10th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories

By: R. Chetwynd-Hayes

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006136230
• ISBN13: 9780006136231
• Release Date: November 1977
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The last book in a great series

Throughout the two decades from 1964 to 1984, Fontana published a remarkable skein of ghost story collections, piloted by R. Aikman and later by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, no mean supernatural authors themselves. Some of the paperbacks in this series, which winds its way up to the "20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories" are now collectors' items and worth over a hundred dollars apiece. For the last book in the series, R. Chetwynd-Hayes has assembled a worthy anthology of ghost stories that are both chilling and relatively unknown. Even the humorous stories in this collection carry a supernatural bite, including the editor's "My Very Best Friend." These are the tales in the 20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories: "Aunt Hester" by Brian Lumley--A young girl accidentally discovers that she can switch bodies with her twin brother, with unforeseen consequences. He finally walks her body out of a window to keep Hester from doing her swap. He moves to Australia to get away from her, but this isn't the end of their story. "Skin Deep" by Roger Malisson--A beautiful but insecure young woman finds work at a modeling agency and ends up marrying one of the top male models. Their problems begin even before she dies. "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery" by E. F. Benson--"Church-Peveril is a house so beset and frequented by specters...that none of the family...takes psychical phenomena with any seriousness." Except for the ghosts of twin boys who suffered a horrible death when they were only two-years-old. "Carrie Liddicoat's Cottage" by Meg Buxton--Strange folks keep showing up at the door of Moira Montague's renovated cottage. Are they somehow connected with the ghostly cat on her mantle and the ghostly chickens roosting on her furniture? "The Diary of William Carpenter" by John Atkins--A man buys an old farmhouse for a song and discovers the diary of the previous resident. This story has a pretty standard plot, but there's a surprising twist at the end. "The Roads of Donnington" by Rick Kennett--The ghost of Lawrence of Arabia reputedly rides his motorcycle through the country lanes of Dorset. This ghost does the same Down Under on the roads of Donnington, and one of his distant relatives sets out to discover why he still rides. "The Running Tide" by Ex-Private X--A. M. Burrage (Ex-Private X) was a gifted writer of ghost stories, a couple of which are on my Top Fifty list, e.g. "The Sweeper" and "Smee." This story of a haunted inn is "creepy without being horrific and has some really first class characters" according to the editor. There is also a cool parrot. "A Lady in the Night" by Dorothy K. Haynes--Right before she gives birth, a woman thinks she hears a streetwalker tapping up and down the road by her house. Her imagination (or is it the pain medication?) supplies her with an image of the wayward woman, along with her supposedly gruesome fate. "The Villa Désirée" by May Sinclair--A young woman who can't afford an expensive hotel

One of the best in this outstanding series

Throughout the 1970s, Fontana published a remarkable skein of ghost story collections, piloted by R. Aikman and later by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, no mean supernatural authors themselves. Some of the paperbacks in this series, which winds its way up to the "20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories" are now collectors' items and worth over a hundred dollars apiece. R. Chetwynd-Hayes has assembled an anthology of ghost stories that are both superbly chilling and relatively unknown for this eleventh book in the series. This editor tends to include too many humorous stories in his collections, but even the humor in this book has a ghastly twist. These are the stories in the 11th Fontana Book: "Justice" by 'The Gibsons'--A short short about the voice you may hear behind you some day. Try not to grumble. "Aunt Cassie" by Virginia Swain--A tiresome old live-in aunt can't be stopped from holding conversations with her dead kinfolk. "The Woman's Ghost Story" by Algernon Blackwood--A ghost-hunter spends a night in a deserted house and finds it haunted by a man who died of fright. "The Ghost of U65" by G.A. Minto--If you enjoy this story of a haunted WWI U-Boat, check out the website madladdesigns.co.uk/unexplained/hauntings/uboat.htm for the 'true' story of U65. There are even photographs of the jinxed submarine. "Footsteps Invisible" by Robert Arthur--A blind newspaper vendor learns to identify his customers by their footsteps and voices. Then an amateur Egyptologist begs for the blind man's help in alerting him to something that has been tracking him across the face of the Earth. Excellent story with a nasty twist at the end. "The Night-Doings at 'Deadman's'" by Ambrose Bierce--Thomas Hobbes once remarked that the life of man is nasty, brutish, and short. The same could be said for the supernatural stories of Ambrose Bierce. In this one, a man is haunted by what could be more than one ghost in the ruins of a California mining camp. "The Earlier Service" by Margaret Irwin--A very haunted Anglican church is the site of a young girl's horrifying First Communion. "Scots Wha Ha'E" by Dorothy K. Haynes--"Braveheart" fans might enjoy this story of a new subdivision haunted by the ghosts of William Wallace and his wife. "The Whittakers Ghost" by G.B.S.--Standard Victorian fare about a ghostly coach-and-four, plus the apparition of a monk whose appearance foretells death. "Lady Celia's Mirror" by Roger Malisson--A haunted mirror is bought cheaply by a pair of antiques dealers. After a horrifying incident with the mirror, they sell it cheaply to a monastery. But not even the monks are safe from Lady Celia. "The Lonely Inn" by Thomas Burke--There are many haunted inns in Great Britain, and this is one of the ghastliest. This story makes my list of 'Top Fifty Greatest Ghost Stories.' "The Green Scarf" by Alfred McLelland Burrage--An artist and a writer live peacefully together in a tumbledown old mansion, until the writer discovers a secret compa

Cadaverous and malignant faces

Through the 1970s, Fontana published a remarkable skein of ghost story collections, piloted by R. Aikman and later by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, no mean supernatural authors themselves. Some of the paperbacks in this series, which winds its way up to the "20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories" are now collectors' items and worth over a hundred dollars apiece. I'm still kicking myself for not saving all of the volumes I bought while we were on an extended stay in Great Britain. Each volume contains a mixture of 19th and 20th century authors--at least those who published through the late 1970s. I believe this to be the finest multi-volume set of ghost stories ever issued. The only publications that can compete with Fontana are the 36 (and counting) thrice-yearly issues of "All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society." These are the stories in the 10th Fontana Book: "A House in the Wood" by John Hastings Turner--Two friends go for a walk in the woods and find a house, inhabited by a beautiful, young woman and her parents. In the introduction, R. Chetwynd-Hayes says that most people prefer three ingredients in a collection of ghost stories: fear; pathos; and humor. I disagree with the latter two ingredients, as they dilute the first. Unfortunately, "A House in the Woods" is one of those stories that exudes pathos. "Fear" by P.C. Wren--A dirty, derelict, tumble-down bungalow serves as a rest-house for travelers on route to Angkor Wat. When a visitor turns down his lantern and tries to go to sleep, he soon learns why his native bearers would not stay in the bungalow. "The Furnished Room" by O. Henry--A young man seeking his runaway lover tracks her to a shabby furnished room on the West Side of New York. She is no longer there, but somehow he senses her presence. Not quite a ghost story, but once read it is impossible to forget. Pathos, yes, but masterfully handled. "To Keep Him Company" by Rosemary Timperly--A boy named Tim acquires three ghostly playmates and discovers their secret only after his mother learns that she is dying. "In the Mist" by Elizabeth Walter--A vacationing couple is lost on a misty moor. They pick up a hitch-hiker: a young man dressed in RAF-blue and heavy flying-boots who directs them to an abandoned airfield. "On the Brighton Road" by Richard Middleton--An unpleasant little shocker about two hitch-hikers on the road to Brighton who keep meeting up with each other. "Smee" by Ex-private-X (A. M. Burrage)--A candidate for my top-fifty greatest ghost stories list. A jolly Christmas gathering is spoiled when an extra guest keeps showing up for a game of 'hide and seek.' "Master Ghost and I" by Barbara Softly--A disowned son returns home after five years in Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentary army. His Royalist uncle had named him as heir to an estate deep in the West Country. There is a catch. It's haunted. "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce--A young student is summoned home when his mother is mu