The Angry Dead

by Rosemary Pardoe, Dave Brzeski (Editor)

"All of the elements of literate, affectionate, and skilful pastiche are the country churches, the English lanes, the wood-carving and paint-work restoring heroine, the casual references to endearingly obscure historical volumes… The least of these stories pass in a pleasant dreamy haze… but several tales in The Angry Dead transcend homage and qualify as exceptional contemporary ghost stories in their own right.” Thus wrote Glen Hirshberg of the original publication of The Angry Dead in 2001. The twelve stories included (eleven of them featuring church restorer Jane Bradshawe) were originally written and published in the 1980s, and have all been fully revised for this new edition“I love the occult detective sub-genre of literary ghost stories a great deal, and none more so than the ghostly investigations of art restorer Jane Bradshawe!” – Jessica Amanda Salmonson.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction

120 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Also writes under the names of: Mary Ann Allen, Mary Anne Allen, Ro Pardoe

Reviews

[Canavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

✭✭✭

“The Gravedigger and Death” (1983) ✭✭✭
“Hold Fast” (1985) ✭✭½
“Joan” (1983) ✭✭½
“Annie’s Ghost” (alternate title: “Annie and the Anchorite”) (1985) ✭✭½
“Margaret and Catherine” (1985) ✭✭✭½
“Ne Resurgat” (1985) ✭✭✭
“The Blue Boar of Totenhoe” (1984) ✭✭½
“The Chauffeur” (1986) ✭✭✭
“The Hatchment” (1984) ✭✭✭
“The Wandlebury Eyecatcher” (1985) ✭✭✭
“The Sheelagh-na-gig” (1997) ✭✭✭
“The Cambridge Beast” (1988) ✭✭✭

All stories revised 2021.

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosemary Pardoe has been one of the leading lights in MR James scholarship for decades, and this book wears that influence lightly throughout. They’re less ghost stories and instead almost feel like vignettes, but the Jamesian influence is strong in their basis in history and clear knowledge of church history and the wise understanding that something glimpsed is forever more worrying than something that overplays it’s hand and becomes absurd. The stories are uniformly excellent and in many ways feel as oblique commentaries on the classic ghost story form, hidden as narratives. Nicely understated and more successful because of it

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can only describe it as comfy ghost stories!

[Naticia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of short, classic-style ghost stories. One near the end made me a little mad but overall, a fun collection, with wonderful settings and a lot of interesting information on art restoration thrown in smoothly.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me begin with the contents of the book, so that lovers of gentle ghost stories may identify them beforehand: -
1) Annie and the Anchorite;
2) No Resurgat;
3) The Blue Boar of Totenhoe;
4) Hold Fast;
5) The Wandlebury Eyecatcher;
6) Joan;
7) The Chauffeur;
8) The Gravedigger and Death;
9) Margaret and Catharine;
10) The Hatchment;
11) The Cambridge Beast;
12) The Sheelagh na gig
These stories belong to the classic "Ghosts & Scholars" category, by which I mean to say that the following traits can be found among all these stories:

1. All of them (excluding the Cambridge beast) are told from the point of Jane Bradshaw, a professional involved in restoration & preservation of photographs and frescoes adorning old monuments, esp. churches.
2. They strictly avoid sex & violence, despite having dark undercurrents involving cruelty, pain, and ultimately death as well as something more horrific than death.
3. The language is correct, gentle, laced with humour, and yet extremely effective in depicting the horror of being visited by the dead or something even worse.

These stories, written by Mary Ann Allen (nom de plume of Rosemary Pardoe, the scholar responsible for revival of interest in and serious study of M.R. James) and published by Richard Fawcett, after first publication of eight stories in 1986, are classic examples of Jamesiana, and should be lapped up by lovers of classic supernatural stories.

[Carole Tyrrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Bradshawe is a church restorer and never knows what she might encounter in a small out of the way parish church or cathedral. Some of the items that she is asked to restore sometimes have stories or ‘other things’ attached to them….From my own experience, little country churches can have an atmosphere all of their own and I’ve visited quite a few of them.
There are 12 stories in this collection with 11 featuring Jane and the final one is the tale of a group of intrepid nights crawlers in Cambridge.
In ‘Joan’ a mother and daughter want to be reunited in death after 300 years. Jane helps her aunt and uncle to move house in ‘Annie’s Ghost’ or as she puts it ‘in a moment of weakness I had offered to help.’ She then discovers that they have moved into a house near to a sham ruin with a somewhat underdressed ghost.
A daughter disappears in ‘Margaret and Catherine’ as did another daughter centuries ago – it was suggested that the first one left with the gypsies but the second one remains missing….
In ‘Ne Resurgat’ Jane regrets looking out onto the Essex mudflats and thinking ‘What an ideal location for a ghost story’ as a wronged wife takes her revenge and also what was owed to her.
‘The Blue Boar of Totenhoe’ brings Jane’s sense of humour to the fore as she discusses one of the drawbacks to her trade with having people ask her if she ‘will have a look at their family heirloom? with the resultant boredom factor ‘ and knowing that she will have resulted in failing to convince ‘a determined ‘expert’ that his rather nice wooden goblet was not the Holy Grail and had probably been bought in Woolworths in the 1950’s.’
Jane feels compelled to weed the grave of a deceased chauffeur who still turned up for work in The Chaffeur’.
In ‘The Hatchment’ a long gone family member who became a priest and ‘retired from the incumbency in 1821 to write a theological treatise of characteristic mediocrity’ may have had a more interesting life after all. While restoring a the hatchment of the title, Jane discovers hidden love letters that reveal an illicit love affair.
There is a very sinister folly in ‘The Wandlebury Eyecatcher’ and in ‘The Sheelagh-na-Gig’ with its apparently shapeshifting carving, Jane reveals her love of old churches as ‘churches and dusk have their own particular atmosphere which has always appealed to me.’
Jane’s stories are narrated in the first person as is the ‘The Cambridge Beast’ which is narrated by Penny Cole. She and her three female companions like to go out at night climbing over the rooftops of Cambridge colleges. One night they get too close to a particular carved beast and then hear of someone else who also got too close and what happened to him. The story ends with a question on whether there are ‘old buildings which harbour……..beings in forgotten nooks and crannies?’
‘The Angry Dead’ is a very welcome reprint from Occult Detective Quarterly and they have done the author and reader a real service. The author, Rosemary Pardoe, is a leading authority on the ghost stores of M R James and the book’s title come from a quotation by him
‘But these precautions avail little against the angry dead.’ which is from his story, ‘The Malice of Inanimate Objects.’
In the introduction she reveals how the stories came to her but after writing them, the urge to write fiction left ‘as suddenly as it had arrived and it has never really returned.’ Which is a real shame as I enjoyed meeting Jane and reading about her adventures. In addition, the author discusses the inspirations for the stories such as inn signs, follies, places that she has visited, genuine hauntings and her particular knowledge of ‘certain types of church furnishings.’
I loved meeting Jane Bradshaw – she was a woman after my own heart.
The stories in the collection have been revised for this edition and there also little illustrations of the weird and wonderful animals or entities that can be found on some churches and cathedrals at the beginning of each chapter.
Several of the stories are set on or around the Essex marshes which evoked their timelessness and their bleakness. She encounters several vicars and priest; one of which has a nice model railway layout. Jane had a very definite voice and personality which worked very well.
I like Jane Bradshawe a lot and it feels a real shame that maybe no further stories will be forthcoming. Maybe just one more?

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosemary Pardoe's deep knowledge of (and love for) the classic English ghost story shines through this collection. Her spooky vignettes make intriguing use of history, architecture, and the countryside, are written with a graceful simplicity and offer some impressively original hauntings. Some of the stories are a little slight and, dare I say, polite, and might have benefitted from the darker edge her beloved M.R. James brings to the supernatural, but the collection works very well as a whole and confirms the author's place in her field. You'll never look at an old church's interior in quite the same way after reading these tales.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there are cozy mysteries, then there must be cozy ghost stories. And these certainly are those. Hopefully Pardoe will revisit Jane Bradshawe. There will be many happy readers if she does.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Gentle ghost stories