Mary Williams - Where Phantoms Stir

[dem]

Jan 11, 2023 18:57:05 GMT mrhappy said:

Jan 11, 2023 13:23:51 GMT dem said:

If I remember correctly a publisher (Tartarus maybe?) looked at publishing a 'best of' collection a while back but found the author's estate to be somewhat difficult and the idea was abandoned.

Mr Happy

Thanks, Mr Happy. It did seem a little unlikely that her work had been overlooked.

[dem]

Requiem For Stella: Final story accounts for half the book's 190 pages. With their seven-year marriage on life support, Paul Conrad, author, leaves behind Marguerite in London while he knuckles down to his next book in secluded Penjust, Cornwall. Conrad has recently inherited Trenherrick Cottage from Janus Prince, the feted 'sixties photographer whose own marriage ended on a tragic note, when Stella, a celebrated dancer and artist, vanished, presumed drowned, at Wikketts: "It's a bad place ....the Devil's own hidey-hole. People have gone there and never been seen again." Hardly has he moved in than Conrad is in conflict with Mrs. Polzy, the Prince's housekeeper, over his discovery of a stash of macabre-pornographic paintings in a secret studio. Turns out the embittered Mrs. P. is not the only one doesn't care for nosey furriners from London. His windows are bricked. "Stop messin' in our affairs and get away from eer. Yous not wanted." It's not the best kept secret the glamour couple's perfect marriage was a sham — Jason was a promiscuous homosexual — but why the veil of secrecy surrounding Stella's final movements? What's with the erratic behaviour of Mrs. Pendrake, taciturn Landlady of "The Persian Queen" and her fey, deaf mute daughter? Is Mrs. Polzy a black witch? What has the towering lunk of village simpleton got to be so pleased about? Tragic events abound, though can't recall any ghost in this one (probably missed something).

[dem]

Mary Williams - The Haunted Valley & Other Ghost Stories (William Kimber, 1978)

Ionicus

Celebration
Four's Company
The Haunted Valley
Duty
Falsies
Never at Sunset
Poor Joe
The May Tree
Snow Ballet
The Unknown Shore
Wait Till the Spring
The Bell
Time-Slip
Todd's
Haven't We Met Before?
The Circle
The Thingummyjig
Sitting Tenant

Blurb:

Mary Williams has chosen once again a wide variety of themes for her new collection of ghost stories. They take their inspiration from the humorous to the mysterious and macabre. There are, for instance, the silent people who live in a haunted valley, a mysterious and ghostly realm which, once seen, will turn the rest of life into a quest to find it again. And what is the macabre Thingummyjig; is he a friend or foe? Clarissa had never doubted the former until one day she hurt its feelings... or what exactly is the family occasion which Miss Twigg wants to celebrate with an order for a dozen red roses? In contrast there is a story about a bride intent on impressing her new husband on their wedding night-but with disastrous results!

This is another outstanding collection of stories which can only add to Mary Williams' growing reputation as one of the most popular and widely read writers in this special genre.

Celebration: Nonagenarian spinsters Miss Twigg and Miss Porter keep themselves very much to themselves in their ugly Victorian house overlooking Treesbrook. One cold autumn day, Miss Twigg calls at the village store to request Mr. Bull fetch her four dozen red roses from Brinstow market. What can they possibly have to celebrate?

Four's Company: Peter is tormented by the ghost of Emma, his virgin-at-heart first wife, who, truth to tell, he perhaps could have tried harder to revive after she collapsed in her bubble bath. Her successor, Mandy, is unaware of the haunting until it's too late.

The Haunted Valley: "When I think of death, which most men of my age do on occasion, its with a secret prayer in me that I'll meet it on a mountain top .... somewhere in the Black Mountains of Wales perhaps, where the summits loom dark over the great bowls of shadowed valleys, or wreathed in thin clouds which can suddenly part revealing a vista of unearthly beauty." Few are privileged a glimpse of the hidden valley, after which nothing matters but that they find it again.

Duty: Embittered 40-year-old heiress Martha Marriott determines to wreck 21-year-old half-sister Melissa's romance with Tristan the trendy art tutor (or "layabout" in Marthaspeak). Actually, she wouldn't mind a piece of him herself .... Sexual jealousy culminating in tragedy and the haunting of Four Towers, Midchester.

[helrunar]

A delectable selection! This one is actually available at a reasonable price from a couple of online vendors. Just checked And no birds sing and it seems to be quite scarce--no copies found anywhere. Checked "archive" as well but no luck.

cheers, Hel.

[helrunar]

An electronic edition of The Haunted Garden by Mary Williams comes up in a current search, and without looking more closely, I just added it to my "device" (it was priced at only a couple of bucks). Unfortunately even though the search has it tagged as by our author, it actually appears to be a novel by one William T. Williams. Irritating to say the least.

Hel.

[helrunar]

And this is why I feel really nervous about an office communique issued yesterday from the august chambers of our betters here at my place of enjoyment, burbling on in newspeak about how wonderful it is that "AI" is going to be doing a LOT of library cataloguing in the near future... urghhhhh.

Hel.

[dem]

Falsies: Haunted beyond endurance by a pair of big, bouncy, disembodied breasts, Florence "Don't call me Flossie!" Wigsley goes at them with a knife during husband's birthday party. Narrated from a barred room in the Brighthouse Asylum.

Never At Sunset: Richard Carne, a young hiker touring the West Country, is warned to avoid a lonesome riverside house in the valley after sunset. Curiosity gets the better of him. Arriving at Greywaters he catches sight of an attractive girl pottering in the garden before she's ushered inside by a solemn older woman. Richard plucks up his courage to knock at the door. Mrs. Esther Carruthers, the lady of the house, answers in person, even introduces her lovely daughter, Iris. Why should the old-timer have been so eager to keep him away from these charming women?

Would love to know which of the stories Tartarus, or whoever, were considering for revival.

[helrunar]

I have two Williams collections on the way in the post now. One is coming from Dear Old Blighty so may be headed on a one-way trip into the Black Hole known as the Royal Mail. I love having a treat to look forward to.

I think I missed the memo about the proposed Tartarus Press reprint. I hope it happens.

Saluting, Hel.

[helrunar]

Last night a US "large print" edition of The Haunted Valley arrived in the post. It was discarded from a library in Oregon and was available from an online retailer (I believe it was "Better World Books") at a reasonable price, unlike most of the Mary Williams titles. Thus far I have read "A Celebration" and "Four's Company"--I appreciate how she tells the story, the details of character and setting and wardrobe, the general atmosphere, and the sly bits of wit. Lots of fun. 

Thank the gods the standard British spellings were retained in this reprint, from the late 1990s. It's always so jarring to me now when they Americanise these editions for the colonies.

Saluting, Hel.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Mar 10, 2023 20:20:31 GMT helrunar said:

Thank the gods the standard British spellings were retained in this reprint, from the late 1990s. It's always so jarring to me now when they Americanise these editions for the colonies.

Saluting, Hel.

Such a shame our cousins in the American colonies haven't learnt the art of spelling, but to be honest if, after nearly 250 years, they haven't mastered English, then I don't think they ever will.
Also the standard of mathematics is shocking there too. Just look how long it takes them to count votes in elections, why it is sometimes weeks or months! How hard is it to add 1? Let me give an example: 1 + 1 = 2. It is that simple! And nowadays what with all those Analytical Engines, courtesy of Mr Babbage and Miss Lovelace, there is just no excuse!
Must try harder USA!

[helrunar]

Today I finished reading the Corgi paperback edition of Chill company. I thought the two best stories in the collection were "The Beautiful Ones" and "The Shadow," and I also enjoyed "The Buccaneer" which read like a satirical take on the old 1940s novel The Ghost and Mrs Muir (which became a successful film with Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney, and subsequently, an American sitcom in the Sixties with Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare). "The Blue Wig" was amusing, and seemed like a variant on the same story she also wrote under the titles "The Toupee" and "Falsies." Many of the stories have similar plots; some are just sketches of mood and atmosphere. 

They are good fare so long as one only reads one or two at a sitting. I enjoyed Chill Company which I read off and on over a period of several weeks on my work commute. 

Quite a few of the tales involve a couple in various situations, generally either romantic or in spiteful disagreement. Sometimes the shorter ones made me think of the stories my Mom would read in an American magazine, The Ladies Home Journal, back in the period of the early to mid 70s.

cheers, Hel.

[dem]

Apr 22, 2023 3:27:01 GMT helrunar said:

Today I finished reading the Corgi paperback edition of Chill company. I thought the two best stories in the collection were "The Beautiful Ones" and "The Shadow," and I also enjoyed "The Buccaneer" which read like a satirical take on the old 1940s novel The Ghost and Mrs Muir (which became a successful film with Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney, and subsequently, an American sitcom in the Sixties with Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare). "The Blue Wig" was amusing, and seemed like a variant on the same story she also wrote under the titles "The Toupee" and "Falsies." Many of the stories have similar plots; some are just sketches of mood and atmosphere. 

They are good fare so long as one only reads one or two at a sitting. I enjoyed Chill Company which I read off and on over a period of several weeks on my work commute. 

Quite a few of the tales involve a couple in various situations, generally either romantic or in spiteful disagreement. Sometimes the shorter ones made me think of the stories my Mom would read in an American magazine, The Ladies Home Journal, back in the period of the early to mid 70s.

cheers, Hel.

I'm glad you got something out of it. Chill Company might be my overall pick of the Mary Williams collections and a good one to start on. If these compact pieces do little or nothing for you, it's unlikely the later, lengthier stories will be any more to your liking. I agree it's best to read no more than two of the stories in one sitting, but, for me, that's the same with any author.

Just realised I've still to finish The Haunted Valley ....

[helrunar]

Most of her books are either unavailable from online used book vendors, or priced far beyond what I would be willing to pay. If they were available at a reasonable price, I would enjoy reading more. Her strong point as a writer, for me, is in descriptive passages, particularly depicting the landscape and colors of her beloved Cornwall.

H.

[dem]

Poor Joe: Fifty years after he left for America, Joe Carn returns home to Cornwall to see his mother and catch up with the regulars at The Ancient Goat.

The May Tree: John and Sally Markham move from London to Wikkivale Cottage, five miles from Pornallen. Their Cornish dream home! - or it would be, if Sally hadn't taken an instant aversion to an old May in the garden which, for reasons she can't elaborate, gives her the creeps. The tree so upsets Sally, she insists John cut it down.

"When those flowers die, perhaps. But not in full bloom. Haven't you noticed how it frills out sometimes ... like a girl's skirt .... a ballerina?"

Fatally for both, the Markham's soon to find out why. Cornish witchcraft/ folk horror.

Snow Ballet: "Twas in the snow she came, so pretty and white." Little Trevanion farm, Cornwall. Fifty years on from a fatal, "accidental" plunge down the mine-shaft, Julie returns for the husband, a farmer who killed her out of jealously only weeks into their marriage. Julie had made it too obvious she was pining to rejoin the village troupe, get back onstage with her fancy dan dance partner.

[helrunar]

"The May Tree" was an effective bit of horror. The finale strained credulity, but was very creepy nonetheless.

H.