The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories Book

This is the first in this series of twenty books to be edited by R.Chetwynd-Hayes, replacing Robert Aickman. As with the others it’s a bit of an up and down affair. Of the eleven stories here, I only ticked off four as being good. These are:-

‘The Lady’s Maid’s Bell (by Edith Wharton) – a recently ill woman manages to find a position as a housemaid in a rather strange household. A well written, atmospheric character study.

‘The Sweeper’ (by Ex-Private X, which is a pseudonym for A.M.Burrage) – the noisy ghost of a leaf-sweeping beggar haunts the grounds of a large house. Another tale rich in atmosphere.

‘The Liberated Tiger’ (by Chetwynd-Hayes himself) – a woman looks after, but is fearful, of her dying husband; a vision of whom haunts her whilst his mortal being sleeps. The dark sense of humour that's deeply buried in this grisly tale is typical of Chetwynd-Hayes (many of whose stories have been used in films like 'From Beyond The Grave' and 'The Monster Club.' It’s a cleverly written, painfully antagonistic tale of a badly matched couple.

If there’s one type of ghost story that completely exhausts me, it’s that standard clunking old chestnut whereby a person or persons spend a night at a house which they’ve been warned is haunted (yet for some bizarre reason the warning individuals refrain from elaborating), the night turns out as tragically as predicted, and then in the third act we have the extremely dull explanation for the hauntings, which involves Uncle This or Auntie That, or some past inhabitant of the house who has been badly mistreated and haunts the landings and stairways for one reason or another. Yawn…

My favourite here is not one of those.

‘The Four-Fifteen Express’ (by Amelia B.Edwards) – a man is mystified by everyone denying seeing someone that he was on board a train with, even though he has his cigarette case to prove it. This is a much more elaborate affair than your standard ghost story. It’s full of character, atmosphere, is a damn good story, and above all comes across as a genuine mystery; in fact it has the feel of a crime story.

These books can be picked up pretty cheap, along with The Fontana and Pan Horror story collections. All have something of interest.