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Ghost Stories
You couldn't ask for 22 spookier stories from authors including Franz Kafka, Charles Dickens, and Guy de Maupassant.
CONTENTS
The Knock at the Manor Gate · Franz Kafka ·
Yesterday’s Witch · Gahan Wilson ·
A Legion Marching By · John Hynam ·
The Lawyer and the Ghost · Charles Dickens ·
The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Being Bagged · Anon. · ss
School for Ghosts · Vida Derry · (adapted from a story by P’u Sung-Ling).
The Little Yellow Dog · Mary Williams ·
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn [from The Wind in the Willows; Wind in the Willows] · Kenneth Grahame ·
The Lilies · Alison Prince ·
The Emissary · Ray Bradbury ·
John Pettigrew’s Mirror · Ruth Manning-Sanders ·
Sredni Vashtar · Saki ·
Miss Mountain · Philippa Pearce ·
Was It a Dream? (ss; “La Morte”.) · Guy de Maupassant
A Pair of Hands · Sir Arthur T. Quiller-Couch ·
The Boys’ Toilets · Robert Westall ·
Left in the Dark · John Gordon ·
Video Nasty · Philip Pullman ·
Lost Hearts · M. R. James ·
Thurnley Abbey · Perceval Landon ·
Not at Home · Jean Richardson ·
The Shepherd’s Dog · Joyce Marsh
CONTENTS
The Knock at the Manor Gate · Franz Kafka ·
Yesterday’s Witch · Gahan Wilson ·
A Legion Marching By · John Hynam ·
The Lawyer and the Ghost · Charles Dickens ·
The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Being Bagged · Anon. · ss
School for Ghosts · Vida Derry · (adapted from a story by P’u Sung-Ling).
The Little Yellow Dog · Mary Williams ·
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn [from The Wind in the Willows; Wind in the Willows] · Kenneth Grahame ·
The Lilies · Alison Prince ·
The Emissary · Ray Bradbury ·
John Pettigrew’s Mirror · Ruth Manning-Sanders ·
Sredni Vashtar · Saki ·
Miss Mountain · Philippa Pearce ·
Was It a Dream? (ss; “La Morte”.) · Guy de Maupassant
A Pair of Hands · Sir Arthur T. Quiller-Couch ·
The Boys’ Toilets · Robert Westall ·
Left in the Dark · John Gordon ·
Video Nasty · Philip Pullman ·
Lost Hearts · M. R. James ·
Thurnley Abbey · Perceval Landon ·
Not at Home · Jean Richardson ·
The Shepherd’s Dog · Joyce Marsh
253 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
7 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
About the author
Robert Westall
122 books110 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 12, 2023
Personal favorite is editor Westall's own story,"The Boys' Toilets." Sincerely.
April 2, 2017
This book was really interesting. Something I liked about it was that there are many stories not just one. This makes it more interesting in my opinion. Instead of reading by a certain amount of pages every day I read by stories. Once I started a story I wanted to finish it. Most stories were good ones but some I did not like. The book is a good length for the amount of stories. The stories vary in length but they all work. Would recommend.
April 12, 2020
کتاب 8 تا داستان کوتاه داره که درباره ارواح هستن. باید بگم که آنچنان ترسناک نیست بر خلاف اسم کتاب.
داستان هاش راستش خیلی برای من جذاب نبود غیر از دو موردش و هرچی کتاب جلوتر میرفت داستان ها حوصله سر بر تر می شد.
داستان هاش راستش خیلی برای من جذاب نبود غیر از دو موردش و هرچی کتاب جلوتر میرفت داستان ها حوصله سر بر تر می شد.
October 10, 2018
Not my favorite ghost story collection, but a good read nonetheless. Some so-so stories, a couple of melancholy ones, and one or two decent frights.
July 10, 2011
Very spooky .. best ghost stories I'v read ..
some even made me cry, seemed so real
my favorite was: -Was It A Dream?-
some even made me cry, seemed so real
my favorite was: -Was It A Dream?-
September 12, 2022
The majority of stories I really enjoyed. In fact, it was only the first one that I didn’t think was good.
May 29, 2025
One of the two anthologies I owned in childhood, alongside the Kingfisher Story Library companion volume SCIENCE FICITON STORIES. This one's by far the superior of the two, mainly because it doesn't feature any of those space-filling extracts that plagued the other book, aside from a brief excerpt from Kenneth Grahame's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, which I can forgive. The rest is a solid mix of '80s-era ghost stories written for children, and a handful of older classics. Of the latter, we open with Kafka's THE KNOCK AT THE MANOR GATE, a strange inclusion for sure which nonetheless tackles criminal justice in a way I can only describe as, well, Kafkaesque. Dickens' THE LAWYER AND THE GHOST is a typically humorous stab at the ghost story which nonetheless offers a novel way to get rid of a troublesome spirit. Next up are two Eastern classics: THE GHOST WHO WAS AFRAID OF BEING BAGGED is a fine twisty anonymous one from India, while SCHOOL FOR GHOSTS is an evocative romantic haunted house tale from ancient China.
Guy de Maupassant is one of my favourite short story writers, and WAS IT A DREAM? is a typically vivid and haunting nightmare sequence with some truly macabre imagery. Following that comes Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's A PAIR OF HANDS, a more sentimental and unusual effort that nonetheless still has a spooky apparition as its centrepiece. LOST HEARTS is, of course, the M.R. James classic which needs no further elaboration than the author's name, while Perceval Landon's THURNLEY ABBEY is one I've encountered before and thoroughly enjoyed, a delightfully ghoulish offering. Meanwhile, Gahan Wilson's YESTERDAY'S WITCH (a fun if familiar Halloween horror) and Ray Bradbury's THE EMISSARY (a fine piece of writing, as is most of the author's output) make up the early 20th century quota alongside SREDNI VASHTAR, a typically biting effort from Saki.
All of the preceding stories are entertaining enough, but what I enjoyed most about this anthology are the fresher, less familiar children's tales which make up the other half. Most of these are surprisingly good, and don't feel spoonfed at all. John Hynam's A LEGION MARCHING BY, for instance, is a hauntingly lyrical time travel tale about a ghostly Roman legion, while Mary Williams' THE LITTLE YELLOW DOG is a quietly tragic tale about a beach haunted by the ghost of an old man searching for his missing companion. Alison Prince contributes THE LILIES, a beautifully-constructed tale of a pair of sympathetic witches, and JOHN PETTIGREW'S MIRROR sees Ruth Manning-Sanders ably combining a selkie story with a more moralistic, but nonetheless engaging, climax.
Philippa Pearce's MISS MOUNTAIN is one of the most unusual ghost stories collected here, an almost purely psychological tale of cruelty which goes hand-in-hand with John Gordon's equally unpleasant LEFT IN THE DARK. Both stories chart the depths to which some adults will go in making childrens' lives a misery. Jean Richardson's NOT AT HOME is a slight spin on a well-worn trope but not without merit, while Joyce Marsh's THE SHEPHERD'S DOG is a completely heartrending read if you're an animal lover like me. Finally, we have an early Phillip Pullman story, VIDEO NASTY, which has a very obvious twist but plenty of suspense to go with it, and Robert Westall (who also edits the volume) provides THE BOYS' TOILETS, an atmospheric story about a run-down abandoned school haunted by the ghost of a former pupil. There are very few misses in what is a fine and compelling anthology overall.
Guy de Maupassant is one of my favourite short story writers, and WAS IT A DREAM? is a typically vivid and haunting nightmare sequence with some truly macabre imagery. Following that comes Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's A PAIR OF HANDS, a more sentimental and unusual effort that nonetheless still has a spooky apparition as its centrepiece. LOST HEARTS is, of course, the M.R. James classic which needs no further elaboration than the author's name, while Perceval Landon's THURNLEY ABBEY is one I've encountered before and thoroughly enjoyed, a delightfully ghoulish offering. Meanwhile, Gahan Wilson's YESTERDAY'S WITCH (a fun if familiar Halloween horror) and Ray Bradbury's THE EMISSARY (a fine piece of writing, as is most of the author's output) make up the early 20th century quota alongside SREDNI VASHTAR, a typically biting effort from Saki.
All of the preceding stories are entertaining enough, but what I enjoyed most about this anthology are the fresher, less familiar children's tales which make up the other half. Most of these are surprisingly good, and don't feel spoonfed at all. John Hynam's A LEGION MARCHING BY, for instance, is a hauntingly lyrical time travel tale about a ghostly Roman legion, while Mary Williams' THE LITTLE YELLOW DOG is a quietly tragic tale about a beach haunted by the ghost of an old man searching for his missing companion. Alison Prince contributes THE LILIES, a beautifully-constructed tale of a pair of sympathetic witches, and JOHN PETTIGREW'S MIRROR sees Ruth Manning-Sanders ably combining a selkie story with a more moralistic, but nonetheless engaging, climax.
Philippa Pearce's MISS MOUNTAIN is one of the most unusual ghost stories collected here, an almost purely psychological tale of cruelty which goes hand-in-hand with John Gordon's equally unpleasant LEFT IN THE DARK. Both stories chart the depths to which some adults will go in making childrens' lives a misery. Jean Richardson's NOT AT HOME is a slight spin on a well-worn trope but not without merit, while Joyce Marsh's THE SHEPHERD'S DOG is a completely heartrending read if you're an animal lover like me. Finally, we have an early Phillip Pullman story, VIDEO NASTY, which has a very obvious twist but plenty of suspense to go with it, and Robert Westall (who also edits the volume) provides THE BOYS' TOILETS, an atmospheric story about a run-down abandoned school haunted by the ghost of a former pupil. There are very few misses in what is a fine and compelling anthology overall.
April 10, 2022
Great collection of ghost stories. At first I was confused because I thought every story would be creepy or scary but then I realized — not all ghosts are meant to give you a fright. Some stories are sad and melancholic, others are plain, some amusing, and some were actually kind of creepy. I half expected all these to be a boring read but now I have a few favorites.
October 16, 2023
Couple 'a good ones, couple 'a lame ones.
January 9, 2026
A collection of stories for all ages, some are eerie and others and almost laugh out loud funny at times. If you are looking for shorter scary reads then check this book out!
December 7, 2010
As a pre-teen, I adored ghost stories. They really scared me, freaked me out and left me feeling like if I would get up, out of bed, I'd run into a ghost as soon as I left the (somewhat) safe confines of my room!
Now, they're just odd. Perhaps that's due to the fact that I consumed just about every short story anthology of ghost stories I could get my hands on at that age. This book, Ghost Stories, is one of the few I still own.
I really loved these short story series. I think if I'd read them again I'd be as appreciative. In just a few short pages you're left feeling shivery and frightened and freaked out and then you can do it all over again once the next story starts!
Somehow I just wish I had remembered more of the stories...
Now, they're just odd. Perhaps that's due to the fact that I consumed just about every short story anthology of ghost stories I could get my hands on at that age. This book, Ghost Stories, is one of the few I still own.
I really loved these short story series. I think if I'd read them again I'd be as appreciative. In just a few short pages you're left feeling shivery and frightened and freaked out and then you can do it all over again once the next story starts!
Somehow I just wish I had remembered more of the stories...
February 21, 2014
This is a good collection of horror stories from some of the best writers in the genre (and a few outside it) that is a good introduction to horror for younger readers and those not overly familiar with horror stories. There were no outstanding stories for me (but that could be more to do with my hardened to horror soul than anything else) but all were equally good and enjoyable. Each tale has its own individual style but all are as engrossing as each other. A good collection, particularly for new horror fans, but for me it was a little tame.
August 10, 2016
A childhood favourite of mine, it has some of the most interesting, short horror stories I've read.
Also popular among my younger siblings who beg for a bed-time story every time.
Also popular among my younger siblings who beg for a bed-time story every time.
March 30, 2019
This book was okay, it was kinda confusing too me and i didn’t really seem to get my attention. But some of the different chapters look got my attention.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews