One Who Saw: Technically, another of my top five, but really, he's my top one. And this is my favourite ghost story, undisputed, unbeaten after two decades of reading as many as possible. It starts like Smee and a few other Burrage tales, to be truthfully honest.
"Hey, other people at this party, whatever happened to Likeable But Quiet Chap? He was nice."
"Oh, he's quite ill now", says a mysterious man in the corner.
Later that night, Mysterious Man in the corner told our narrator all about what befell Likeable But Quiet Chap, having become aware of the story himself.But that is to be churlish. For when the ghost that did for Crutchley's sanity shows it, it's all the more powerful for what we don't find out. Just that dejected young woman, sitting in the hotel garden. How Crutchley longs to see her face, despite the increased horrified reactions of the hotel staff to his telling them of her existence.
The place in Rouen still exists, and despite much of that city being destroyed during WW2, some of the buildings in that specific area are still fairly old. Indeed, some are hotels, and still have those gardens hidden from street view. Feel like it would be tempting fate to look too far...
Rosemary Timperley - Masks and Voices: We're never hidden from the fact that Kate Lethem has murdered her husband. She's on the run, and as far as Guyana. She's a sympathetic character too, an abused wife who finally snapped, and even then, the voice of her abusive partner seems to torment her from the beyond. It's a typical Timperley tale.
Finally, to plagarise myself from a recent 100 Best Ghost Stories thing I wrote (at short notice, at a friend's suggestion, so I feel a better list could be compiled with time and effort)...
Barbara Joan Eyre - Siren Song: The haunting takes place in, of all places, a caravan park! I knew those places had something of the night about them. I would call this another in the line of ghostly revenge tales, but then, is it? Eyre's story is subtle: so much so that, by the finish, we're not sure if the main character actually is suicidal, or if it is part of an elaborate murder plan. Or even if the ghost is protecting her, or using her as conduit for revenge, or even if revenge is not in the picture and we just have a malicious spirit which picks on the vulnerable. The relationship between mother and children is sweet but realistic, there is a sense of genuine love without the saccharine schmaltz, of the children who will try to take advantage of their mother's illness, but who still genuinely care about her. The less said about the husband, but then, it's hard to say if he is the villain or victim of the piece. As I say, the entire thing is a subtle read, and my interpretation changes on each reading.
(distinctly battered front cover)
