Rosemary Timperley - From Another World

[dem bones]

For those who like their ghost books frightfully posh, competitively priced and collectable (limited to 300 copies);

Rosemary Timperley - From Another World & Other Ghost Stories (Sundial, April 2016).

Rosemary Timperley - Preface
Richard Dalby - Introduction

Harry (Lady Cynthia Asquith [ed.], Third Ghost Book, 1955)
From Another World (R. Chetwynd-Hayes [ed.] The Twelfth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1976)
The Nobodies (London Mystery Selection #43, December 1959)
The Listening Child (The Listening Child: Three Short Novels, James Barrie, 1956)
The Ever-Buried (London Mystery Selection #41, April 1959)
Lost Pathways (Denys Val Baker [ed.] Ghosts in Country Villages, Kimber, 1983)
The Artist's Model (Denys Val Baker [ed.] Stories of Haunted Inns, Kimber, 1983)
The Mistress In Black (Rosemary Timperley [ed.] The Fifth Ghost Book, 1969)
Dreams Are More Than Shadows (London Mystery Magazine#31, Dec. 1956))
Voices In The Night (Richard Davis [ed.] Tandem Horror 2, 1968)
What Happened To Sally? (Richard Davis [ed.] Tandem Horror 3, 1969)
The Tall Woman (Richard Davis [ed.] Spectre 2, 1975)
To Keep Him Company (R. Chetwynd-Hayes [ed.] 10th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1974)
Walk On The Water (Rosemary Timperley [ed.] The Eighth Ghost Book, 1972)
Little Girl Lost (Aidan Chambers [ed.], The Bumper Book of Ghost Stories, 1975)
The Sound Of The Saw (Truth, July 11, 1952)
The Wrong Ghost (Truth, August 29, 1952)
Proof Positive (Truth, October 10, 1952)
Mandragora (Clarence Paget [ed.] 26th Pan Book of Horror Stories, 1985)
Little Boy Haunted (Clarence Paget [ed.] 30th Pan Book of Horror Stories, 1989)
Stella (Mary Danby [ed.] 11th Armada Ghost Book, 1979)
Christmas Meeting (Lady Cynthia Asquith [ed.], Second Ghost Book, 1952)

[ripper]

I do like the look of this collection. I enjoy Rosemary's style of ghost story writing and there are quite a few tales here of which I am unfamiliar.

[dem bones]

Apr 15, 2016 13:05:35 GMT ripper said:

I do like the look of this collection. I enjoy Rosemary's style of ghost story writing and there are quite a few tales here of which I am unfamiliar.

A paperback would be nice

Must have been a pleasant job whittling down her prodigious output to just the 22 "best" ghost stories - I'll bet there are enough quality tales among the surplus for at least another volume. Was surprised at just how many of these I've read - fifteen of the twenty-two - though in truth, all but Christmas Meeting, Harry, Mandagora, and Dreams Are More Than Shadows have faded from memory. Rosemary Timperley was also 'Ruth Cameron' who contributed the occasional story to the Pan Book of Horror, Armada Ghost Book and London Mystery Magazine. In the 'eighties, toward the end of her career - and life - Rosemary regularly contributed short fiction to Weekend magazine. Sample titles Spellbound, Stage Fright, and Widow Cranky suggest at least some touched upon the 'supernatural.' Being me, I want to read Top Of The Flops from the November 28-December 4 1984 issue.

[ripper]

A collection of her writing certainly deserves a wider audience, so I'm with you in hoping a paperback may appear at some stage. Has her work not been collected prior to this?

I didn't know of her pen-name. My mom bought Weekend, Tit-Bits and similar publications quite often and there was usually a supernatural story around Halloween and Christmas, plus the odd one now and then.

[dem bones]

Apr 16, 2016 7:29:37 GMT ripper said:

A collection of her writing certainly deserves a wider audience, so I'm with you in hoping a paperback may appear at some stage. Has her work not been collected prior to this?

Shamefully not! Way back in 1956, James Barrie published The Listening Child: Three Short Novels (The Listening Child, Child in the Dark and Children Afraid), but seems there have been no short story collections until now.
Richard Simms of the Rosemary Timperley site has compiled a 14 story selection, Home From The Sea which, he informs us, includes a couple of ghost stories - not sure if it's been published yet.

Some overlap with From Another World, but there's a good horror volume to be had from this lot.

Harry (Pan Horror 4)
Street of the Blind Donkey (Pan Horror 7)
Supper With Martha (Pan Horror 10)
The Peg-Doll (Pan Horror 12)
The Unknown Caller (Pan Horror 18)
The Power Cut (Pan Horror 19)
Hell on Both Sides of the Gate (Pan Horror 20)
Dolly (Pan Horror 21) [as by 'Ruth Cameron']
The Thug (Pan Horror 21)
A Backwards Shadow (Pan Horror 23)
Fire Trap (Pan Horror 26)
Mandragora (Pan Horror 26)
Little Boy Haunted (Pan Horror 30)
Unknown Territory (Pan Horror 30)
The Bandaged Man (Fontana Horror 9)
The Eye Of The Mandala (Fontana Horror 11)
House Of Mirrors (Fontana Horror 15)
The Maid, The Madman & The Knife (Gaslit Tales Of Terror)
The Darkhouse Keeper (Cold Fear)
The Ghosts In The Garden (New Writings In Horror & Supernatural 2)
Dorabella, or In Love With Death (Supernatural)
No Living Man So Tall (Fontana Ghost 15)
The Hat (Nightmares)
The Tunnel (Tales Of Unknown Horror)
On The Theatre Steps (More Tales Of Unknown Horror)
Some Travellers Return (New Tales Of Terror)
The Woman With The Mauve Face (Years Best Horror 2)
The Death Silence (65 Great Tales of the Supernatural)

[ripper]

Thanks, Dem. That's quite a list. Collecting those Pans and Fontanas is getting more difficult. On-line prices for them seem to have gone up quite steeply, so trying to build up a collection of RT's tales from them is quite a task. A collection certainly isn't before time.

[dem bones]

Apr 17, 2016 7:25:37 GMT ripper said:

Thanks, Dem. That's quite a list. Collecting those Pans and Fontanas is getting more difficult. On-line prices for them seem to have gone up quite steeply, so trying to build up a collection of RT's tales from them is quite a task. A collection certainly isn't before time.

Can't say I ever bought a book purely because it included A Rosemary Timperley story. The many stories involving pathetic child ghosts can get a bit much for me, but when she was on song - much of From Another World plus The Darkhouse Keeper, Fire Trap, No Living Man So Tall, The Bandaged Man, etc. - she was terrific.

Would love to set eyes on some 'eighties copies of Weekend (and the previous decade's Titbits, come to that). Wonder if any other authors contributed ghost/ horror fiction?

[ripper]

Weekend, Tit-Bits etc were just thrown away every week or so in our house. There wasn't any thought that some time in the future they would be of interest. I wouldn't be surprised if there were, indeed, stories by other noted writers in the genre, not to mention stories, unjustly forgotten, by writers who didn't quite make it.