Ghost Stories/Authors

[fishman65]

With the dark months upon us, I thought this to be a suitable subject to discuss and see if there are any fans on NMP (Darksky)

My favourite ghost story teller/writer would have to be Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936). Born in Kent and raised in Suffolk, he studied at Cambridge first as a student then a don. He incorporates elements of the medieval and the antiquarian into his stories. These he recounted to his students at Christmas around the fire.

'Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You, My Lad' is one of his most known. An antiquarian is staying at a hotel on the east coast of England, when he finds an ancient whistle on the stony beach. He makes the mistake of blowing it.

'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas' is another classic. A scholar of medieval history goes searching for the hidden treasure of a disgraced abbot. He soon wishes he hadn't.

James hints at the darkness and menace, and with subtle prompts encourages our imagination to do the rest. I first read his works in 1997, the book bought at a local market. The BBC dramatised a number of his stories way back in the late 60s/early 70s. 'Oh Whistle' starred the late Sir Michael Hordern.

[Darksky]

Why does my name keep coming up Your friendly resident weirdo.

I know I’ve manoeuvred you in the direction of Walter De la Mare’s The Listeners, Fishman but as it’s my favourite poem I think everyone inspired by ghostly stuff ( yes, me) should give it a read.

I also think our resident poet ( yes, you) should post their Gibbet Hill here. Excellent stuff

[fishman65]

Your wish is my command Darksky...

On Gibbet Hill

Stroll up yon track
to gibbet hill,
on winter nights
of moonlit still,
through all the long
remembering trees,
recalling highwaymen
brought to their knees..

Up there the hangman
once had stood,
where now crowds close
the watching wood,
when the writhing guilty
stretched taut the noose,
and unleashed those
wicked spirits wayward loose.

Grasping at fools
unwary there,
hands of skeleton twigs
running through their hair,
lurk the restless
dead of gibbet hill,
on winter nights
of moonlit still.

December 2014

[fishman65]

The Haunted Barn

'Stray there not', the locals say,
'not after dark, when the dead hold sway',
when crimson rivers run rampant,
among a barn's bones of yonder way,
where the vines drink in perpetual thirst,
creeping clambering would do their worst,
to pulse like slashed veins knotted to choke,
black open mouth and strangled hope.

It's murk hides the shadow's fetid breath,
where ghosts gather in the memory of cold death,
snap cracked skull and arid bone,
the worm tastes his heaven in the dying's groan,
with red earth and a black blood's glee,
the axe would heed no mercy plea,
and sprayed the watching walls with insanity,
the slayers glut in his victory.

Yet condemned to repeat his repulsive part,
the seed of evil's eternal pain,
would grow in that fiend's rotten heart,
and seek evermore to murder and maim,
but a shimmering shaft of shocking moonlight,
is accusatory in luminous white,
and reveals the ghastly, grinning face,
of he that haunts that forsaken place.

April 2013

[fishman65]

Borley Church

I first saw you,
or was it you who saw me,
poised praying mantis
upon a hill, as if
you had wished me ill.

Embedded claws
in rock-gripped ridge,
tainted watcher of
stained glass eyes,
high arching spire
your stony crown,
spectral sentinel,
reputation in your
cold stare.

Your headstones gathered round,
all risen up from the ground,
lurking between ancient yews,
and within the dank corners
of your dusty pews,
did I glimpse something,
half imagined, move?

June 2013

[Darksky]

Fishman…I cannot say how much these are so very me. I love this kind of stuff.

My son said to me the other day, oh look there’s a massive old grave yard there. I know you like that kind of stuff…. I don’t really know how people see me

Why aren’t you published?
Borley Church? Is that anything to do with Borley Rectory? That’s a really haunted place isn’t it?

[fishman65]

Sorry Darksky I've been trying to make a 'cave' for our lab due to fireworks. Again.

OK well I self published a book of my poetry in 2016. It sold 7 copies I think. I'm not sure whether these supernatural poems are in there? Self publishing is dead easy, the only problem is you have to do your own marketing. Once the website 'FeedAread' has taken its cut, and then the printers, you get about £1-80 for each book sold.

Yes Borley Church is on the Suffolk/Essex border, not far from the town of Sudbury. Borley Rectory was across the road from the church but burnt down in 1939. Both the church and rectory were/are haunted. I first went there in 1982 with my Mum, sister and BIL. Then another visit in 2000 but the church had been chained shut. I'm thinking because it was a magnet for ghost hunters. Then a third visit circa 2005? or so.

People see you as a horror/supernatural/unexplained fan. Nothing wrong with that

[Phill2]

No one beats Stephen King for a good story.
I've read most of his books but there's one I couldn't finish.
I started it about 20 years ago but had to put it down about halfway through and haven't picked it up again since as it was too much for my imagination.
It's called From A Buick 8.

[Darksky]

I read The Rats….isn’t that by King? That was a horrible book…needless to say l loved it.

[fishman65]

James Herbert wrote The Rats, Lair and Domain trilogy.