Giles Gordon [ed] - Prevailing Spirits

[dem bones]

Giles Gordon [ed] - Prevailing Spirits: A Book of Scottish Ghost Stories (Panther, 1977: originally Hamish Hamilton, 1976)

Cover design by Ken Carroll

Forbes Bramble - Holiday
George Mackay Brown - Beliah
Elspeth Davie - The Foothold
James Allan Ford - A Kind of Possession
Antonia Fraser - Who's Been Sitting in My Car?
Clifford Hanley - The Haunted Chimley
Dorothy K. Haynes - The Curator
Angus Wolfe Murray - The Curse of Mathair Nan Uisgeachan
Robert Nye - Randal
Iain Crichton Smith - The Brothers
Fred Urquhart - Proud Lady in a Cage
Gordon Williams - The Horseshoe Inn

Biographical Notes

Blurb:

TWELVE CAPSULES OF CELTIC TERROR...
Edited by Giles Gordon

Haunting images of the strange, the sinister, and the supernatural have scarred the bleak beauty of the Scottish landscape for centuries. Here in Prevailing Spirits macabre mysteries of the unknown (both past and present) are unravelled in twelve tales of soul-freezing suspense by Scotland's most popular contemporary writers.

Devilry, death and demons galore fill the pages of this chilling collection.

Enter the corridors of fear if you dare!

Dorothy K. Haynes - The Curator: Turfed out by his landlady, George Crosbie, cantankerous curator, takes to dossing down nights at his workplace, the museum, which he shares with the ghost of a precocious girl in a pink frock who fell from the balcony while showing off. Despite himself, Crosbie takes to caring for 'Jean', but she proves dangerous to know.

Elspeth Davie - The Foothold: A haunted shoe-shop. Young Thomas is pestered beyond endurance by a problematic phantom customer craving companionship in the afterlife.

Gordon Williams - The Horseshoe Inn: Renegade sports superstar who walked out on both club and wife comes a cropper in pub purportedly haunted by the ghosts of vengeful Covenanter martyrs. Returns in Denys Val Baker [ed.]'s Stories of Haunted Inns, 1983.

Fred Urquhart - Proud Lady in a Cage: Unpleasant past life of the girl on the Woolworth's, Berwick, info desk. Currently enjoying a revival in Paul Finch [ed]'s Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands, 2021.

[dem bones]

James Allan Ford - A Kind of Possession: At the close of the Great War, young George 'Dod' Cameron returned to Edinburgh shell-shocked out of his mind, the lone survivor of his regiment. Despite his heroics, Dod is cruelly tormented by the regulars at The Crown, who find it hilarious to fill him with drink until it brings on one of his turns, whereby he hears the voice of his dead comrade, Tam Ogilvy, urging the men "Up, five, up!" into enemy gunfire. Dod meets his end on 31 December 1932 when, obeying orders to the last, he races into the path of oncoming traffic.

Forbes Bramble - Holiday: Warring couple David and Clare Clark take seven-year-old daughter Sheila on a camping holiday in the Highlands. As evening approaches David pulls up near the loch side at Sgeir an T'Uruisg, which, it transpires, is the worst move you can possibly make if you are caring for a child. Mid-argument David heads to Largiemore village for supplies. A farmer warns him to camp elsewhere, and the women in the village store warns of skull- headed seals "like grey corpses" possessed by the souls of drowned sailors. They are particularly partial to the very young .... Smart choice of opener. Some deeply unpleasant episodes including a protracted seal-clubbing which may upset a few (nobody cares what happens to people).

Robert Nye - Randal: Madge and Iseabal still set the table for brother Randal long after he's gone off boiled bacon. After dinner the sisters share a last bath — in petrol. Not sure I made sense of this story. It's creepy enough, I'll give it that.

Been good, this.

[Swampirella]

I just bought myself an inexpensive copy; looking forward to enjoying it right around Halloween.

[dem bones]

Clifford Hanley - The Haunted Chimley: Noakker Todd's latest get rich quick scheme is to fabricate a haunting on Glebe Street in Townhead, Glasgow. The locals hand over tenpence a time to hear the groaning ghost of poor Lady Arabella McGlumpher, bricked-up alive by her father in Charley Crum's kitchen. Liked it a lot.

Antonia Fraser - Who's Been Sitting In My Car?: Not long read this in Richard Dalby [ed.]'s, Virago Book of Ghost Stories: Vol II, 1991. A surprise package, quietly nasty.

Iain Crichton Smith - The Brothers: An author, ashamed of his poor Highland roots, is attempting to write a book on on Joseph, his brothers and the coat of many colours. The MS auto-translates from English to Gaelic, courtesy of the ghosts of Joseph's brothers, who vehemently dispute the version of events set down in the Bible. They despise Joseph as a traitor. Author forced to take a long hard look at his own class snobbery. The obligatory one I didn't get along with. It's probably a classic.

[dem bones]

Last of the Prevailing Spirits. Some time ago I gave up on Gordon's A Book of Contemporary Nightmares so was wary of his other anthologies. Could be I wasn't ready for it as this one has been a real treat.

George Mackay Brown - Beliah: Hubert, a weaver by trade, is convinced that one day folk will come to realise the truth, that he is, in reality, a medieval Lord, and treat him with due respect. In the meantime he'd thirty-five years into a life sentence in an asylum for the murder of his uncle. The doctors believe he has delusions of grandeur, but nothing could be further from the truth. But then, unlike Lord Hubert, these fools do not have an imaginary friend like Beliah to advise them through a crisis and punish those who earn their displeasure.

Angus Wolfe Murray - The Curse of Mathair Nan Uisgeachan: On leaving Oxford in 1930, narrator, 22, takes up his nephew's offer to spend the summer on his estate. Hugh, who recently inherited his grandfather's castle, is revelling in Lord of the Manor status. Narrator repays him by sleeping with his wife, Anne, who is thoroughly disillusioned with his lordship. His tenants, distrustful of outsiders, resistant to innovation or the slightest variance in a routine which has served them for generations, share her disdain. Anne and guest take to sleeping by the loch in the shadow of the castle. Highland legend has it that it is haunted by a murdered youth. Some centuries ago, the warrior Roderick married Shona, daughter of the Isles. The son she gave birth to looked an awful lot like Roderick's brother, Calum, but he overlooked this until the day he caught them together. Roderick cut out Calum's eyes, presented them to his unfaithful wife and hurled their boy into the weir after his real father. There have since been several drownings in the weir, each involving a ghostly youth and an adulteress. We have a good idea what's coming.