Published by Virago, 2006, 496 pages.

“…nobody knows better than a ghost how hard it is to put him or her into words shadowy, yet transparent enough…If a ghost story sends a cold shiver down one’s spine, it has done its job and done it well.”
—Edith Wharton, quoted in Richard Dalby’s Preface

If you’ve been following my blog for long enough, you will know I love a good ghost story. It has become a tradition for me to post a review of one in December—a fitting time for spooky stories.

So here’s my ghostly review for this year: an anthology of tales of the supernatural by women writers—for the most part British—from Charlotte Brontë in the early 1800s to Dorothy K. Haynes in the 1980s. There are some unexpected names among the writers: A.S. Byatt, Richmal Crompton (of Just William fame), Elizabeth Bowen, Angela Carter, Penelope Lively and Edith Wharton, to name a few.

It is a thoroughly enjoyable collection. A little girl is sent to stay with her grand-aunt in a big house and insists she can see a woman and a child freezing outside in the cold (Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Old Nurse’s Story); a family moves into an incredibly cheap house next to a vacant lot, but it turns out there is a reason for its low rent (Mary E. Wilkins’s The Vacant Lot); a saucepan boils on the stove although no one has placed it there (Margery Lawrence’s The Haunted Saucepan); a man wakes up to find disembodied eyes watching him from the foot of his bed (Edith Wharton’s The Eyes); and a vicarage is haunted by a tragedy that insists on being replayed (Ruth Rendell’s The Haunting of Shawley Rectory).

The stories are arranged chronologically, which makes it an interesting read because you get a sense of how the form has developed over the years. The editor, Richard Dalby, the only man to feature here, has done a great job collating these stories, but then he has a stellar record compiling ghostly tales. Personally, I think the Victorians are the best at this, but there is hardly a dud among this collection. I took my time over the book, savouring each tale.

At the back of the book is a list of authors with brief bios, including collections of their ghost stories. I’ve now got some of these on my list, including Edith Wharton’s Tales of Men and Ghosts, Richmal Crompton’s Mist and Other Stories, and Ann Bridges’s The Song in the House. I hope that I’ll be able to find at least one of these and be able to post about it next December!