Classic Ghost Stories

Join Tony as we explore Edward Bulwer-Lytton's classic short story, 'The House & The Brain'. This captivating tale, first published in 1859, follows a narrator as he investigates the strange occurrences in a haunted house. The story is notable for its suspenseful atmosphere, its examination of the power of the human mind, and its timeless themes. This is an engaging listen for those interested in the Gothic horror genre."

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Rosemary Timperley was born in 1920 in North London and died in November 1988. Her father was an architect and her mother a teacher. Timperley went to her local girls school and became a teacher herself. 

She taught English and History in a state school. Her pupils said she was a very dramatic figure (she ran the drama club) and wore long swirling black dresses with long drop or hoop earrings.

In 33 years, she published 66 novels and several hundred short stories. However, her ghost stories are the ones that people remember the most. 

She was editor of various editions of the Pan Ghost Book, including the 5th. This story The Mistress In Black was taken from that book published 1969.

Many of her short stories were published in magazines such as The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, and The Atlantic Monthly. Timperley's work often dealt with supernatural and paranormal themes, and she was considered a master of the ghost story genre. She also wrote several non-fiction books and articles on subjects such as writing and the supernatural. Timperley passed away in 1988.

While she was a teacher she began to submit her stories to magazine and they began to be accepted. She became a staff writer and agony aunt on the magazine Reveille. She lived in Richmond, Surrey  for many years. Many of her stories are set in London.

During the Second World War she worked at the Citizens’ Advice Bureau in Kensington, London. She got married to a Physics teacher in 1952 and they lived in Essex just outside London. They separated in the early 1960s according to some sources, but they appear to have been officially married until his death in 1968.

Timperley managed to travel widely across the world despite her hectic writing schedule, visiting Italy (a number of her works are set in Venice), Morocco, Belgium, Russia, and Greece. 

Timperley's publisher, Robert Hale, stated that her first-hand knowledge of other nations and diversified work experience inspired her novels, plays, and short tales. Indeed, Timperley is believed to have worked as a waitress, a counter assistant in a police canteen, a typewriter, and an artist's model before becoming a freelance writer. Timperley had to spend several months in the hospital in 1964 because of a serious illness. 

Timperley began working as an auxilary nurse in a Surrey hospital shortly after this life-changing encounter. Her time in this industry surely influenced works such as The Tragedy Business (1969), The Haunted Garden (1966), and The Washers-Up (1967). (1968). She was also inspired by her experience as a teacher, as evident by the fact that children play a significant role in most of her work. Furthermore, the background of her first two novels is thought to have been inspired by her own childhood experience at Hornsey High School. 

Timperley spent much of her life in the London suburb of Richmond, and many of her stories are set there. Timperley was well-versed in London, and her novels, in particular, contain numerous references to various locales in the city. Reading her anecdotes, it's clear that Timperley travelled by tube and bus a lot, avoiding the use of a car  and, while being city born and bred, loved open landscapes and desired to live an uncluttered, "carefree" existence.

In 1961 she mentions she is living in an old-fashioned flat and living on coffee, pink-gin and cigarettes. 

She lived a quite, reclusive life until her death

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Edith Wharton's "Afterward" is a haunting and evocative audiobook. It is about a young woman named Mary Boyne, who moves with her husband into an old house at Lyng and jokes about whether or not it has a ghost. It does, her friend admits, but you won't notice it for a long time.

The narrator's voice will immerse you in the story, adding to the eerie atmosphere, making it an unforgettable listening experience.

Don't miss out on this classic ghost story from the pen of one of America's greatest authors, and experience the story like never before in its audiobook form.

I must admit that ChatGTP wrote the last two paragraphs. It wrote a lot of nonsense about the story being about a ghost of a maid who died in a fire and it got the heroine’s name wrong, but otherwise it was fun.

ChatGTP has my back. It wrote:

"Calling all ghost story enthusiasts! 

Are you looking for a spook-tacular way to support your favorite narrator and gain access to an ad-free library of nearly 200 stories? 

Look no further! By signing up for my Patreon, you'll not only be supporting my work, but you'll also be gaining access to exclusive perks such as a member's only audio story every month, the ability to join the Classic Ghost Stories podcast chatroom on Discord and the chance to talk to me on the fortnightly book club. 

But that's not all, you'll also be joining a community of like-minded ghost story lovers who share your passion. 

Don't miss out on this hauntingly good deal. Sign up for my Patreon today, and thank you to all my supporters who already have!"

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Despite the title, this is not a supernatural story. It was requested by Leigh Grieveson, one of my patrons.  I struggled to find a copy so in the end, he photographed his and sent the pictures to me and I read the story from the jpeg files.

It’s a story in the vein of Boomerang, in that it is the 1940s tale of white Europeans out in the jungle of the colonies. There is a zombie but it’s not what you think.

W Stanley Moss, or Billy Moss was a colourful figure who died of alcoholism aged only 44 in Jamaica. He was born in Japan the son of a white Russian countess and a British businessman. He lived a life of adventure and exploration, joining the British army and then the covert sabotage unit SOE, under whose auspices he captured a Nazi general in Crete.

He lived in a mansion in Cairo while in SOE and his and his Polish countess wife entertained the spies and special forces. He was a friend of kings and noblemen.

After the war he researched what had happened the Nazi gold and undertook expeditions to Antarctica and Tahiti.

He was a sort of Ian Fleming-James Bond-Patrick Leigh Fermor-Ralph Fiennes type chap and wrote very competent rip-roaring adventures for boys.

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Thank you to Steven Shipman for recommending this story.

The Lonesome Place was published by August Derleth in 1962 in a collection known as Lonesome Places.

You can still find copies but they are expensive.

I read the story and then say how great I thought it was followed by various rambles into barely related subjects.

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The Shadow by E Nesbit is a masterful story of an apparition that signifies death. It is set in a large house with servants in England at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th Century.  A Christmas party was held in the old manor house, the men have gone to billiards and left a group of young women to tell ghost stories. Then Miss Eastwich, the housekeeper is invited in and tells a real ghost story of her own.

E. Nesbit was a famous and prolific woman writer for children who had a sideline in creepy ghost stories.

The Shadow is a great story for Christmas or any other time. I really enjoyed reading it for you.

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Dickens's second Christmas story is called "The Chimes." The main character in this story is an old messenger Toby Veck who has lost hope in people. 

He is drawn to a church's bell tower, where he meets the ghosts of the bells and the goblins who help them. He learns through a series of visions why he shouldn't give up hope that people can change for the better.

Though called a Christmas Story, it actually happens on New Year's Eve and a big theme of the story is closing off the business of the New Year and looking forward with hope to the new one.

Again, Dickens's sympathies lie with the impoverished working classes whom he paints (on the whole) as kind to each other and human as opposed to the wealthy who are seen as shallow, hypocritical and cruel.

Buy my A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Audiobook!

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Frederick McCarthy Forsyth CBE is an English author and journalist. He was born on August 25, 1938.

A former RAF pilot and investigative journalist, created the modern thriller when he wrote The Day of The Jackal

He is best known for thrillers like The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra, and The Kill List.

Forsyth's books are often on lists of the best-selling books, and more than a dozen of them have been made into movies. By 2006, more than 70 million copies of his books had been sold in more than 30 languages.

The Shepherd tells the story of a De Havilland Vampire pilot who is going home on Christmas Eve, 1957. On the way from RAF Celle in northern Germany to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, his plane loses all of its electricity. He gets lost in fog over the North Sea and is almost out of gas when he runs into a De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber that seems to have been sent up to "shepherd" him in.

The main themes of the story are how he is guided to a safe landing and how he tries to find the pilot who saved him.

Forsyth wrote this original piece as a Christmas present for his first wife Carrie, who had asked him to write her a ghost story. The story was written on Christmas Day, 1974, and came out around the same time the next year. The idea came to the author when he was trying to think of a setting that wasn't a haunted house and saw planes flying overhead. Many people have thought that the references were to old RAF stories. Even though Forsyth is a former RAF pilot and could have heard and changed such a story (whether on purpose or not), no references or personal stories have been given to back up such claims.

Since 1979, the story has been told on the Canadian news show As It Happens on CBC Radio One. It is always read by Alan Maitland and is always on the last episode, which is always on or before Christmas Eve. As it Happens had a 50th anniversary special in 2018, and Carol Off, Michael Enright, and Tom Power read lines from The Shepherd to honour the tradition.

On December 14, 2014, in London, at St. Clement Danes, the Central Church of the Royal Air Force, actor Nigel Anthony put on an original version of The Shepherd by Amber Barnfather, complete with music and sound effects. Frederick Forsyth opened the show, which raised money for the RAF Benevolent Fund. David Chilton was in charge of the sound, and the Saint Martin Singers sang a cappella pieces.

John Travolta confirmed in 2022 that he is making a movie version of The Shepherd right now.

Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Audiobook

If you like my voice and want to support my work, get my narration of this Christmas Classic here
https://theclassicghoststoriespodcast.bandcamp.com/album/a-christmas-carol-by-charles-dickens

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One of my own stories, specially written for Christmas 2022. It’s a very personal story, and you may find it a little sentimental, but it is my Christmas present to those listeners who are happy to receive it from me.

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Get the Book that this story comes from
https://amzn.to/3Uu4kGX (affiliate link)

A most wonderful Christmas Ghost story. I know I tend to over-enthuse, but Green Holly by Elizabeth Bowen is, for me, one of the best ghost stories in English from the mid-20th Century.

Bowen removes ghosts from their history of clanking and scaring and contrasts them with the ordinary world or ordinary importance (the war effort in 1944) and suggests that our aspirations for romance and glamour are phantasms, which nevertheless we prefer to real life.

See what you think.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899 to 1973-Dublin). Bowen believed in ghosts and other strange things. Her stories about England during World War I. Bowen did not just sit back and watch the war. She was an air raid warden. When bombs fell, she walked her route to make sure people were in shelters and had turned off their lights. When she was writing her stories, it wasn't at all clear who would win the war. Bowen later said that she had never felt more alive than when the blitz was going on.


Download my narrations of some stories at my Bandcamp site
https://theclassicghoststoriespodcast.bandcamp.com/

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