Discover Top Posts Tagged with #ghoststoryadvent

16 December: Hurst of Hurstcote by E. Nesbit

Listen to the story here. Join the Facebook page here

Today’s story is another by the very brilliant E. Nesbit. I wasn’t going to include another by her (though I’m so glad of this opportunity to do so) but then I spotted this version of ‘Hurst of Hurstcote’ on BBC Sounds. Have a listen...

This is the story of John Hurst, a student mesmerist and dabbler in the occult. Hurst is quite the cad on campus and viewed suspiciously by many of his male classmates and colleagues. Much to the chagrin of our narrator, Bernard, Hurst begins a relationship with Kate Danvers and, after university, marries her and retires to his family pile of Hurstcote. After a confession from Kate - with whom Bernard is still, evidently, in love - that Hurst has hypnotised her many times, her health begins to deteriorate. After her untimely death, Hurst’s grief manifests as ravings and claims of visions of his lost wife. Then comes Hurst’s own confession, which may explain why the two mens’ love is being prevented from her eternal rest.

It is a chilling, beautifully written story. It has a feminist allegory at the heart of the tale, too, which makes it all-the-more compelling and engrossing. The horror, here, comes from a man so controlling and possessive of his wife that he believes even her soul is his to claim and use as a possession. Her lack of autonomy and agency at the hands of her husband is chilling. The resolution is grim and ambiguous (a classic Nesbit device) and may reveal more about the male gaze than the realm of the supernatural. A fantastic story which seems to reimagine and challenge Edgar Poe’s ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’ and, perhaps, even ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. It’s well worth your time.

If you love ghost stories, I am touring my adaptation of A Christmas Carol with my theatre company The Book of Darkness & Light this December. Also, my show Upon The Stair is now on sale. It’s touring early 2020 in Halifax, Salisbury and Harrogate. Grab your tickets here

#GhostStoryAdvent

1 December: Lost Hearts by M.R. James

Read the story here. Join the Ghost Story Advent Facebook Group.

Another advent is upon us and so I begin my spooky annual tradition: Ghost Story Advent. One ghost story suggested and reflected upon every day until Christmas eve. Some of these I’ve ready many times before, others are brand new to me. So, I can’t always vouch for their quality. But, in that, there’s something of adventure! Also, for the first time, this year I’m going to be including a couple of films and TV shows that fit well with the genre. So, look out for those.

Ghost stories are so perfect for December - cosy, chilling, thrilling. Whether hair-raising or melancholy, they’ve always brought me so much joy. And there are so many of them out there! So, sit down by a roaring fire (or load up that log fire film on Netflix), peel open that dusty tome (/Kindle) and submerge yourself in these ghostly yarns.

I would love to know what you think of them. I have a Facebook group where you can follow along and leave your comments on the stories. Join it here.

Our first tale is legendary. ‘Lost Hearts’ is a creepy, upsetting and satisfying tale of black magic, kidnapping and comeuppance. It involves a young man - Stephen Elliot - who goes to stay with his eccentric older cousin, Mr Abney. The old man’s academic interest in the dark arts is soon revealed to be dangerously practical and the disappearances of two children taken into his care soon resurface as a dangerous warning to Stephen.

The story is creepy and gruesome. Mr Abney is a real horror of a character and his actions are both shocking and grisly. The haunting moments are deliciously and horribly described, complete with that inimitable Jamesian economy. If you’ve never read ‘Lost Hearts’, I’m very jealous indeed because you’re about to discover a new favourite. There’s also a highly-regarded BBC film adapted from the James story. It hasn’t aged particularly well in some aspects but, if you allow yourself to be immersed, it is brilliantly effective.

And so... we’re off! Don’t forget to leave me your own comments on the Facebook group.

If you love ghost stories, I am touring my adaptation of A Christmas Carol with my theatre company The Book of Darkness & Light this December. If ghostly storytelling is your thing, you can book tickets here.

#GhostStoryAdvent

15 December: A School Story by M.R. James

Read the story here. Join the Facebook group

Another M.R. James belter. ‘A School Story’ - along with another of my absolute favourites, ‘Wailing Well’ - was apparently written for children. If you know these tales, this is quite surprising, because they do not pull back on the grisliness nor the horror.

The tale begins in a stuffy-enough way: “Two men in a smoking-room were talking of their private-school days” and then gently proceeds into a story about a recollection of a school teacher, McLeod, who makes the classic ghost story protagonist error of taking an item of antiquary that he had no right to be in possession of. Then follows, of course the classic Jamesian whallop…

There are some delicious, heart-stilling moments in this short tale. For example, the first real glimpse of the ghoul: “…there was a man sitting or kneeling on Sampson’ window-sill, and looking in, and I thought he was beckoning…” For me, though, the epilogue of this tale is everything. It’s so final, so brutal, so satisfyingly uncanny. If you haven’t read this one, do. If you have, read it again. The devil is in the detail with James’s stories and this one has more to offer with every next visit. If you love ghost stories, our show Upon The Stair is now on sale. It’s touring early 2020 in Halifax, Salisbury and Harrogate. Grab your tickets here.

#GhostStoryAdvent

10 December: Reality or Delusion? by Ellen Wood (Mrs Henry Wood)

Read the story here. Join the Ghost Story Advent Facebook Group.

Ellen Wood’s melancholic ‘Reality or Delusion’ begins with the immortal line ‘This is a ghost story. Every word of it is true.’ Though, now, an all-too familiar opening, it gives us that crackle of excitement and, for me at least, sends me into the story grinning wickedly. ‘Reality or Delusion’ a relatively simple tale of jealousy, betrayal and crime in the small community of North Crabb. The writing has a pleasing anecdotal quality which lends it the air of being told by a close friend or acquaintance - it’s a neat trick and, when pulled off effectively, makes the yarn all the more engrossing.

This is the story of Daniel Ferrar and the woman to whom he is engaged to be married, Maria Lease. Into the community comes Harriet Roe and Daniel’s wandering affections are suddenly split between the two women. It is a beautiful character drama which moves slowly but hooks from that first inviting sentence. There’s a sadness and a frustration in the character of Maria which burns at the centre of the story. The bad treatment of her on Daniel’s part is so carefully drawn that we almost forget that this is a ghost story until the last few pages. Indeed, this feels like a secondary consideration for the author, but it hardly matters in a story so well told and with characters so well rendered.

All of that said, the more supernatural scenes and descriptions towards the end are chilling and although the climax isn’t particularly surprising it induces that cold knot in the stomach, a feat which only the very best ghost story writers can accomplish.

If you love ghost stories, our show Upon The Stair is now on sale. It’s touring early 2020 in Halifax, Salisbury and Harrogate. Grab your tickets here.

#ghoststoryadvent

7 December: The Innocents (1961) dir. Jack Clayton

Watch the trailer here. Read ‘The Turn of the Screw’ here.

Surely, one of the finest and most famous ghost stories ever is Henry James’s ‘The Turn of the Screw’. I remember reading it for the first time when I was in college and being totally mesmerised by its strangeness and its boldness and its textual complexity. I’ve seen many adaptations of the story over the years (fllm, television, theatre, opera) but I’ve always been underwhelmed and left slightly cold by the many attempts to capture the uncanny terror realised by the original.

The Innocents, however, is a different matter entirely. It is creepy, shadowy, menacing and encompasses all of the unsettling atmosphere of the original text. The story is of Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) who comes to Bly Manor to take charge of children Miles (Martin Stephens) and Flora (Pamela Franklin), niece and nephew of a negligent, wealthy bachelor. Soon, a series of strange and chilling episodes lead Giddens to realise that the children are under the control of two deceased lovers.

It’s a peculiar, troubling and thrilling story; one that resonates long after the film has ended. The performances are so engrossing - particularly Martin Stephens as Miles, who is astonishingly creepy and composed for so young a performer. Jack Clayton directs a moody and, at times, genuinely scary picture which remains faithful to James’s tale but also manages to forge its own sinister path.

Some of the set pieces have passed into cinematic legend owing to their sheer striking brilliance. The exchanges between Miles and Giddens are unsettling in the extreme and tiny details (the face at the window, the darkly-clad figure standing, staring at a distance, the dead pigeon under Miles’s pillow) leap out and take you by the throat with an icy hand. It’s a classic, cosy, ghostly movie; an ideal candidate for a December movie night with mulled wine and mince pies.

If you love ghost stories, I am touring my adaptation of A Christmas Carol with my theatre company The Book of Darkness & Light this December. You can book tickets here.

#GhostStoryAdvent

5 December: School for the Unspeakable by Manley Wade Wellman

Read the story here. Join the Ghost Story Advent Facebook Group.

Today’s ghostly tale is ‘School for the Unspeakable’ by Manley Wade Wellman. This story was on a list of of Jeremy Dyson’s (The League of Gentlemen, Ghost Stories) Top 10 Ghost Stories recently. It comes from Weird Tales magazine and has that flavour of cosy childhood surreptitiousness; reading scary stories under the blankets with a torch when you really ought to be fast asleep. It’s quite a twisty thing, this one, which feels like it might be very predictable... but I was surprised by the ending.

It’s the story of Bart Setwick, who has been sent away to boarding school in Carrington. On arrival at the station, he meets a school colleague who takes Bart to his new home for the next eight months. However, when the new student encounters more of his would-be classmates, Bart realises that something altogether nefarious is a afoot and that this may not be the safe, scholarly place he believed it was.

There’s an interesting sort of finger-wagging going on in this short tale and yet there’s also something eerie and transgressive in what plays out between the boys. It’s a fun little read and thought it relies almost entirely on dialogue and exposition, it certainly provokes a chill or two.

#GhostStoryAdvent

3 December: Luella Miller by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

I’ve become a big fan of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s work. I’ve covered ‘The Lost Ghost’ and ‘The Vacant Lot’ in previous Ghost Story Advents, both of which I enjoyed immensely. So I’m very pleased to include ‘Luella Miller’ in this year’s bumper crop of macabre yarns. It begins as a tale of a New England house with a bad reputation and then, through the recollections of one Lydia Anderson, we are drawn into the strange history of the eponymous Luella.

This is a strange, melancholy and uncanny tale. As for out-and-out horrors and scares, really, there are none. But the language and weird descriptions of Luella and her fatal influence are truly shudder-inducing. It’s a truly gripping and emotional little tale.

There are some gorgeously unsettling elements to the story - the comparison between Luella and an animated tree, the subtlety of the unbroken panes of glass in her abandoned house, the simultaneous laughing and crying when she becomes agitated., to name a few. It’s a great and satisfying story with rich layers which beg to be re-explored in repeat readings.

If you haven’t read Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s work before, I strongly recommend seeking it out. She appears in many of the best ghost story anthologies and much of her writing is available (being in the public domain) online.

If you love ghost stories, our show Upon The Stair is now on sale. It’s touring early 2020 in Halifax, Salisbury and Harrogate. Tickets are on sale now. Grab yours here:

#GhostStoryAdvent

24 December: Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook by M.R. James

(Read the story here)

Well, then, here we are at last! ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even... a penwiper? No, no such thing in the house. A rat? No, too black. A large spider? I trust to goodness not — no. Good God! A hand! (If it’s possible to do Ghost Story in-jokes, that was one. But only until you’ve read this belter by M.R. James).

Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook was the very first James story I ever read (and the first he ever wrote). I read it at college and promptly forgot the author. Later, I picked up a very cheap collection of Monty’s tales - perhaps a 99p edition - rediscovered the tale and became a devotee. I used to read from the tatty little book every Christmas. I’ve upgraded, somewhat, to a gorgeous hardback of the complete tales. But I still have that book. Whenever I see it, it makes me feel automatically cosy and think of Christmas and of home.

This chilling tale, then, is the story of Dennistoun who visits the glorious church of St Bertrand de Comminges. On monopolising the nervy sacristan for the day, Dennistoun finds himself rather quickly possession of a book from around, he estimates, AD 700. Inside, treasures beyond his wildest imagination and then... an image which has haunted each and every soul who has witnessed it, one way or another.

This is yet another example of a story that seems to grow on each reading. Each new visit turns up more shades in the shadows, more strange laughter, more furtive looks between knowing, fearful experts. On the surface, it appears to be a rather simply story and perhaps its beauty is in this very fact. But, once again, the devil is in the detail: ready each sentence carefully, slowly and the true horror of Dennistoun’s pursuer presents itself far earlier than you might have earlier supposed. When the climax comes, you’ll be glad of the attention you paid. It’s utterly thrilling, terrifying and strange. I’ve never forgotten the first time I read that encounter - how powerful it was to read and how, even as the memory of the rest of the tale faded (before my second, third, fourth readings, of course) the horror of that bizarre, biblical encounter haunted my imagination.

This is a glorious tale to round off Ghost Story Advent. It’s one of my all-time favourite stories and it has brought me much pleasure and cosy comfort over the years. If you get the chance, read it aloud (or better yet, have it read to you). These tales were meant to be spoken!

And so, here we are, at the end of another Ghost Story Advent. Thank you for joining me on my annual ghostly ramble through these haunted vaults. Don’t forget, you can always go back and re-visit any tales you didn’t manage to read. I’ll keep them on this blog for you to dip back into. A Merry Christmas, season’s greetings and good will to all of you! See you next year...?

If you love ghost stories, we’re currently touring SHIVERS our theatre show. Shows are finished for 2018 but we begin again from 10 January. Three chilling tales with live violin accompaniment. Book tickets here.