Mary Danby - The Green Ghost

[dem]

Mary Danby (ed.) - The Green Ghost and Other Stories (Armada, 1989)

Terry Tapp - The Green Ghost (Armada Ghost 11, 1979)
Rita Morris - Hallowe’en (Armada Ghost 15, 1983)
Rosemary Timperley - The Sinister Schoolmaster (Armada Ghost 10, 1978)
Sydney J. Bounds - Hunters’ Hill (Armada Ghost 10, 1978)
Alison Prince - The Baby-Sitter (Armada Ghost 13, 1981)
Tony Richards - The Sound of Sirens (Armada Ghost 15, 1983)
Ken Burke - Dance of Death (Armada Ghost 13, 1981)
Catherine Gleason - The Woodeaves Ghosts (Armada Ghost 8, 1976)
Mary Danby - Lorimer’s Bride (Armada Ghost 13, 1981)
Joyce Marsh - The Shepherd’s Dog (Armada Ghost 7, 1975)
Terry Tapp - The Junk Room (Armada Ghost 14, 1982)
Daphne Froome - This Book Belongs To... (Armada Ghost 11, 1979)
Rosemary Timperley - The Murderous Ghosts (Armada Ghost 9, 1977)
Roger Malisson - Sarah (Armada Ghost 8, 1976)
Ruth Cameron (Rosemary Timperley) - A Red, Red Rose(Armada Ghost 8, 1976)
Alan W. Lear - Whoever Heard of a Haunted Lift? (Armada Ghost 15, 1983)
Tony Richards - The Girl in the Cellar (Armada Ghost 13, 1981)
Catherine Gleason - The Longest Journey (Armada Ghost 14, 1982)
Sydney J. Bounds - Spirit of the Trail (Armada Ghost 15, 1983)
Mary Danby - The Grey Lady (Armada Ghost 10, 1978)
John Duncan - Child of the Future (Armada Ghost 9, 1977)
Daphne Froome - Lisa (Armada Ghost 9, 1977)
Sydney J. Bounds - The Train Watchers (Armada Ghost 14, 1982)
Joyce Marsh - The Warning (Armada Ghost 10, 1978)
Catherine Gleason - House of Glass (Armada Ghost 9, 1977)
Anon - Teeny-Tiny (Armada Ghost 4, 1972)
Rosemary Timperley - Stella (Armada Ghost 11, 1979)
Ann Pilling - Gibson’s (Armada Ghost 14, 1982)
Terry Tapp - The Doll (Armada Ghost 10, 1978)
Mary Danby - Mr. Jones (Armada Ghost 15, 1983)
Ruth Cameron (Rosemary Timperley) - The Ghostly Gardeners (Armada Ghost 11, 1979)
Tony Richards - Someone Drowned (Armada Ghost 12, 1980)
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Third Eye (Armada Ghost 14, 1982)
Alison Prince - The Servant (Armada Ghost 15, 1983)
Rosemary Timperley - The Thing That Went Bump in the Night (Armada Ghost 13, 1981)
Joyce Marsh - Sir Harry Mortlake’s Clock (Armada Ghost 8, 1976)
Sydney J. Bounds - The Haunted Circus (Armada Ghost 9, 1977)
Catherine Gleason - The Post Room (Armada Ghost 10, 1978)
Terry Tapp - The Day I Died (Armada Ghost 13, 1981)
Alison Prince - Can’t Help Laughing (Armada Ghost 14, 1982)
Ken Burke - The Return of the Lorelei (Armada Ghost 13, 1981)
Mary Danby - The Ghost Writer (Armada Ghost 14, 1982)

Mammoth selection from the long-running children's series The Armada Book Of Ghost Stories (1967-1983) the first two books being edited by Christine Bernard with Danby taking over on number three (there were fifteen volumes as far as I've been able to establish).

[coral]

I am really pleased, I have been desperately trying to remember the titles of the horror anthologies I read as a child, my memory isn't quite all it should be, but having trawled through this section I have been jogged and will know what to look out for . When I was seven or eight I visited my grandfather every few months, during which time he saved 10p's and 50p's in old fashioned tin tablet tubes. As soon as I arrived I was given my little hoard and trotted down to the bookshop to blow the lot. I got the Armada books, and others, definitely the Aidan Chambers. What a lovely trip down memory lane.

[dem]

There are several sections of the board I'd love to see pick up in the coming year and this is definitely one. I'm really pleased to have someone who's gone on to write in the field comment on the influence these books had on them when they were a child. I think Ramsey Campbell quite possibly speaks for a generation or three in The Gruesome Book when he says how much he despised feeling patronised half to death by some of the childrens ghost books he grew up with. It seems to me that The Armada Ghost series and this selection from them are a bunch of stories that can be enjoyed by any age group.

[coral]

Which leads me neatly (from spiders!) to this thread. I was a little embarassed to say that I didn't know which fiction mr Ramsey had found patronising, and felt that if I'd had the courage to read Probably all through, I would possibly know!
Please do tell me.

[dem]

He isn't specific in The Gruesome Book (i don't have Probably), but this from his brief introduction.

"I began reading horror stories when I was eight or nine years old .... Whenever I read one that was aimed at young people - it wouldn't be called horror fiction, just ghost stories, spooky tales - I wish I hadn't bothered. These books wouldn't have scared a neurotic three year old. Most of the stories had obviously been written for kids.

Those books are the reason I edited this ..."

[noose]

Been chatting to Terry Tapp recently, we now live about ten minutes away from each other now (!) - found out he was also John Duncan who wrote Child of the Future (Green Ghost, Armada Ghost 9) and Blast-Off For Znerk(Space 7 ed. by Richard Davis)

[dem]

Yet another of the underrated Fontana regulars. Can't remember if his stories were ever collected and, if that's the case, its a crying shame. When I Was Dead is easily one of the stand outs in this collection and I'm also very fond of The Bed,The Invaders (a grimmer Leiningen Versus The Ants), Mariners, See How They Run (lovely rats!) and Polish The Lid. Think I once tried to contact him via a Ray Bradbury message board. it's good to know he's still out there.

[noose]

Oct 17, 2011 19:18:21 GMT dem said:

i can't remember if his stories were ever collected and, if that's the case, its a crying shame.

Well - in the next few years we hope to do something together.

[cauldronbrewer]

This is another winner that I discovered thanks to the Vault. Fifteen stories down, and the hits outnumber the misses by a good margin.

Johnny's neighbor is responsible for two of my favorites so far, which differ considerably from one another in tone.

The Green Ghost - Terry Tap
Elderly Emma Finch returns to her childhood home, Brampton Hall, to reminisce--and to see whether the Green Ghost still haunts it. The charming old lady has an ulterior motive that she doesn't reveal to her thumbsucking tour guide until after her visit.

The Junk Room - Terry Tap
Whereas the previous story is light-hearted, this one is all darkness. A family moves into dilapidated Graston Hall and, in the process of renovating it, (literally) uncovers a pair of painted eyes. After that, things go down in a hurry (again--literally, for one of the characters). Fairly powerful stuff for a children's book.

Other strong entries come from Danby herself and two of her reliable contributors:

Hunters' Hill - Sydney Bounds
A brother and sister on a hiking tour ignore a shopkeeper's advice to avoid a local hill with a sinister reputation and an impressive record for fatal falls. When they camp on its summit for the night, the sister experiences a vision that threatens to become all too real.

The Baby-Sitter - Alison Prince
Among Danby's regulars, Prince may be the most willing to drag readers into strange corners of madness (witness her "The Loony," which Ramsey Campbell included in an anthology for adults). Here, the craziness revolves around Mr. Pope, a gardener-turned-babysitter who tells young Nigel about his own experience being baby-sat by a man with a glass eye. This charming fellow would take out the eye and place it on Pope's mantelpiece to watch over him at bedtime. One day, the story goes, Pope's friend made the mistake of hiding the eye.

Lorimer's Bride - Mary Danby
Elizabeth is excited to be attending her first ball, even in the company of her spotlight-stealing mother. Unfortunately, her date turns out to be a dud. She's more interested in a mysterious young man who invites her outside for a walk by the lake--the same lake where the host's daughter almost drowned not long ago.

Also worth noting: Ken Burke's The Dance of Death (a fairly traditional banshee tale, but nicely told), Catherine Gleason's The Woodseaves Ghosts (about brother and sister ghosts who offer to trade places with the living brother and sister now occupying their old home), Daphne Froome's This Book Belongs To . . . (which features a ghost with an original motive that should appeal to anyone who enjoys reading), and Roger Malisson's Sarah (with its neat-freak ghost of an overworked maid who's suspiciously curious about where her former boss now lives).

[dem]

Thanks for talking us through it, CB. Have had this book for a long time but either my memory is completely shot or I never made as much of a dent in it as I thought. Other than the stories from Armada Ghost #14, two that stick in my mind are Mary Danby's Mr. Jones and Rosemary Timperley's The Sinister Schoolmaster, and that because I've (re)read them in other collections fairly recently. Terry Tapp's The Day I Died - raved about elsewhere - is a blur! Yet another for the blasted 'to re-read' pile.

[cauldronbrewer]

A few more favorites so far:

The Girl in the Cellar - Tony Richards
While his parents go out for the evening, Simon and his 18-month old sister stay behind in their old country house (this book includes many old country houses). His older cousin Katy is also there keep an eye on them. When the fire goes out, Simon and Katy venture into the cellar to fetch some coal. That's the same cellar where a cruel woman once kept her young niece--the rightful heir to the house--imprisoned. When the woman died, the niece was trapped. Though she eventually starved to death, her now-insane spirit lives on, waiting for a chance to find the perfect host.

A dark tale, but still not as grim as the next one:

The Grey Lady - Mary Danby
Billy the peg-doll seller is in a tough spot. His sister, who made the dolls and was the brains of their team, recently died, and he's running low on both dolls and money. If he doesn't sell more, he'll soon find himself in the workhouse. In desperation, he tries to make his own grey-gowned doll, but it turns out all wrong--particularly its smudged face. When he tries to sell it, he encounters a woman whose face is concealed beneath her grey cloak . . .

"The Grey Lady" would be at home in an adult collection. It piles supernatural terror on top of Dickensian social horrors, and its ending is disturbingly ambiguous.

The Doll - Terry Tap
I'm a firm believer that the evil doll is one of the most reliable themes for a horror story. This time the doll in question once belonged to Anna, an unfortunate girl whose parents sent her to boarding school for setting fire to her room. Anna said it was the doll's fault, but of course no one believed her. In the present, another Anna finds the doll and soon discovers that its hair grows, it bleeds when cut, and it can start fires when left unattended. Will the doll get the better of another Anna?

[cauldronbrewer]

A final set of favorites:

Mr. Jones - Mary Danby
Stuffy Mr. Jones works as the butler at Hartswell Manor. He previously served at nearby Stanton Manor, but switched jobs after his wife ran off. Eddie and Eileen, son and daughter of the cook and chauffer, notice that a ghastly stench clings to Mr. Jones clothes’ and especially his sheet. Upon further investigation, they discover that the butler has a dirty secret and that the sheet has a mind of its own. Impressively revolting for a children’s anthology!

The Servant - Alison Prince
Young Ginny thinks that her mother bosses her around like a servant. After a bicycling mishap, however, she falls under the spell of a mysterious old woman and discovers what life as a servant was really like in the old days. Can Ginny break the spell? She’s trapped in an Alison Prince story, so don’t count on it. With a bit of license, one could call this tale a children’s version of Karl Edward Wager’s “The River of Night’s Dreaming.”

Can’t Help Laughing – Alison Prince
Here’s another gem from Prince. Any little thing sets Sophie into giggles, which annoys her teacher, Miss Webb, to no end. Seeing her as a like-minded spirit, a ghost with a grudge against Miss Webb does its best to crack up Sophie. It succeeds—first in one sense, and then in another.

Honorable mentions: Ruth Cameron’s The Ghostly Gardeners (in which skeletal monks keep hidden horticultural lore), Ken Burke’s The Return of the Lorelei (another traditional tale, this time about a ghost ship with a crew bent on revenge), and Mary Danby’s The Ghost Writer (a story within a story featuring a boy who finds himself pinned beneath the lid of a tomb bearing the inscription, “May he rest in peace. Take care if he do not.”).

[dem]

Well done, CB! I invariably enjoy your synopses and am glad to see this glorified stub of a thread finally kick-started into life. Rematch is now underway. Already besmirched the reputations of several of the stories elsewhere on dubious message bore. The Train Watchers, The Third Eye, The Junk Room, 'Gibsons', The Ghost Writer, The Longest Journey and Can't Help Laughing in Armada Ghost 14. Rosemary Timperley's 'The Devil's Swishes' contender The Sinister Schoolmaster reappears in The Bumper Book Of Ghost Stories (as does Ann Pilling's 'Gibsons'. The fact that only two from The Green Ghost show up in the later selection is what made me wonder if they share an editor). Mary Danby's Mr. Jones comes under the microscope on Party Pieces promo thread.

So, onwards, and next out of the grab-bag, two hits, two misses ....

Mary Danby - Lorimer's Bride: It's the Hope-Massie's annual Easter party and among the guests, young Elizabeth Fletcher whose la-di-da parents are keen to find her an affluent husband. To this end, the hosts have thoughtfully provided Elizabeth with an escort for the evening: Hubert Glossington may be a dentally and mentally challenged upper class twit but he comes from good stock and his parents are loaded! After a miserable evening of failing to evade Hubert's clutches, Elizabeth hopes her luck has changed when a dashingly handsome gent signals for her to join him in the garden. It hasn't. Lord Lorimer, a century drowned, roughly escorts her to the lake. By the time they get there, he's fast losing his looks ....

Alison Prince - The Baby-Sitter: Lonely, childless old Mr. Pope has been longing to babysit young Nigel and finally gets his opportunity when the regular child-minder, Aunt Betty, falls ill. Mr. Pope has an ulterior motive. He's been dying to unburden himself of a bedtime story concerning Hacky Basham's Glass Eye ....

Sydney J. Bounds - The Haunted Circus: She's a flop on the high-wire but Dianne finally gets to shine as a performer thanks to the intervention of the late Charlie the clown. Even the Syd competist in me says 'you could live without it.' Confuse with the same author's mighty The Circus at your peril!

Anon - Teeny-Tiny: Vertically-challenged woman finds stray bone in graveyard and takes it home to make soup. The owner arrives to claim it. You cannot believe how inordinately irritating i found this short-short on first acquaintance. Now it's just a case of shrug shoulders, move on.

[cauldronbrewer]

Apr 4, 2012 8:41:12 GMT dem said:

Sydney J. Bounds - The Haunted Circus: She's a flop on the high-wire but Dianne finally gets to shine as a performer thanks to the intervention of the late Charlie the clown. Even the Syd competist in me says 'you could live without it.' Confused with the same author's mighty The Circus at your peril!

Anon - Teeny-Tiny: Vertically-challenged woman finds stray bone in graveyard and takes it home to make soup. The owner arrives to claim it. You cannot believe how inordinately irritating i found this short-short on first acquaintance. Now it's just a case of shrug shoulders, move on.

I had a similar reaction to "The Haunted Circus." With Bounds' "The Circus" in mind I was expecting something less tame, particularly given that the creepy circus/carnival is almost as reliable a theme as the evil doll/puppet.

I remember one of my elementary school teachers telling a variation of "Teeny-Tiny." It's odd to see it here given that (1) it's obviously aimed at a younger audience than the other stories, and (2) it's meant to be told aloud--the idea is that the storyteller talks more and more quietly, then shouts the final line to startle the little listeners. The story doesn't really work otherwise.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Apr 4, 2012 8:41:12 GMT dem said:

Anon - Teeny-Tiny: Vertically-challenged woman finds stray bone in graveyard and takes it home to make soup. The owner arrives to claim it. You cannot believe how inordinately irritating i found this short-short on first acquaintance. Now it's just a case of shrug shoulders, move on.

It is quite adjective-heavy. And it is always the same adjective.