Classic Ghost Stories

Robert W. ChambersRobert William Chambers was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1865 and died in New York in 1933, aged 68.He was born to a well-off family; his father was a corporate lawyer with his own firm which did very well. Robert’s early love was art and of course this is evident in the story, The Yellow Sign. He first studied art in New York and then aged 21 went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. When he returned to New York, he sold his illustrations to well-known magazines such as Vogue, but in 1887, while he was in Munich, Germany, he completed his first novel and then he began writing weird tales.At that time, the most prominent art movement was the Art Nouveau with its lines and curls drawn from plants and nature. His best known collection is The King in Yellow, from which this story The Yellow Sign, is drawn.This idea of a book that sends you mad is found in Lovecraft with his Necromicon but also in a story that I will read out one day, about Michael Scott the Scottish Wizard from the 12th Century whose book was kept in Wolsty Castle’s library suspended on an iron spike for fear of the occult knowledge it contained.And of course, books have been banned, notably by the Catholic Church with its famous Index, because of the dangerous information they are thought to contain.Chambers was admired by Lovecraft and perhaps because of that, has not been forgotten like some of his contemporaries.This story: The Yellow Sign, was one of my favourites. In reviews elsewhere they say that Tessie was a prostitute. She was not a prostitute: she was a nude model, which is not the same thing! Though she would have been looked down on by polite society in New York. Though she loves the painter Mr Scott, they can never marry because of her status, but she can be his mistress. I didn’t find Scott an unsympathetic character.I am not sure how much the story needed the love interest in fact, and it was when Chambers was exploring that theme that my interest flagged a little.I thought it was about time I did another American story. I enjoyed doing the accent and I also enjoyed doing the Cockney accent of the bell boy, but the best thing about the story for me was the Yellow Sign.First of all, we have the horrible watcher, and then the gruesome details from the bell boy that confirm his unnaturalness. There is a great comparison with a soft fat coffin worm, that is quite horrid. The occult sign that Tessie finds and gives to Scott seems destined for him and in fact there is a sense on an inexorable destiny that cannot be avoided.Some evil intelligence has planned all of this — brought the Yellow Sign to Scott and planted the King in Yellow Book in his library.And then, as the end comes, I think the approach of the King in Yellow — if that is who it is — is done very well. Very sensory and paced like a slow drum beat as the thing comes ever closer.So, this is a weird tale and a horror story, but I did say that I would be reading weird tales as well as specifically ghost stories.Let me know what you think!LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)MusicMusic is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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Sam HicksSam Hicks is an English writer based in London. She caught my eye when I read the splendid anthology https://amzn.to/2NwI8MN (Fiends In The Furrows) by Nosetouch Press. The story was then lifted to the https://amzn.to/3abxnsY (The Best Horror of the Year Vol. 11). These anthologies are stuffed with good stories, but Back Along The Old Track was one of the best.It’s strange that I don’t begin these show notes with Writer was born in 1800 and died in 1900 or suchlike because Sam is still very much alive and sounds in the pink. In the interview we talk about her influences; where the story is based, is it based on a real place, what are her influences and it was really fascinating to hear that she’s only been writing for three years full time.Sam is working on more stories and more of her good stuff is coming out in further anthologies as you can hear in the interview.This is a link to Sam’s Goodreads page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3018664.Sam_Hicks (here.)Hope you enjoyed this modern story. It struck me that the English countryside features in many of these stories we're reading and we could almost chart a social history by listening to them. For example, we have The Old Nurse's Story which portrays a countryside peopled by aristocrats in their big houses and poor peasants in the 19th Century, then we have Man Sized in Marble where we have artists coming to rent a house among the poor peasants in the early 20th Century, and here in Back Along The Old Track, we have city folk in the early21st Century coming to a holiday let among the poor (well weird at least) peasants!Catch you all next week.TonyLinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)MusicIntro music is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute). Support them on BandcampPatronage & SupportPonder: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee) to keep Tony goingConsider: https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)And please, rate, share and tell your friends about the Classic Ghost Stories Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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Marjorie BowenMarjorie Bowen was the  nom de plume of Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long, born Campbell. Marjorie Bowen was born in 1885 in Hampshire, England, and lived a very interesting life, especially in a time when women were generally expected to be confined to the kitchen or  other minor supporting roles.Unfortunately her father was an alcoholic and abandoned the family and the was eventually found dead on the street in London. There must've been some money in the family, and those of us who are English are ever conscious to subtle indicators of social class. For example, working-class Englishwomen are never called ‘Gabrielle Vere Long’.  Another clue to the fact that she came of refined stock was the fact that she studied at the Slade School of Art and later in Paris. I was about to say that working-class people did not study at fine art schools when I remembered my own grandfather ,who was an Irish immigrant, in fact went to an art school in Edinburgh just after the First World War.In any case, Bowen was a talented writer. Even though she married a Sicilian (who died of tuberculosis) and then in Englishman named Long (who survived) , it was Bowen who supported the family through her writing. Her first novel The Viper of Milan was published in 1906. Her work was prolific and she produced over 150 published items and she seems to have liked lurid subject matters such as black magic and murder. All praise to her for that say I. Women have been expected to write stories about love and domestic situations and while that is well and good, why can't they write about murder andblack magic as well!This story that I've just read: The Housekeeper is from a collection called The Bishop of Hell. Although I love the title ‘The Bishop of Hell’, I prefer this story. Like the Bishop of Hell it's a period story set in a historical epoch that was on her own and Bowen makes a good job of creating authentic sounding dialogue. I think she also is brilliant at conjuring characters; and  though neither Beau Sekforde, his evil wife the Countess, or even the ghost Jane Sekforde, come out very sympathetically, they may not be sympathetic but they are strong and memorable.In constructing the story we see how she drops the scar on the ghost’s cheek early on when The Countess sees the ghost and doesn’t know who she is, and neither do we at that point, and then then explains the scar at the end causing us we as readers give a gasp of final understanding! Nothing suggests until the end that Beau Sekforde murdered his wife, but when we find out that there is a bottle of poison that the ghost has significantly tidied up, we are not surprised, and we marry that with our prior assessment of Beau Sekforde as a bounder and a cad and are not surprised to find him a murderer.The ghost does what ghosts often do and sets the moral order straight, and murderer is punished  I think Marjorie Bowen writes very well. Her prose is strong, her characters vivid, her dialogue convincing, and her story construction is admirable, but in this as in other stories in the anthology the Bishop of Hell I think the weak point is actually the supernatural elementEven so, I hope I enjoyed reading the story very much, and I hope you enjoyed listening to it.LinksWebsitehttps://ghostpod.org (https://ghostpod.org)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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Richard Barham MiddletonWhen I first read On The Brighton Road by Richard Middleton (known as Richard Barber Middleton in order to distinguish him from the many other Richard Middletons) I thought the story probably dated from the 1930s.  So when I saw that Richard Middleton was of a previous generation I was surprised because his writing has a very modern feel.Richard Middleton was very well regarded by other writers and I think his short story on the Brighton Road is a little masterpiece. One of his most famous stories is the ghost ship — in fact said to be one of the best ghost stories in the English language! I'm sure that at some point in the future I'll read it on the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.The Preface to Middleton’s ghost ship and other stories is by Arthur Machen that well-known writer of horror and weird tales. Machen knew Middleton on the time in London particularly at the new Bohemian club. He was also a companion of Lord Alfred Douglas.Middleton was born in  Staines in the Greater London area which was then in the county of Middlesex in 1882 to a father who was an engineer, and a mother who had no profession, so presumably the family were well-off enough so that she didn’t have to work. Middleton died aged only 29, 1911 by suicide. In the pictures of him on the Internet they actually looks older than 29.Stephen Wayne Foster did an autobiographical article on Middleton using what little historical material there is. He was apparently a sensitive boy and unhappy as a child. As well as Arthur Machen thinking a lot of him pros master Raymond Chandler author of detective fiction such as the big sleep said that he thought Middleton was extremely talented, so much did Raymond Chandler put off his own writing career because he thought he could never be as good as Middleton.Middleton went to be a bank clerk aged 19 but didn't stick it and decided he wanted to make his career first as a journalist and then as a poet and started out on the Bohemian lifestyle in London.  Allegedly he spent his nights drinking in the New Bohemian Club in London.  In that he fits the stereotype of the damaged, substance abusing writer, that grew from that scene and which persists. Middleton’s most famous poem was The Bathing Boy which is very well regarded, and reading in  The Bathing Boy, I wondered, like many other authors of ghost stories, whether Middleton was actually gay, but I read in Stephen Wayne Foster’s article that he fell in love with various young women and mooned after them. Middleton failed to make a career in journalist and moved to Belgium, in his mid 20s. Middleton spent the last years of his life in Brussels in Belgium and was treated there for depression. The treatment at that time was with chloroform but, sadly, Middleton used the chloroform to end his life.http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/A_poet's_death.pdf (http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/A_poet's_death.pdf)LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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Lady Cynthia AsquithLady Cynthia Asquith, born Charteris in 1887 in Wiltshire, England was an English aristocrat, best now known for her diaries and ghost stories. Her father was Hugo Richard Chatteris the 11th Earl of Wemyss which is a place in Fife in Scotland.Lady Cynthia Asquith married Herbert Asquith who was the son of the British prime minister. Lady Cynthia was also  well-connected in British literary circles: — a friend of DH Lawrence’s, she was also the secretary to JM Barrie who is most famously the author of Peter Pan. She worked with Barrie until he died in 1937 and he left her the bulk of his estate. Lady Cynthia was also a friend of another female writer of ghost stories LP Hartley. In terms of the ghost stories, as well as her own she became famous for being the editor of a whole series of anthologies put out by the Publisher’s Pan as The Ghost Book.The story which I have just read The Corner Shop is included in Roald Dahl’s anthology of ghost stories. In the introduction to that book, Roald Dahl says that he read hundreds of ghost stories and most of them were rubbish. He only included the ones he thinks are good in his anthology and I would agree with his choice. I like this ghost story by Cynthia Asquith. I like the evocation of the cold London winter’s night in the fog, with the hero stumbling into a candlelit curio shop. She paints the picture very well.In fact, I think that this story has many of the classic elements of a good ghost story. I'm writing a little article for the website on what I think makes a good ghost story as I'm reading so many of them at the moment. Certainly one of the key elements in a ghost story is the environment and we see  that in the cold foggy winter night, which is both hostile and cuts off the hero from the normal world. There is also an essential requirement in that the protagonist must end up somewhere quite otherworldly. In earlier fiction this was the Gothic Castle, but in the Corner Shop, the antique shop itself serves as the Gothic location. These locations have to be both terrible and enchanting and that’s certainly the case.A classic ghost story must also have a moral message. The message in this story isn't hidden at all it, and it is is that if you have a stroke of good luck you mustn't keep it to yourself! Play fair old man!Here the protagonist’s good luck and moral sense enables the ghost to rest in peace ultimately and so serves the moral purpose of the story. We often read that ghosts will wander until the task is concluded, and so here, as the finder of the frog gives half the money ultimately to charity, the ghost feels his guilt is resolved.The final thing I think that Asquith does well is that she misdirects the reader. But she does it in a way that the reader is probably guessing the outcome before the protagonist does so that allows us as readers to feel that we are very clever. We are probably guessing long before our hero that the old man is not in fact the caretaker, even though Asquith shapes the story to keep up the pretense right until the end. Until in fact the final sentence where it is that the ghost is revealed, although we possibly guessed it a little while before that. So another nice ghost story for the first week in January. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed reading it and I will be back with you next week to deliver another ghost story.http://ghostpod.org (ghostpod.org)Classic Ghost Stories Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Patreon)https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Kofi)Music by https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)https://www.patreSupport the show

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The Experiment by M R JamesThis is the second story we have read on the classic ghost stories podcast by Montague Rhodes James. James is considered the master of the English ghost story. He is credited with modernising the form by abandoning many of its classic Gothic features. So we are unlikely to find ruined castles.  However, we have plenty of old churches, which are arguably the same thing as the Gothic castles.James was an academic and worked at both Kings College Cambridge and later at Eton College. Reading his stories it is obvious that he is an antiquarian with knowledge of looking through old texts. In reading this story I also wonder, as I have done before, whether James dabbled in demonology and necromancy. He has more than a passing acquaintance with this kind of material, even if it is only academically.Why Read The Experiment?When deciding to read The Experiment, I had wanted to find a ghost story specifically for New Year's Eve. However, although the story is titled a ghost story for New Year's Eve and it begins at New Year's Eve that is about all that it has to do with this time of year.Though not considered one of James’s best stories, I think the story is very well structured. It is only at the only at the end of the story is that the details that we've been given as the story proceeded finally make sense. For example, the first news we have is the Squire is dead and we don't suspect there is any foul play until we are specifically told  at the end of the story that a wife and her son were hung for the murder of her husband. Then it is very obvious what has happened.At this point we can the significance of James telling us that the Squire’s son is actually is his stepson. We are also told that the poor dead Squire was a generous man who was very generous and unstinting with his stepson. And this of course makes it all the worse to be repaid with such treachery and murder.The whole business of the rapid burial with no ceremony and no coffin, laid outside the church building also becomes only clearly obvious at the end. And it is only when we get the recipe for speaking to the dead – pure necromancy – that we realise the significance of the face cloth, and all the other carryings on that the mother and her son begin once they get the recipes by post from the dead Squire’s fellow sorcerer. The fate of the murderess and her accomplice is pictured in almost  an almost Don Giovanni fashion from the Mozart Opera.  And here, like there, the monstrous revenant returns accusingly. In The Experiment, the ghost doesn't even have to kill them himself, and instead, he drives them back to where they have come from with pure supernatural terror and they confess everything to the very same Rector that we began the story with, thus creating a neat narrative circle.LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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Rosemary TimperleyRosemary Timperley was an English author born in 1920 who died aged 68 in 1988. She was a very prolific writer and published 66 novels and several hundred ghost and several hundred short stories. She particularly liked writing ghost stories and ended up editing several volumes of ghost stories and choosing other peoples.As well as writing she was a school teacher and taught English language and literature in schools in Essex and London. Very interestingly she also was an agony aunt from 1949 for a popular magazine. Her writing related to ghosts the most famous ghost stories are this one a Christmas Meeting which was published in 1952 and also the Mistress in Black published in 1969.This is a very short Christmas themed ghost story which I thought was appropriate for Boxing Day, or as I note in the audio version of the show notes: St Stephen's Day.I could see the twist in the tail coming for this story and I'm sure that you did also, as we have read a number of ghost stories together now and we can anticipate what will happen.A Christmas Meeting is a very modern story and the writing is modern but I thought that Rosemary Timperley put in some very sweet touches. And I particularly enjoyed her musings and descriptions of Christmas past. But she manages to evoke a lifetime of sweet memories.Though she was only 32 when she wrote the story she has a very sunny outlook on life and I like the way she says the time doesn't exist. Now you can take that anyway you want put on this Christmas holiday period I wish you all a lovely time and many happy memories of Christmases past and imaginings of Christmases future.All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well!LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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Hume NisbetHuman Nisbet was a Scottish born novelist an artist. He was born in sterling in Scotland and was trained as an artist from an early age. Nisbet moved to Australia at the age of 16.He spent a lot of time travelling around Australia and New Zealand and then returned to Great Britain.He first went back to London in 1872 but did not achieve great success with his art so went back to Scotland and became an art master in Edinburgh. Nisbet did achieve some success as a book illustrator.As well as his illustration work, much of his income came from writing rather than painting and he published 40 to 50 novels and volumes of poetry.As was in vogue at the time he wrote a number of ghost and horror stories. Again a lot of these were set in Australia where he spent a lot of time.Nisbet wrote vampire stories as well as ghost stories and this story here read out – the old portrait is a clever short story on a vampire theme. Most vampire stories have a Gothic object in which the vampire dwells. Most famously this is the castle in Dracula, but we also see the family castle and the ruins of Karnstein in Carmilla.I think it is legitimate to say that the picture frame in this story is in fact the Gothic habitation of the vampire. Once the narrator has cleaned up the picture frame he sees that the decoration he wants took as being fine art is in fact the exquisite working of worms and other deathlike themes. Very gothic.A nice short Christmas vampire story for you to listen to on Christmas Day!LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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Alfred McLelland BurrageBackgroundAlfred McClelland Burrage was an English writer who was born in London in 1889. Both his father and his uncle were professional writers and a relatively young age Burrage began to write fiction to support his family.As  well as being a writer , Burrage was a soldier in the First World War. He served in the First World War as a member of the Artists Rifles which was originally founded as a volunteer light infantry regiments. As a point of interest, after Burrage’s time the Artist Rifles became 21 Special Air service regiment one of Britain's elite forces.Burrage wrote a lot of stories but is now primarily remembered for his series of  ghost stories in titled some ghost stories. No less and authority than MR James praised Burrage’s books. If we remember MR James had very distinct ideas about what makes a goodstory. James believed that ghost stories should be terrifying as most of his in fact are. James was not such a believer in the amiable ghost story with a happy ending.Burrage’s first ghost story collection  Some Ghost Stories was printed in 1927 and his next collection of ghost stories was Someone in the Room was published in 1931.SmeeThis story Smee comes from Burrage’s second collection Someone in the Room from 1931. I think it has all the necessary elements of a good ghost story. In line with M R James’s  edict the ghost here is very subtle. There are no screaming jump scares here.  Mainly because they protagonist doesn’t know he’s touched the ghost’s knee, though you of course do!The description of wandering around in the dark is a staple of scary stories. In most scary stories you have to wonder why the protagonist is walking around in the dark on the road perfectly good nights. But A.M. Burrage has the craft to give us a very plausible reason why our protagonists are in the dark and unable to see but only feel the ghost.The little twist at the end is one that we should have seen coming but Burrage cleverly misdirects us by giving us the cold dark haired girl whom the narrator Tony Jackson wonders about being one of those women who don't have a high opinion of any men. As if such women exist!We suspect that he’s got it wrong before he does of course.LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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I’m fond of E F Benson’s writing and once again like the Room in the Tower this has a dreamlike quality. The horror is produced from some kind of vision that the narrator, Everard, has.  He has a vision of antiquity, and a horrible antiquity at that, of little Picts! (My ancestors!!!)It’s a funny story in that it purports to be a Christmas Story and certainly the first part has all the elements: the snow outside, the cosy country house, the fire.Then we go back to a year before and I’m unclear why, because we have Country House at Christmas: Vision: Then October in the Scottish Highlands lost in the mist.  There is just a presentiment of horror and in that it is almost Lovecraftian, albeit  more subtly. I think this story would be more correctly characterised as a weird tale rather than a ghost story. Certainly there is no ghost as such.The horror is unexplained other than to say he was horrified by the bestiality of the inhabitants even though they don’t harm him. He should live round here.There are folk horror themes in that it references horrid rural people with their vile lives that scare good urban chaps like Everard. The Scottish gillie Sandy (what else!) shows a primitive fear of the little folk.He also has a way of layering clauses within clauses in his writing which makes it hard to read out loud!Proust does that too. I won’t be reading him.So, not my favourite though it is a Christmas Story to be read just before Christmas.Onward!Check out the Website. It’s growing. http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast)There’s always the matter of support. You can buy a Classic Ghost Stories Podcast T-shirt now via the website. How ‘bout that?And there’s Kofi https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)And Patreon https://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)I’m off on a boat to Amsterdam tomorrow. You bet your bottom dollar I’ll be looking out for ghosts among the Christmas lights!Tonyhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the show

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