Tanya Kirk

This is the third in the British Library Tales of the Weird series following on from “Spirits of the Season” and “Chill Tidings”. It is a first-class collection that includes some obscure and better-known tales, presented in chronological order running between first publication in 1893 up to 1974. The anthology brings together well-known and undiscovered authors, each of whom provides an excellent tale around one traditional Christmas or winter trope or other. So, plenty of snowy show more scenes, haunted rooms, strange blizzards, ghostly revenge, Alpine weirdness, and familiar Dickensian narratives. Unique for such a collection every one of the stories works really well and delivers its own particular frisson. My favourite, however, would have to be Daphne Du Maurier’s “The Apple Tree”, a brilliantly wrought feminist revenge tale that is full of metaphor and brilliantly constructed gendered stereotypes. It revolves around an unnamed widower, whose wife Midge has recently passed away, much to the widower’s quiet delight. One morning, however, he observes a resemblance between a stooped, withered apple tree in his garden and his dead wife. As the time and the seasons pass the widower becomes more obsessed and angrier at the resemblance and becomes convinced that he must chop the tree down. “The Apple Tree” is a great story of unreliable narration and carefully chosen information that requires the reader to fill in the gaps. It is a true delight – thoughtful, creepy, chilling, haunting and a superbly sketched portrait of lives led in quiet desperation. show less

I think it is excellent. I wasn't sure whether to give it 4 or 5 stars, but I went with 5 because I found so many of the stories to be enjoyable. In any collection, there are bound to be some stories that just aren't as interesting to me as others, but I found here that even the stories I didn't care for as much were still quite entertaining. I know that it used to be the custom (and perhaps still is, in some places) to tell ghost stories on Christmas Eve, but I've had no personal experience show more with that, and I've only ever just read a handful. How nice to find so many such stories all contained in a single volume! Not only did I get to read the stories, but I appreciate how this book has strengthened my understanding of that particular tradition. I also must say how impressed I am with the editor for her informative and brief introductions to each tale. The stories are all chronological, and each is grounded in a bit of context and given alongside some information about the author's life. She put a lot of thought into this book, and it shows. All in all, a lot of fun. show less

‘’Like any other boy I expected ghost stories at Christmas, that was the time for them. What I had not expected, and now feared, was that such things should actually become real.’’

From 1893 to 1974, twelve tales of darkness and mystery, the eerie silence of the falling snow, the haunting moonlight, the Christmas festivities that conceal the darkness in our souls. Lucy Evans and Tanya Kirk have created a superb collection for the long wintry nights.

The Ghost at the Cross-Roads (An show more Irish Christmas Night Story) - Frederick Manley: Let us wonder in the moor on a winter’s night to witness a game of cards between a young man and a black-clad stranger…

The Blue Room ( Lettice Galbraith): A room haunted by a spectre that harms young women and a story that ends on a rather innovative note. Excellent!

On the Northern Ice (Elia Wilkinson Peattie): The story of a man saved by a spirit while skating to a wedding. A tale of the Northern Ice and of Love, guaranteed to make you cry…

The Black Cat (W.J. Wintle): A terrifying story of a prosperous man with an inexplicable dread of cats, a ghostly feline and the number 24. Brilliantly chilling!

‘’London seems dead to lots of people when the shops are shut, and the theatres are closed. It doesn’t get me like that. It seems alive to me.’’

Ganthony’s Wife (E.Temple Thurston): A man of the world narrates an eerie encounter between him and a strange woman on Christmas Day. A striking tale that takes us to Sri Lanka and London, an unsettling story of ghosts. Or witches…

Mr Huffam (Hugh Walpole): The story of the ghost of a famous writer that brings joy and happiness. I am sorry but I wasn’t too enthusiastic about this tale…

The Man Who Came Back (Margery Lawrence): A Christmas seance goes horribly wrong when a spirit returns to avenge a frightening injustice. Very atmospheric, extremely tense. Perfection.

The Third Shadow (H.Russell Wakefield): A terrible vengeance, the dangers that lurk on a mountain and the haunting quiet of the falling snow…

‘’He went on staring at the apple tree. That martyred bent position, the stooping top, the weary branches, the few withered leaves that had not been blown away with the wind and rain of the past winter and now shivered in the spring breeze like wispy hair; all of it protested soundlessly to the owner of the garden looking upon it, ‘I am like this because of you, because of your neglect.’’

The Apple Tree (Dame Daphne du Maurier): A husband is at a loss following the death of his wife. Should he celebrate or mourn? Who is the villain? Who is the victim? There is such deep sadness in this story, such ambiguity, such sorrow…

The Leaf-Sweeper (Muriel Spark): A strange tale of hallucinations, sworn enemies of Christmas and comeuppance. Splendid and downright weird.

The Visiting Star (Robert Aickman): An atmospheric story of an alluring actress, the spirits of the night and the elusive world of Theatre.

A Fall of Snow (James Tuner): An eerie story of Christmas frivolity, prophetic visions and blood on the snow…

‘’How do you like your weird Christmas tales? Is gathering round the fire with delicious food in a country house a key component? Or do you require nothing more than snow and ice and chilling encounters? As a character in one of our features stories says? ‘Oh dear, here’s Christmas again. Isn’t it awful! I’m going to bed. I shall sleep, and I hope dream, until this dreadful thing is over.’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
https://www.librarything.com/addbooks.php?plusbook=Sunless+Solstice%3A+Strange+C... show less

‘’At the edge of the dark sky, sprinkled with stars, a faint band of cold light heralded the rising moon. How different from the grey light of dawn, that ushers in the cheerful day, is the solemn rising of the moon in the depth of a winter night.’’

A Strange Christmas Game (Charlotte Riddell): Two siblings inherit a formidable estate and a ghost desperate for vengeance…

The Old Portrait (Hume Nisbet): Wonderfully atmospheric story. If portraits make you feel uncomfortable, this tale show more will justify your fear.

The Real and the Counterfeit (Louisa Baldwin): A practical joke goes horribly wrong in an estate haunted by the spirit of a Cistercian monk.

Old Applejoy’s Ghost (Frank R. Stockton): In this delightful story an ancestor’s ghost, heavily disappointed by the negligence of his descendant, takes it upon himself to restore Christmas in his estate in all its glory and a brilliant young woman becomes his invaluable assistant.

Transition (Algernon Blackwood): A man returns home, his arms bursting with Christmas presents for his beloved family. But things are not quite as expected… An astonishing story.

‘Do you know’, he said, ‘ that this room is just like a scene on the stage. Try and imagine that wall over there - the fourth wall I think it’s called - has been taken down. On the floor is a row of footlights. Beyond it’s all dark, and there is row after row of blurred faces.’

The Fourth Wall (A. M. Burrage): A jubilant company of young intellectuals decide to spend Christmas in a lovely cottage. However, they soon feel as if they are acting a part in front of an audience and a strange smell of smoke returns evening after evening. A brilliant, atmospheric story.

The Festival (H. P. Lovecraft): A man of controversial heritage returns to New England and attends a dark ritual. This story is as creepy and as Gothic as it gets.

‘’Martha Pym said that she had never seen a ghost and that she would very much like to do so, particularly at Christmas for you can laugh as you like, that is the correct time to see a ghost.’’

The Crown Derby Plate (Marjorie Bowen): You desperately want a Crown Derby plate that is missing from your set. You venture the moor in awful weather to meet the lady that holds your coveted treasure. A reclusive lady, strange, hostile even…
My God, what an incredible story! The atmosphere, the dialogue, the twists, the classic British aura! Marvellous!

Green Holly (Elizabeth Bowen): What if a ghost only returned out of loneliness and the deep wish to be loved? A classic Irish story by Bowen.

Christmas Re-Union (Andrew Caldecott): A Christmas cracker reveals the sins of the past in a story inspired by the work of M.R.James.

A Christmas Meeting (Rosemary Timperley): The haunted and the haunting find each other in a mesmerizing Christmas meeting.

‘There’s someone coming down in the lift, Mummy!’
‘No, my darling, you’re wrong, there isn’t.’
‘But I can see him through the bars - a tall gentleman.’
‘You think you can, but it’s only a shadow. Now, you’ll see, the lift’s empty.’
And it always was.’

Someone In The Lift (L.P.Hartley): I don’t know about you but lifts scare me to death, especially those old ones that make an awful, squeaky, screamy noise. This story makes excellent use of omens, premonitions and the theme of the Doppelganger, producing a striking result. Shocking and unforgettable.

Told After Supper (Jerome K.Jerome): A novelette that satirizes the tropes of the British Ghost story. I can’t say I appreciated this one, sorry.

P.S. Spending 2022 anxiously waiting for the next volume of Christmas Ghost stories by British Library.

‘’There was no pretence at flower-beds nor any manner of cultivation in this garden where a few rank weeds and straggling bushes matted together above the dead grass; on the enclosing wall, which appeared to have been built high as protection against the ceaseless winds that swung along the flats, where the remains of fruit trees; their crucified branches, rotting under the great nails that held them up, looked like the skeletons of those who had died in torment.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less