Joyce Marsh and Tim Stout

[craigee]

Hi

I need some help please! Every year I run a charity event "Ghost Stories for Christmas" in Brighton where an actress and I perform classic ghost stories to a paying audience - all money raised goes to a local charity. This year I would like to include 2 modern(ish) stories - The Woman in The Green Dress by Joyce Marsh and The Hand from Haunted Hollow by Tim Stout. But i am having no luck trying to track down either agents or copyright owners to get permission to use them (hopefully free of fees as it is a charity event) I understand that Tim Stout passed away a few years ago and I cannot find any info on Joyce Marsh at all - can anyone here help at all?

[dem bones]

Really wish I could help with this, but sadly, can find no info on Joyce Marsh in any reference work I have to hand. Hope somebody who is a little more clued-in can assist, and I wish you every success with your worthy project.

[Deleted]

I have Tim's wife's email address. Email me on johnnymainsATrocketmailDOTcom

[craigee]

Thanks so much for the messages and help. We have had a slight change of plans and will just be doing the Joyce Marsh story now. So if anyone can help with tracking her/agent/right owner down it would be appreciated.

[hampsteadowl]

I guess this reply is coming way too late to be of any use, but I can help you re Joyce Marsh, who is my mother. She is alive and pretty well, though now well in to her nineties, and will be delighted to hear about the interest in her work.  I only came across your post because I am in the process of trying to track down copies of books that contain her stories since, sadly, her own original copies got lost in a house move.
told me  that she signed away any copyright she had, in return for a one-off payment, when the stories were published. So the copyright will now rest I assume with whoever holds or as inherited the original publishers' rights.

[dem bones]

Mar 4, 2016 16:47:09 GMT hampsteadowl said:

I guess this reply is coming way too late to be of any use, but I can help you re Joyce Marsh, who is my mother. She is alive and pretty well, though now well in to her nineties, and will be delighted to hear about the interest in her work.  I only came across your post because I am in the process of trying to track down copies of books that contain her stories since, sadly, her own original copies got lost in a house move.
told me  that she signed away any copyright she had, in return for a one-off payment, when the stories were published. So the copyright will now rest I assume with whoever holds or as inherited the original publishers' rights.

Thank you for the information, and please say hello to your mum from us! Don't think I've copies of all of her ghost stories, but I particularly like The Woman in the Green Dress, The Master of Blas Gwynedd and Old Hether's Picture. There really should have been a 'Collected Supernatural Stories.'

[ramseycampbell]

Mar 4, 2016 16:47:09 GMT hampsteadowl said:

I guess this reply is coming way too late to be of any use, but I can help you re Joyce Marsh, who is my mother. She is alive and pretty well, though now well in to her nineties, and will be delighted to hear about the interest in her work.  I only came across your post because I am in the process of trying to track down copies of books that contain her stories since, sadly, her own original copies got lost in a house move.
told me  that she signed away any copyright she had, in return for a one-off payment, when the stories were published. So the copyright will now rest I assume with whoever holds or as inherited the original publishers' rights.

Please don't think me rude, but is it possible that your mother is misremembering? Robert Aickman appears to show her as the copyright holder of "The Tree" in his Fontana anthology. I'd suggest she should be regarded as the owner of the rights to her work - in my experience Fontana never bought all rights.

Could you say which books you're looking for? www.abebooks.com/ is often useful. For instance, here's the Aickman:

www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=10497026060&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3Dfontana%2520ghost%26an%3Daickman

[craigee]

Sorry I have only just seen this as haven't been on the boards for ages. I am glad to hear that Joyce Marsh is well. I very much enjoy The Woman in the Green Dress, which I read in the Spectre books - it's a fantastic story and I have loved it since reading it as a child. Please do pass this on to her!