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GHOSTS AND GHOULS

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Nikki Gamble

Favourite Ghost Stories - 2008/10/14 23:35 I have to admit a predilection for a good ghost story but it has to have a strong traditional flavour for my taste.

My favourite childhood collection was The House of the Nightmare and Other Eerie Tales edited by Kathleen Lines. Thinking about it has sent me off to search for a second hand copy on Amazon. Can't wait to revisit it. I wonder if I will find it as chilling now as I did then.

Cliff McNish captures the feeling of a traditional ghost story in his novel 'Breathe'. Interesting that so many ghost stories are set in houses which are really characters in the story. That's certainly the case in Breathe.

Any other favourites to add to the list?

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Jane Rosen

Re:Favourite Ghost Stories - 2008/10/15 21:17 I think Joan Aiken's ghost stories have always been favourites of mine. She has such a light touch with her fantasy and her ghost stories have the same touch sending delicate shivers down the spine. One of her most charming is "Humblepuppy" which is not really frightening at all. But the idea of a ghost puppy is so Joan Aiken!

Ruth M Arthur's "A Candle in her Room" still terrifies me and I can't read it at night when I'm on m own. No real ghost, just the evil presence of the doll.

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Nikki Gamble

Re:Favourite Ghost Stories - 2008/10/15 23:11 Oh thanks for reminding me about those stories, Jane.

Do you know 'Nule' by Jan Mark? Originally published in that superb short story collection of Jan's 'Nothing to be Afraid Of'. I included it in The Story Shop and it was also collected in the Walker Book of Ghost Stories. It's a superb off beat story... Nule is a distortion of newell as in the newell post of a staircase. She, the ghost of the story, is glimpsed out of the corner of the eye when the child in the story climbs the stairs. Is she just an old coat and hat hung over the newell post, or is there more to this Nule than meets the eye?
Highly recommended for those that like a more reflective ghost story.

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Jake Hope

Re:Favourite Ghost Stories - 2008/10/15 23:26 I would definitely agree with Jan Mark's 'Nule', in her collection of short stories 'In Black and White', there's a story about some budgerigars, it might sound unlikely for a chilling story but this definitely made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck! One of the wonderful things about Jan's writing is the unusual perspectie she often writes from which lends her books a freshness...

With a very different emphasis and tone, there's Lucy M. Boston's superb 'Children of Green Knowe', it's one of the books whose indelible, crystalline imagery has endured to this day. As Nikki describedin her post, it is also a book where the house becomes almost a character itself.

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Nikki Gamble

Re:Favourite Ghost Stories - 2008/10/17 21:01 Posted here for chris mould

Re: Favourite Ghost stories - 2008/10/17 20:48
Aha, a subject close to my heart.....the thrill of being scared.

I read monstrous numbers of ghost stories when I was researching 'Dust'n'Bones'. Needless to say, M.R. James popped up frequently but I never really found the right story until I came across The Ash Tree. The setting is Castringham Hall in Suffolk and the story is centred around a local witch and her antics. This is a really dark and brooding story that in the end, we were, (unfortunately), unable to use. I think I would consider this to be my all time favourite. For me there is somehow more substance to a ghost story that was written over a hundred years ago. I can almost see that original manuscript covered in cobwebs under the candlelight, complete with a damp and musty smell. Wonderful stuff!

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Nikki Gamble

Re:Favourite Ghost Stories - 2008/10/17 21:11 Thanks for the recommendation Chris; I'll certainly go in search of that one. As a matter of interest, why were you unable to use it? Your decision or an editorial one?

By the way, dear readers, I highly recommend Dust N' Bones nobody captures the tone and tension of those spooky tales better than Mr Mould. I particulalry like the atmosphere of the Washington Irving story, Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Which of the stories from your own collection is your favourite?

How did you make the final selection? I suppose you have to think about a variation of tone and flavour even though the stories are connected by a ghostly theme.

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