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Post by dem on Nov 11, 2022 14:41:58 GMT
Tanya Kirk [ed.] - Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights (British Library, Oct. 2022)  Mag Ruhig
A Note From The Publisher
Amelia B. Edwards - The Phantom Coach
W. W. Jacobs - Jerry Bundler
E. G. Swain - Bone to His Bone
A. M. Burrage - Oberon Road
D. H. Lawrence - The Last Laugh
E. S. Knights - Dr. Browning's Bus
Eleanor Smith - Whittington's Cat
Margaret Irwin - The Earlier Service
Howard Spring - Christmas Honeymoon
Elizabeth Bowen - The Cheery Soul
R. H. Malden - Between Sunset and Moonrise
James Hadley Chase - The Mirror in Room
Winston Graham - At the Chalet Lartrec
W. F. Harvey - Account Rendered
Mildred Clingerman - The Wild Wood
L. P. Hartley - The Waits
George Denby - Deadman's Corner
Celia Fremlin - Don't Tell Cissie Blurb: "But something odd does happen here at Christmas time. When I first heard the story, I thought it was an old wives'tale, but-well, these old houses you hear strange things-" He lifted his shoulders and stared into the fire...
From the troves of the British Library collections comes a new volume for Christmas nights — when the boundary between the mundane and the unearthly is ever so thin — ushering in a new throng of revenants, demons, spectres and shades drawn to the glow of the hearth. Included within are eighteen classic stories ranging from 1864 to 1974, with vintage Victorian chillers nestled alongside unsettling modern pieces from L. P. Hartley and Mildred Clingerman; lost tales from rare anthologies and periodicals; weird episodes from unexpected authors such as Winston Graham and D. H. Lawrence; stories simmering with a twisted humour from Elizabeth Bowen and Celia Fremlin and many more haunting seasonal treats. Latest of the Tales of the Weird Christmas selections. Strong line-up. Inclusion of a certain story makes this particularly attractive to me ....  Evening Standard 10 May 1955 : ( London Magazine, Dec. 1924). Shortly before Christmas, Michael Cubbitt, middle-aged lawyer, breaks the habit of a lifetime by speaking to a stranger on the train journey home. Cubbitt is incensed that a through lane to his house is under repair. His fellow passenger asks why not take Oberon Road instead, first on your left before you reach Norman Road? The man is an imbecile! There is no such road! Except ... tonight there is, and most appealing it is, too. A lazy comparison, but essentially, this is A. M. Burrage's A Christmas Carol in miniature. George Denby - Deadman's Corner: ( Illustrated London News, Christmas 1963). A nightwatchman's fire attracts a visitor down from the hill (nowt up there but a cemetery and the footpath to Crowley). The stranger, in cheery mood, reminds the security man that a notorious highwayman was hung, drawn and quartered at this very bend in the road. It's been haunted by a succession of ghosts ever since. James Hadley Chase - The Mirror In Room 22: ( RAF Journal, 1 Dec. 1944: as by Squadron Leader R Raymond). Six officers enduring Christmas in a remote country house seemingly plagued by a phantom hound. A visiting Wing Commander confirms the property is most horribly haunted by a suicide. Also available in Peter Haining's Mammoth Book of 20th Century Ghost Stories (thought it seemed familiar).
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Post by humgoo on Nov 11, 2022 15:46:12 GMT
Evening Standard 10 May 1955 Thank you very much for this piece of news-cutting! Haven't seen this photo before. Also didn't know that story. |
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Post by dem on Nov 12, 2022 10:42:26 GMT
 S. Howell, I'm Sure It Was Number 31, Evening Standard, 10 May 1955). Evening Standard 10 May 1955 Thank you very much for this piece of news-cutting! Haven't seen this photo before. Also didn't know that story. It accompanied the first publication of "I'm Sure It Was Number 31," as later resurfaced in Richard Dalby's The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories. A generous fellow named Sam (aka 'Bobby J') posted several ES ghosts & fantasy shorts on Pulp Scans. I only fluked on the Burrage mini-biog while seeking out 'true' ghost stories pertaining to Harrow Weald & environs. First I heard he'd lived in the borough. Back with Haunters at the Hearth. Could resist no longer. E. S. Knights - Dr. Browning's Bus: (Charles Lloyd [ed.], Horrors, 1933). Dr. Browning retires to Eastman's Farm, near Denbeigh, Essex, as recently inherited from a relative. The doctor mocks his housekeeper's insistence that the fields are haunted by the ghost of a vicious fellow known as the farmer. One foul Christmas night Browning is called upon to pay a mercy visit to an ailing woman. How fortunate that the bus should be running out of hours! Of three gloomy passengers, he recognises two as no longer of the earth ... |
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Post by humgoo on Nov 14, 2022 3:09:21 GMT
E. S. Knights - Dr. Browning's Bus: (Charles Lloyd [ed.], Horrors, 1933) It's a pleasant surprise to see a Creeps here indeed! |
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Post by dem on Nov 14, 2022 11:22:13 GMT
E. S. Knights - Dr. Browning's Bus: (Charles Lloyd [ed.], Horrors, 1933) It's a pleasant surprise to see a Creeps here indeed! Best thing is, it's one of the few from Horrors Van Thal didn't plunder for the 3rd Book of Pan Horror stories. As the editor mentions in the notes, Edward S. Knights authored Essex folk: Tales from Village, Farm and Marsh (Heath Cranton, 1935) which according to a contemporary review, "Describes old-time rural life of the countryside, market days and auction sales, poachers and gypsies, hay-time and harvest, while the quiet humour of old labourers and farmers finds a place beside tales of days when smugglers and smuggling, witchcraft and ghosts served to add a thrill to the rounds of rural life." Mildred Clingerman - The Wild Wood: ( MFSF, Jan 1957). Margaret Abbot attracts the unwanted attentions of Mr. Cravolini, proprietor of the Christmas Tree emporium, while shopping with husband Dan and the children. Somehow, Dan remains oblivious to Cravolini's unseemly behaviour toward his wife, even when he presses upon her an obscene flesh coloured candle. Margaret grows increasingly terrified of Cravolini, his trees, and his obese, cretinous daughter, confined to a room at back of the shop so as not to frighten away custom, but still, every December they return, until ... W. F. Harvey - Account Rendered: ( The Arm of Mrs. Egan & Other Stories, 1951). When Sir Jarvis Effington succumbs a fatal overdose, his librarian and private secretary, Charles Spenser Newcombe, inherits all — this despite censure from the judge at inquest who clearly suspects foul play. Henceforth, come the anniversary of the tragedy, Newcombe prevails upon a succession of doctors to administer an anaesthetic. This, he claims, is integral to a psychological "experiment" that requires he be insensible — and therefore unavailable to any passing strange old men in skullcaps — between 11. 45 pm and 00.15am The Wild Wood is well creepy. Very worth a read, I'd have said. |
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Post by helrunar on Nov 14, 2022 19:03:05 GMT
It's good to see a story by W. F. Harvey included that isn't "August Heat" or "The Beast with Five Fingers." I looked at Harvey's page and several of his story titles sound right up my street. May need to investigate.
Have never heard of Mildred Clingerman and I'm even more intrigued by what you note about her tale!
cheers, Hel.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 14, 2022 19:43:22 GMT
It's good to see a story by W. F. Harvey included that isn't "August Heat" or "The Beast with Five Fingers." Wordsworth put out an entire Harvey collection. It must be around here somewhere. |
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Post by dem on Nov 14, 2022 19:58:11 GMT
It's good to see a story by W. F. Harvey included that isn't "August Heat" or "The Beast with Five Fingers." Wordsworth put out an entire Harvey collection. It must be around here somewhere. (Wordsworth, 2009). |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 14, 2022 20:13:03 GMT
I meant it must be around here in my home somewhere, but sure. |
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Post by dem on Nov 17, 2022 16:00:46 GMT
Winston Graham - At the Chalet Lartrec: ( John Bull, 31 May 1947). Major Frederick Vane get lost in a snow blizard while driving in the Bernina Alps. He calls at a farm; sorry, every room taken, but he might like to try his luck at Chalet Lartrec? The lady of the house answers his rap on the door. Her husband is adamant they are closed for the season, but eventually relents when Vane stubbornly refuses to budge from the doorstep. Helene, the wife, is in tears, prompting the host to apologise to their guest should they appear inhospitable. They suffered much during the Nazi occupation on account of Helene's first husband, a collaborator, who prospered financially from his treachery. Christmas holds the most painful memories. Two blackly comic items. Elizabeth Bowen - The Cheery Soul: ( MF&SF, April 1952: original version, The Listener, 24 Dec. 1942). A Midland village during the early 1940's. The narrator, facing a Christmas alone, is delighted to receive a surprise invite from young Mr Rangerton-Karney and his two sisters to spend the holiday as their guest. Bowen [presumably] cycles over the find the house empty but for the Rangerton-Karney grouchy Italian aunt. In truth, the invitation was issued as cover while the trio - facing exposure as spies and enemy collaborators - attempt an escape. They have been under surveillance since the previous Christmas Eve, when their cook - the cheery soul of the title - much the worse for drink, fell in the canal and drowned, but not before alerting those she passed on the way to the menace posed by her employers. A second ghost - that of a phantom dinner - roasts in the oven. Celia Fremlin - Don't Tell Cissie: ( By Horror Haunted, 1974: Mary Danby [ed.], 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural, 1979). Narrator Lois and Rosemary resolve to hunt the "ghost" said to haunt the latter's newly acquired weekend cottage. For obvious reasons, it is imperative they conceal their intentions from mutual friend, Cecily Curtis, a well-meaning accident-prone disaster on legs.
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Post by dem on Nov 19, 2022 10:55:52 GMT
"I am an architect, and that doesn't make me love London any the more. Every time I come down to the place I find it has eaten another chunk of its beauty, so as to make more room for the fascias of multiple shops." Howard Spring - Christmas Honeymoon: ( The Queen's Book of the Red Cross, 1939).A whirlwind romance. Edward Oldham, Manc architect, and Ruth Hutton, typist, meet at a glitzy London cocktail party on December 21, marries the following morning and honeymoon in Cornwall. Finding "grey, inhospitable" Truro not to their liking, the happy couple press on to Falmouth. Night falls. A fog cuts them off on the treacherous moors. Through more luck than judgement they reach a tiny chocolate-box village but recently abandoned at a moment's notice ... "The remarkable thing about what happened to me and Ruth was simply that Nothing happened. If you have never come up against Nothing you have no idea how it can scare you out of your wits." A wonderful story I'd not previously read. Also available in Denys Val Baker [ed.] Haunted Cornwall (1973) and Peter Haining [ed.] The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories, 2007. Eleanor Smith - Whittington's Cat: ( Satan's Circus, 1934). Inspired by a set of spangled prints purchased on impulse from a curiosity shop, Martin, 25, starts work on a first book, Pantomime throughout the Ages, despite having no prior knowledge of, or particular interest in the subject. By way of research, he attends the Burford Hippodrome throughout panto season (the programme girls openly wonder at his sexuality). The book is a non-starter; the shows pass uneventfully until one horrible night a figure in shaggy black onesie climbs up into the stalls to humiliate Martin before the audience. So begins a merciless persecution .... |
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 78
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Post by toff on Nov 19, 2022 15:27:16 GMT
Partly out of self-interest, I'm glad the BL has been focusing less upon the Victorian era in their Christmas ghost anthologies. However, it's also useful in showing that the tradition continued to exist.
How is it there's never been a Crabs for Christmas short story at least?
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