Classic Ghost Stories

Part Four of The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver OnionsPart 4 of The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onion starts off with another philosophical discourse by the unseen narrator. I'm not clear whether these are Paul Oleron's thoughts, or the narrator's observations. He talks about a letter dropped, disregarded that lies, and I guess this refers to a letter from a well-wisher, probably Elsie Bengough.But I'm not sure what these high falutin' reflections add to the story.I wonder whether Oliver Onions, unlike Paul Oleron was torn between writing popular stories for the paying public, and aiming at literary praise from the high minded for his observations of the human condition.However, in this musing where we get a description of the telegram boy turning away from the unanswered door, we also have reference to a succubus.And a succubus as I quote from Google is: a female demon believed to have sexual intercourse with sleeping men.Though the intercourse in Oleron's case seems to be more a spiritual vampirism.The Beckoner appears to be a kind of muse gone wrong. A true muse of a male artist is conceived to be female, a personification of his soul, his anima, if you like. But this true muse inspires the artist and becomes a channel through which he brings down wisdom from his soul and puts it in his art. Even this true muse may be jealous, but the Beckoner is wholly wicked. She gives nothing in return for his sick love of her. She merely drains him.Socrates talked of daemons (an idea taken up by Philip Pullman of course) who are spiritual creates to guard and inspire us. But the Beckoner does neither thing. The closest she gets is to give him dreams of the perfect novels he might write.Even though Oleron propitiates the Beckoner with flowers, as a man might give his lover, they decay and die. This seems to be a symbol, or a warning. The fact the blinds are red and plunge the room into a red twilight reminiscent blood, also seems a warning of the terrible nature of his transformation.The next part of XI is of Oleron's ruminations. Mainly he is plunged into hatred of Elsie Bengough, which appears to be the Beckoner's jealousy. He in his turn is jealous of his dead rival, the painter Madley.Sometimes, he seems to see Elsie as his rescuer. He remembers that she wouldn't leave him. And of course she doesn't. This is a foreshadowing. It is described vaguely but he hints at his thoughts have enabled and ignited the terrible jealousy of the Beckoner against Elsie.Part 12, is from the omniscient narrator's point of view and we get relief from Oleron's internal ramblings with a bit of a semi-comic interlude of Mr Barrett going on about the imagined fornication with Elsie. He does this even down to the Christ's quote about the prostitute which Christ meant with love and charity, but Barrett turns to serve his own narrow minded prejudice, and Barrett's sanctimonius refusal to disclose whether his wife saw anything going on as if he was a man who chose to remain silent on moral issues.Onions paints this picture of the self-righteous religious bigot very well and I enjoyed reading Barrett's lines.Part 12 is a breath of fresh air as the coppers open the windows. No more interminable introspection but instead we have narrative movement, drama, dialogue and a twist at the end. The story ends well. It could have been cut by two thirds though to its improvement.So, did Oleron kill Elsie or did the ghost? The ghost seems able to do physical things, like weaken the stairboard and replace the rusty nail. The pudding sized thing (think of a figgy pudding at Christmas, round, about the size of a ball) is probably her heart aSupport the show

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Part Three of The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver OnionsThis section comprises parts 8, 9 and 10 of The Beckoning Fair One.I find the first section of 8 a bit long, and if I'd been his editor, I would have cut it. That's the bit where he muses somewhat abstractly with long words about this and that.However, the next bit when Elsie comes round and they go on the bus is excellent. Not from a ghost story point of view, but just as a snapshot of an awkward conversation between two former friends. Elsie comes off by far the better person. He then starts to talk about women who earn their own living and how they sacrifice their womanliness and open themselves to failed love affairs with the men they mix with in a man's world. He even pretends to be understanding of this predicament, but Elsie sees right through him. Oleron becomes increasingly pathetic. She, on the other hand, is pretty magnificent. She is caring and thoughtful, and he's just an idiot.Onions does this exceptionally well.Section 9 begins with Oleron's visit to the vicar. From this, he learns that his predecessor Mr Madley died in the house of starvation twelve or so years previously. We infer from this that he too was a victim of that deadly muse, or anti-muse, the Beckoning Fair One. After that, he goes home and tries to summon the spirit. From here on in, the ghost begins to look ambiguous. Where it seemed to be clearly a spirit that was jealous and would brook no rival in Elsie Bengough, from here, I can see that readers might think that Oleron is merely going mad. He is now deliberately courting the female spirit that inhabits his house or his mind."Whatever it was which he so patiently wooed, it seemed to be both shy and exacting."He sits and waits for the spirit, but when she doesn't come, he considers making her jealous and even considers sending for Elsie to do that job. It is some slight recommendation of him that even he dismisses that as a wheel to break a butterfly on. He decides to go to the country to teach her a lesson, and from now on sounds increasingly lunatic.He tries to fool the Beckoner to appear by pretending to go to bed. And then, when he searches for his slippers, he sees her reflection in the glass of a photo frame. She brushes her hair with his old comb. I can't imagine any woman would use my comb to comb her hair, but times were different then, I suppose.Section 10 paints a picture of him becoming increasingly reclusive. We already had a hint that this is his fate from the fate of the previous tenant, the painter Madley. Oleron is still in love with the spirit. We see that its malign influence grows on him and he becomes agoraphobic. He doesn't even go out for food or flowers any longer and chooses to stay in his house throughout. Onions may have had some experience of agoraphobia because his description of it is spot on.He calls out "Romilly" as if he thinks the ghost is the heroine of his novel. Either that or the spirit has made him believe that. We now see him increasingly labile in his emotions, happy and sad. Then he thinks he sees Elsie Bengough's skirt in his house. His worry is not for Elsie's safety here, I guess. He says that her being there would have compromised him horribly. I guess he means that the Beckoner would have been jealous and it would have ruined his chances with her. The mad ranting about this search for the Beckoner being his real work reminded me of https://player.captivate.fm/episode/08a6766c-18ad-4ec7-9c1c-a6918e7306a6 (Poe) or The https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a9e021f7-af89-499d-bdde-779d2afe5b54 (Yellow Wallpaper) or the https://player.captivate.fm/episode/60579769-c11Support the show

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Part Two of The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver OnionsThe first part of section five of The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions has him sitting in the house listening to the noises and from nowhere he begins to muse that someone in the future might have an impression of a ghost that was started by his presence. This section achieves two things; firstly it sets up the ghost, and secondly it strengthen's the idea that the house itself has a personality and a life. That only becomes more evident as the story progresses.As I read, listen and edit, I am struck again by how hollow are the claims of those critics who say this is not a ghost story. This is a ghost story indeed! My evidence is first; the nail that scratches Elsie Bengough's arm. Oleron knows he took all the nails out. And after this incident, he looks at her and realises for the first time, that she is in love with him. What an idiot! But then, he is a man and many men aren't very sensitive about these things. But then, I should probably only speak for myself on this.The Beckoning Fair One is as much a love story as it is a ghost story. We saw this mixture of love and monsters in https://player.captivate.fm/episode/fcca7910-00c4-4a91-a799-eceb808cc1fa (The Yellow Sign). However, the realisation that she loves him creates a mixed emotion in Oleron. I like to think this represents a war between the real Oleron, when he feels compassion and pity, and almost love for Elsie, and the spirit of the house that's invading him and making him resentful of Elsie. Either way, both his compassion that she should not suffer more from unrequited love, and the prompting of the jealous house join together in his resolution to encourage Elsie not to come back. The house woman is winning.When Elise can't keep away, she puts her foot through the stair. Oleron is clear that the woodwork was old but fine. It's the ghost again striking out to hurt Elsie.Elsie's comment is that she's getting fat. For me, that really humanises her. She's an ordinary, flawed woman, not some dream of a spirit woman. I often think that men would do well to take this lesson on board. They spend their lives running after dream women and spurn real women.Elsie says, "Let me go, I'm not wanted!"Neither by Oleron, nor the house. Then he tries to tell her how dear she is to him. Quite rightly she tells him not to patronize her.We get an insight into the narrow-minded Christianity of Barret, very quick to misunderstand and condemn without asking any questions about this. I suppose that this is a hot topic for me now because I just listened to a podcast episode with Damien Echols how he served 18 years on death row in Arkansas for a crime he didn't commit because he was alternative and different in his small, narrow-minded town.  https://batgap.com/damien-echols/ (It's a good listen)Elsie goes, Oleron decides he won't even sit down if she comes to visit, in order to get her to leave quickly. And then, he becomes anxious for her physical safety. This ghost is mean, and he knows it. At this point, he is far from seduced by the Beckoning Fair One. However, he does let himself down. When he imagines her suicide, his first thought it that he might get blamed! And then he thinks he an't marry her because she's ugly! What a cad.the silkly rustle and the brushing sound must surely be a ghost!The noise scares him to death and he goes the pub, acting out of character, but the brandy and the human contact serve to ground him a little. He decided he will go back and not be chased out of the house by the ghost. I think this incident is his last chance. This would have been his opportunity to escape, aSupport the show

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The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver OnionsBecause this story is actually a novella, I am splitting it probably into three episodes much as I did for Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu.I'm doing The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions for a couple of reasons. Firstly, of course it is a classic ghost story and has been described as a 'cut above' the standard ghost story.This episode represents sections 1-4 of the story.We have done an Oliver Onions story before: The Cigarette Case https://player.captivate.fm/episode/cba2b2e7-9ece-4767-803e-895ebbd34880 (Episode 36)Onions is a lyrical writer and this story is a slow burn. He gives some lovely descriptions of his new flat and the life of the square outside with its school children, cats and dogs and occasional mandolin player.He actually reminds me of Proust. Now, if I was to read out Proust, I'd be at it for the rest of my life.Oliver conjoures Elsie Bengough and is not wholly kind about her. She's a bloomy, pink, moist, lady. In fact, she turns out to the voice of reason, but that's for future episodes.I note again Onions's hidden Welshness. Apart from the fact he's got a Welsh surname: Ab Enion; he has intimate knowledge of a Meirionethshire accent, which I enjoyed doing. I have friends from Meirionydd, you see. And he calls Elsie, Elsie Bengough, which is clearly Welsh, Bengoch, red head; even though she's not ginger. The ghostly influence is wonderfully subtle. We see it at first changing his taste. He furnishes and paints the flat at first elder-flower pale, but then gets strange ideas about introducing more colour. We wonder where these promptings come from.Then he can't work. Ultimately, he dislikes his life's work novel Romilly Bishop. The Reason he doesn't like it is because the main character Romilly is based on Elsie Bengough, his sort-of long-term girlfriend. Is the ghost trying to oust him out?Then he finds a piece of material which he can't identify, but which Elsie Bengough tells him is a harp cover.Then the dripping tap subtly insinuates a tune into his head which he begins to hum and Mrs Barrett recognses as The Beckoning Fair One.Critics have called this the best classic ghost story ever and other say it isn't a ghost story; much like The https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a9e021f7-af89-499d-bdde-779d2afe5b54 (Yellow Wallpaper) or https://player.captivate.fm/episode/60579769-c11c-46ee-b4e3-cad8b6778d37 (The Horla).However, personally, I do think it's a ghost story. The build up is too deliberate for it all to be chance: the changes in his taste, the artefacts he finds; the harp case for example. For me these carry the energy of The Beckoning Fair One, and she's out to ensnare him.Then there's Elsie Bengough's prescient comment just before the end of Section 3: Who else lives here? She's had an intuition that the house is not deserted; that there's someone or something living there with him. Elsie also has the intuition that the ghost will never allow Oleron to finish Romilly Bishop in that house. She won't because she's jealous that the heroine of Romillyis modelled on Elsie Bengough and the ghost is jealous.It is during the subtle dripping of the tap; the dripping that he later realises introduced the tune of The Beckoning Fair One that he starts to criticise Elsie Bengough so sharply in tones he has never entertained before. I think Onions intends all of this. Oleron is being hypnotised, in my opinion, by the spirit of the houseWho is this Beckoning Fair One and what does she want of him?You'll have to keep listening to find out.Music by The Heartwood InstituteYou can listen to the album from which this is taken https://theheartwSupport the show

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M R JamesThis is the third story we've done by M R James, previous ones being https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a39d795e-df46-4123-a0bb-a12dec71069f (The Experiment) and Episode 3: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a39d795e-df46-4123-a0bb-a12dec71069f (Whistle and I'll Come to You).We talked about James the man there. In a nutshell, he was an academic who had jobs at Eton College and Cambridge University. The heroes of his stories tend to be dusty old academics like himself. He is considered the godfather of the English ghost story, credited for moving the genre from the Gothic to a more modern incarnation. The MezzotintThe Mezzotint was published in 1904 as part of James's collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The story is a simple one. An academic, Mr Williams, has a job of collecting prints of English country houses and such scenes for his University college. This is such a narrow and particular job it's a wonder to think that anyone had some a restricted role. He receives a catalogue from his dealer with a suggestion that he might like this particular mezzotint with a price tag of two guineas which seems exorbitant for such an amateur work. But as different people look at the mezzotint, it improves in quality and seems to be playing out a story. This leads to a detective investigation to find out where it is and the history of the place portrayed. So, there are two streams to the story: the rational detective work and the supernatural events unfolding in the picture which are quite demonic. James is famous for eschewing the cosy ghost story. He wanted his stories to be nasty. He has a real gift for introducing odd and jarring elements into his story which are disintinctly unnerving. There is something about the description of the figure, whose face is obscured apart from a domed forehead and some straggling hairs.And of course the theft of a child. Children coming to harm is always a nasty element. When the real-world investigation turns up the story of Francis having the poacher Gawdy hung and Gawdy promising revenge, it seems that the only explanation is that Gawdy returned after his death to exact his revenge. The other delightful aspect of the story is the series of in-jokes. James used to read his stories aloud to his colleagues, and so the in jokes about their obsession with golf and the snobby comments of the Sadducean Professor of Ophiology probably got some laughs. Some other features may not be familiar to the modern reader who has not been to Oxford of Cambridge, so the references to 'sporting' doors and 'skips' and 'Hall' are an insight into a world now gone outside these august establishments.New Book!Tony's latest book, London Horror Stories is available on https://amzn.to/2YSSHPb (Amazon UK) and https://amzn.to/2NgZHQu (Amazon US). Ghost and horror stories with a sense of place. https://tonywalker.substack.com/about (Subscribe For All Episodes!)Music by The Heartwood InstituteYou can listen to the album from which this is taken https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (here)Support the show

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Angus Wolfe MurrayAngus Wolfe Murray was born in 1937 and now lives at Traquair in the Scottish Borders. With his late wife he founded Canongate Publishers. He comes from a celebrated Scottish family and his details can be found in the peerage. Edcated at Eton and working as a journalist and latterly a film critic. He is still alive, and while I am glad of that, I am slightly embarrassed that I thought he had died. I had been asked to do a Scottish story and I was keen to use my Scottish accent (my father was a Scot), and I found this story in an anthology of Scottish ghost stories. We have holidayed in the Highlands the past two years and it also gave me a chance to say some words in Gaelic.My first degree was in Celtic and I spent a summer in Stornoway learning Gaelic many years ago. I can't really speak it any more though. After I had recorded the story and started researching it, I found Angus Wolfe Murray was alive and I have tried to contact him via Twitter and I see he has a dormant Facebook page. I went ahead with the reading but if anyone can contact him, and he would like the episode removed, then of course I will do that. Mathair nan UisgeachanScottish Gaelic for The Mother of the Waters. The name of the whirlpool in the loch.The story begins as a very naturalistic tale of an idealistic young man from the Scottish upper classes who returns to the family estate and appreciates the history of the Highlands. He comments on the empty glen and alludes to the Highland Clearances and the remaining Highlanders wily ways and tenacity to keep to tradition. Tradition when the clan owned everything in common and Chief was not a feudal lord, but the father of the tribe. Hugh, coming back from Toronto is a reminder of the change in attitudes where the Gaelic Clan Chiefs were Anglicised and transformed themselves into property owners as per the standard European model.Hugh is not a sympathetic character, but his Canadian wife Anne is and our unnamed narrator falls for her. A love triangle evolves, though not as far or with as grisly outcome as in last weeks's story, Oscar Cook's Boomerang.The narrator goes to see his aunt Magda in Aberdeenshire, talks late and falls asleep. Though the fact he has fallen asleep is not stated specifically. We believe he has gone back to the castle as he says, but the story gets weirder until he in fact states that he must be dreaming. It is difficult at first to disentangle which is dream and which is waking. The weirdness of the dream is full of symbols and ends with the legend of the death of Lochlann, murdered by the man who thought he was his father. The story is conveyed in dream, but the ghost Lochlann appears in the real world too. First he is seen by Magda when he is with her sister Fiona, who died, and then he is seen by the narrator himself when he is with Anne. Though probably a ghost, he has some of the flavour of the fairy folk.It seems that the curse affects women who have a child and are unfaitful to their husbands. In the legend the wife Shona was unfaithful and her child was not her husbands. I think it is possible that Anne's child was not Hughe's but was in fact conceived that day of the fishing trip, though this is not specifically mentioned.Ten-year old Fiona was drowned, presumably as part of the curse, though she had not been unfaithful and her body was found in the river, not the whirlpool.All in all though, Angus Wolfe Murray conjures the Highlands wonderfully and I kept thinking of the landscape off the A9 road that we travelled through last year on our trip to Inverness. He also manages to convey the feel of this fairy haunted land and Support the show

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Boomerang by Oscar CookFirst of all, this story was requested by Peter Denyer. To be fair he merely suggested it and I went and hunted it down, so I accept all responsiblity for the gruesomeness of it.Richard Martin Oscar Cook was born in London in 1888 and died also in London in 1952. His father owned an athletic goods company and they were fairly well-off. He seems to have been brought up in Broxbourne just outside London and his first job was a clerk there but very shortly afterwards he went to make his fortune in a rubber planation in Borneo. Unfortunately he did not get on well and was sacked, but remained in Borneo and got another job in the British Colonial Service.He was an administrator of the British Empire and worked in North Borneo from 1911 until 1918 and then had District Officer posts. This was a position in the British Colonial Service and these administrators and often magistrate was at the heart of colonial administration in the British colonies.He was married in 1924 to Christine Campbell Thomson but got divorced in 1938.When he returned to England he wrote an autobiography of his time in Borneo and thereafter wrote supernatural stories, many of which appeared in various anthologies. This story appeared in the 2nd Pan Book of Horror. I used to read those books when I was a kid, which may explain a lot.Cook bought a controlling interest in a publishing company which produced a series of horror anthologies called Not at Night which ran to twelve books.BoomerangBoomerang is usually used to refer to a weapon of wood made by the native people of Australia which reputedly returns to the person who throws it. This story Boomerang first appeared in an antholog in 1931 and was later dramatised for television as The Caterpillar broadcast in March 1972. Cook's most famous story is His Beautiful Hands which I may read at some point in the future. There are several mysteries about this story. Why is it called Boomerang?Why was it called The Caterpillar when filmed, because it's about an earwing, not a caterpillar.The story pushes the gruesome in a fairly predictable way. It's very linear and we have Warwick the narrator pausing to ramp up the tension and adding horrid detail after horrid detail. Firstly, there's an earwig that's really big. Then it eats wax, but best of all it likes human earwax. Then it goes in the ear, and it is going to eat its way right through to the other ear (a fearsome feat of navigation for the earwig, and why would it bother coming out?) And then ha ha! It's a female so it's going to lay eggs!!!! What horror.The other elements seem to come from the Boy's Own Stories of the later British Empire, but also seen in stories of the American West where men wrestle for hunting knives to fight over women who stand and watch, terrified but fascinated. They had some funny ideas about men and women in those days.There are clear traces of its time and period in the casual sexism towards women who always fall to flirting and never know the consequences of the games they play. They can be stolen by other men (presumably not by other women...) and they are prone to irrational actions. At least the narrator gains the moral high ground over Warwick in that he insists that Rhona must have a point of view.When I was a young man I had a girlfriend who's mother had been brought up on a tea plantation in Ceylon (as it was then). It gave me a glimpse into a vanished world of the British Empire and reading this story brough back whiffs of that world as told to me by my girlfriend's mum.You can watch The Caterpillar on Daily Motion https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgo6g (here)SupporSupport the show

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The Bridal Party by S MukerjeeS Mukerji, whose name appears in various transliterations, including S Mukherjee, published his book of Indian Ghost Stories in 1917. I can find no biographical information on him, or even what his first name was. I wondered if he were related to the Mukherjee family who pioneered Indian cinema in the early 20th Century. I have no evidence that he is!At the time of writing the first edition he lived in Calcutta (Kolkata) and his stories show his familiarity and residence in Bengal, but he later lived in Allahbad (Prayagraj) in Uttar Pradesh. The name Mukerji is a Kulin Brahmin name and common in West Bengal.He moved in high circles and his friends were judges and lawyers during the later British Raj. He alludes that his father had a coachman and he had a nurse growing up.I picked an Indian story because there are a lot of Indian listeners to the podcast. The ghost story form was very prevalent in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and then metamophosized into the uncanny tale and later into a branch of speculative fiction. Running in parallel with the fictional ghost story, we have "true accounts" which are the reportedly true accounts of visitors to actual places. Years ago, I ran the Haunted Britain and Ireland website which specialised in sending visitors to locations with supposedly true ghost hauntings. There is still great mileage in the true account genre and there are a good number of podcasts, TV shows and Youtube channels still seeking people's personal accounts of ghosts. With The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast I had deliberately kept to fictional stories up until now.I excuse myself because S Mukerjee writes his story in dramatic form rather than just as a witness report and he gives characters who have lines within the story.Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show:https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395 (Share and rate it!)http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY (Buy Tony a coffee) to help with the long nights editing!Become a  http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon (Patreon) to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Facebook GroupWhy not join Classic Ghost Stories Podcast on https://www.facebook.com/classicghoststories/ (Facebook) for the lastest news?MusicBeginning music ‘Some Come Back’ is by the marvellous  https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Because I had a little more time, I included the full track of The Heartwood Institute's Powers of Darkness just to chill your bones.Support the show

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Georgina BruceGeorgina Bruce is a British writer, born in the West Midlands of England but who has taught English in different parts of the world, not least in sub-tropical Okinawa in Japan before spending the last ten years or so teaching in less sub-tropical Edinburgh, Scotland.Little HeartLittle Heart is a dark tale that explores a woman's confused memories of her childhood and her conflicted relationships with her mother, once a film star, and her father who smells of ink and paper and at times is indistinguishable from a dark-beaked crow.Full of luscious imagery, the story reminded me of the work of Angela Carter and Shirley Jackson with its fairytale themes and dark twists.In the interview Georgina talks about her influences and the nature of her stories. She has just finished a novella Honeybones, and this story comes from her very well-reviewed collection This House of WoundsGeorgina's Linkshttp://www.georginabruce.com/tag/honeybones/ (Her Website Monster Soup)https://undertowpublications.com/shop (Her publisher Undertow Publications)https://amzn.to/2TBPpOw (This House of Wounds on Amazon UK)https://amzn.to/2X2d1Ow (This House of Wounds on Amazon.com)Call to Action! Patreon!A big thank you to my Patreon supporters. These ongoing pledges help me continue to produce the Podcast, paying as they do for hosting and other ongoing costs. If you have enjoyed listening to this, and other episodes, I would like to invite you to consider becoming a Patreon to help me produce more of what you enjoy!As well as helping me out, Patreons get exclusive content, usually in the form of stories that are not available for free elsewhere.If you could sign up, I would be extremely grateful.Tonyhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Here's the Link)Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show:https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395 (Share and rate it!)http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY (Buy Tony a coffee) to help with the long nights editing!Become a  http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon (Patreon) to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Facebook GroupWhy not join Classic Ghost Stories Podcast on https://www.facebook.com/classicghoststories/ (Facebook) for the lastest news?MusicBeginning music ‘Some Come Back’ is by the marvellous  https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Support the show

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Shirley JacksonShirley Hardie Jackson was bon in 1916 in San Francisco, California and died in Vermont in 1965 aged only 48. Though born in California, she attended Syracuse University in New York where she became involved in literary affairs. She published her first novel in 1948 when she was 32, but it was her short story The Lottery that brought her to public attention. Published in The New Yorker it divided opinion between those who thought it bold and daring and those who found it macabre and disturbing. In essence, like a lot of Jackson's work, it starts out in a realist, every day setting of a folksy rural community where everyone behaves just like we know they would, and then it turns out they have a mysterious lottery where the winner (or loser!) gets sacrificed for some undisclosed reason -- maybe just because it's tradition. She puts in such everyday details of community life that it's a real switch and bait as we think we're getting a home-town story and then it turns weird.Jackson's work has more than a touch of the surreal and I was reminded of the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges as I was reading her collection Dark Tales recently. Her novel The Haunting of Hill House was published in 1958 and is considered the best haunted house story ever written. I enjoyed it very much. She also wrote We Have Always Lived In The Castle towards the end of her life and I must admit I haven't yet read it!Jackson didn't take care of her health and ate and drank too much. This led to heart disease which killed her in 1965.Jackson didn't get on with her mother who seems not to have wanted her much and this seems to be echoed in themes of mothers and estranged daughters in lots of her stories. Jackson was a wildly interesting character. She played the guitar, sang folk songs and could also play the zither. I wonder if she seems so interesting because we know more about her, being more recent, and I wonder if any of the old Victorian and older 18th Century Gothic writers were equally as quirky. Certainly Byron, Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft seem a wild crowd, and we know about them because they were famous and rich. Jackson told people she was a practising witch and joked (?) that she put hexes on publishers and critics who offended her. This may not have been just a joke as these were the years of the first growth of Wicca and occultism was definitely a thing following Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons and others. Jackson suffered from extreme anxiety and saw a psychiatrist who prescribed barbiturates and amphetamines, and then other meds to counteract the effects of these. This cocktail probably didn't help much.A new movie of her life Shirley has come out this year 2020 but I can't see it because all the cinemas are shut due to lock down...There is a nice review a biography of Jackson called A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin in the New Yorker, and you can find it https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/the-haunted-mind-of-shirley-jackson (here)A VisitA Visit was first published under the title A Lovely House in 1950, and then reissued after Jackson's death in 1968 as A Visit The horror literature critic S T Joshi describes it as a 'quiet weird tale at its pinnacle' and refers to 'manner in which a house can subsume its occupants.'At first listen, or maybe even second, I thought, what the heck is this story about?Like last week's story, Mr Jones, this is a gothic tale. We have a large and rambling house which is full of mystery, we have an imprisoned woman in the tower (old Margaret), we have unreliable witnesses, I told trust Mr and Mrs Montague, or Carla one inch.When Margaret is being Support the show

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