The Phantom Roundabout and Other Ghostly Tales

by Ruth Ainsworth, Shirley Hughes (Illustrator)

For Silas' uncle the fair was just another annual event. But for Silas the yearly ride on the painted roundabout horse, Pegasus, was a strange and mystical experience - almost as if he was riding the winged horse itself.

Joanna is lucky enough to be allowed to play in the big garden next door, and there she finds a strange companion, Rosemary, dressed in curiously old-fashioned clothes. Only the smell of the herb after which she is named can help Rosemary remember who she is.

Timmy couldn't think of anything to collet until he hit on the idea of bones. Unfortunately, however, he managed to acquire a leg bone that belonged to someone else - and its rightful owner soon came along to claim it!

Ruth Ainsworth's third collection of ghostly tales has all the virtues that made The Phantom Cyclist and The Phantom Fisherboy so successful: variety of setting, ghosts whose characters are as real as the modern children who encounter them and a satisfying attention to the sort of detail that gives substance to the stories and makes them memorable.

Once again, Shirley Hughes has contributed line drawings which manage to make her ghostly figures belong to the world they have re-entered.

173 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 1977

About the author

Ruth Gallard Ainsworth was a British writer, of over seventy children's books and numerous radio scripts.