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Original poster

As night closes in .... Favourite ghost stories

61 replies

TomPinch · 13/10/2022 21:05

My favourite three, for starters:

Count Magnus by M R James.
The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

Let's be having yours!

OP posts:
hoochyhag · 06/12/2022 10:55

Just got Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood out of the library. It's very gothic and Christmassy, but only just started it, so the jury is out Grin

SusiePevensie · 06/12/2022 21:24

Dear Lord the Haunting of Hill House is good.

Eleanor Vance was thirty-two years old when she came to Hill House. The only person in the world she genuinely hated, now that her mother was dead, was her sister.

ComeOnThenFanny · 06/12/2022 21:29

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs, it's bloody terrifying and I can never get it out of my head!

Welshy26 · 06/12/2022 21:50

My DH recommends The Room in the Tower by E F Benson.

ArabeI · 06/12/2022 21:58

The Woman in Black, Susan Hill.

Whistle and I'll Come to You, M. R. James

ArabeI · 06/12/2022 21:59

"The Signalman (probably my favourite even though it isn't MR James"

I remember watching this. It was very atmospheric and well done.

glamourousindierockandroll · 06/12/2022 22:07

Woman In Black is my favourite

I also really liked the Ash series by James Herbert

CocoLux · 06/12/2022 22:15

Thin Air by Michelle Paver is a excellent.

Dreikanter · 06/12/2022 22:18

All the MR James stories are great - Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad was used by Stephen King in Mr Harrigan’s Phone. King has done some great creepy short stories - The Mangler is a good one.

VittysCardigan · 06/12/2022 22:18

Thin Air by Michelle Paver is also very creepy

HRTQueen · 06/12/2022 23:07

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver was very atmospheric really got under my skin

Clawdy · 06/12/2022 23:11

Any by M R James. Sentences and images you never forget.

Figrolls14 · 06/12/2022 23:14

I love the Woman in Black! Did anyone ever go and see it when it was on in the west end ( it might still be on?!) We went with school - bloody brilliant!!

ArabeI · 07/12/2022 00:02

Figrolls14 · 06/12/2022 23:14

I love the Woman in Black! Did anyone ever go and see it when it was on in the west end ( it might still be on?!) We went with school - bloody brilliant!!

At the Fortune Theatre. Yes, it was wonderful wasn't it.

Parpetrator · 07/12/2022 00:14

Sorry not a book but have you checked out the Witch Farm podcast on BBC sounds?

SammyScrounge · 07/12/2022 02:56

'Andrina' the title story from a collection by George McKay Brown. Wonderful story.

LMBoston · 07/12/2022 07:10

How wonderful to see so much love for MR James! He’s in my top 5 authors of any genre. Massively underrated as a writer — his pacing, language and ideas are up there with the greats. And very funny too (with a hilarious hatred of golf), which is often overlooked because he’s so bloody scary.

A Warning to the Curious is a work of genius. And if you’re looking for festive chills, The Story of an Appearance and a Disappearance is brilliant: horrific Punch and Judy scenes…

Check out the writings of my username alter-ego too — Boston understood ghosts and they weaved themselves into every part of her life, including her home and her fiction. Her story Curfew is fantastic and very Jamesian.

And you all MUST listen to this podcast:

www.mrjamespodcast.com/

Mike and Will are fantastic hosts, witty and perceptive and do a deep dive into all James’s stories, then in later seasons cover other James-esque authors — Smee, The Upper Berth, The Monkey’s Paw, they’re all in there! The 2 episodes on Warning are really moving as they tie the story to the loss of James’s much-loved students during WW1, and shed real light on the themes. I’ve never read it in quite the same way since.

Also see www.nunkie.co.uk/ for proper fireside James readings!

Sorry, I’m gushing 😅 I just don’t know anyone irl that I can discuss this with!

Thank you OP 😊

DinosApple · 07/12/2022 07:20

M R James of course (all of them).

I agree, get yourselves to a Nunkie reading of MR James, he tours round the country, and is doing one online on Christmas Eve too.

One of the best locations we saw Nunkie was the leper chapel in Cambridge, years ago now - no heating, a see-your-breath night, candle light only. Hugely atmospheric and the whole audience jumped at parts.

My favourite as a teen was Man-size in Marble.

Original poster
TomPinch · 07/12/2022 09:39

I discovered MR James quite young, which I think was probably a bad thing: he's just so good that no one else quite measures up. I think it's the way he blends the supernatural with medieval folk legend, together with academic snootiness:

(from Count Magnus, about the guide book that poor Mr Wraxall was writing )

and they dealt largely in reported conversations with intelligent foreigners, racy innkeepers and garrulous peasants. In a word, they were chatty.

You can feel the disapproval oozing out of that last word.

Keep the recommendations coming!!

OP posts:
Iamthewombat · 07/12/2022 09:59

Oh yes, Nunkie is brilliant. He does HP Lovecraft stuff too, but his MR James readings reign supreme!

planesandtrains · 07/12/2022 12:07

Thank you so much for this thread! I absolutely love ghost (short) stories, they are my guilty pleasure and finding new ones is becoming more difficult. Here are some
Of my recommendations:

In the same vein and period as MR James, The British Library Tales of the Weird collections are very good - both Chill Tidings and Sunless Solstice.

A slightly off-the-wall recommendation - Chris Priestly's ghost stories for children are really very creepy! 'Offerings' from Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror still haunts me ...

Then lastly (but not least), John Connelly's ghost story anthologies are excellent and I return to them every year along with MR James. Some Children Wander By Mistake, The Shifting of the Sands and The Blood of the Lamb, are particular favourites of mine.

Thank you for all the previous recommendations, you have just revitalised my Christmas list 😁

planesandtrains · 07/12/2022 12:08

And @LMBoston I will definitely check out that podcast!

VeryScary · 07/12/2022 13:56

Loving all the MR James love on here! I suspect some of you belong to some of the same FB groups as I do.

Also agree with Man Size in Marble (there’s a dramatised version available on BBC Sounds) and The Room in the Tower and the BL Tales of the Weird series - I have quite a collection of those.

oakleaffy · 07/12/2022 19:59

TomPinch · 07/12/2022 09:39

I discovered MR James quite young, which I think was probably a bad thing: he's just so good that no one else quite measures up. I think it's the way he blends the supernatural with medieval folk legend, together with academic snootiness:

(from Count Magnus, about the guide book that poor Mr Wraxall was writing )

and they dealt largely in reported conversations with intelligent foreigners, racy innkeepers and garrulous peasants. In a word, they were chatty.

You can feel the disapproval oozing out of that last word.

Keep the recommendations coming!!

I too discovered MR James young, under 10.
To my great joy, as an adult, I realised that he went to school near where I grew up - The Cottage mum now lives in, James would doubtless have walked past as a schoolboy.

“ A School Story” has a Well in it-
Well Lane , East Sheen is so close to where the old school that James went to was located.
It would have been rural then, large old houses and lots of fields.

The fussy academics James writes of are so of their era- Just perfect for an Autumn evening.

E. Nesbit is a great author, too. Loved her stories as a child.

Will definitely look up some of the other stories recommended on this thread, Thank you!

oakleaffy · 07/12/2022 20:02

planesandtrains · 07/12/2022 12:07

Thank you so much for this thread! I absolutely love ghost (short) stories, they are my guilty pleasure and finding new ones is becoming more difficult. Here are some
Of my recommendations:

In the same vein and period as MR James, The British Library Tales of the Weird collections are very good - both Chill Tidings and Sunless Solstice.

A slightly off-the-wall recommendation - Chris Priestly's ghost stories for children are really very creepy! 'Offerings' from Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror still haunts me ...

Then lastly (but not least), John Connelly's ghost story anthologies are excellent and I return to them every year along with MR James. Some Children Wander By Mistake, The Shifting of the Sands and The Blood of the Lamb, are particular favourites of mine.

Thank you for all the previous recommendations, you have just revitalised my Christmas list 😁

Ooooh thanks! Have screen- shotted these recommendations.