Eggp’s Reviews > The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories > Status Update

40. Simon Raven - The Bottle of 1912, 3 stars. Soldier returning from the war can't wait to see his sister and her family after all these years.
41. Robert Aickman - The Cicerones, 4 stars. Tourist is surprised by the emptiness of the cathedral he's having a nice long ramble in.
42. T.H. White - Soft Voices at Passenham, 4 stars. Macabre man tells snippets of ghost stories, his friend performed a concert for ghosts.

Wiki: "It is galling to be cut by anybody, and to be positively sent to Coventry , as he had done with all the shire ghosts, must have made them feel very small beer."

Word: "The Cicerones by Robert Aickman"

1. A guide who shows and explains the antiquities or curiosities of a place to strangers.

Apparently originally given to learned Italian antiquarians, whose services were sought by visitors seeking information about the antiquities of a place; subsequently usurped by the ordinary professional ‘guide’.

36. Elizabeth Bowen - Hand in Glove, 3 stars. Nasty grasping girls mistreat their ailing aunt and plunder her things.
37. V.S. Pritchett - A Story of Don Juan, 4 stars. Widower tricks man into sleeping with his wife's ghost.
38. Christopher Woodforde - Cushi, 4 stars. Old village sexton and new priest clash.
39. Walter de la Mare - Bad Company, 3 stars. Man follows an an evil looking passenger home from the train.

33. Charles Williams - Et in Sempiternum Pereant, 1 star. Impatient old man has a vision of hell while walking.
34. 34. L.T.C. Rolt - Bosworth Summit Pound, 3 stars. Man Investigates what in a canal gave his brave boating friend the shock that eventually killed him.
35. 35. A.N.L. Munby - An Encounter in the Mist, 3 stars. Lost traveler is nearly led off a cliff by a well intentioned good samaritan.

30. Hugh Walpole - The Little Ghost, 3 stars. Grieving man holidays in a noisy house, feels a presence in his room.
31. A.E. Coppard - Ahoy, Sailor Boy!, 2 stars. Sailor spends the day in a small village, hits on a well dressed lady.
32. Thomas Burke - The Hollow Man, 2 stars. Another murdered friend comes back to visit, this time ruining a diner by creeping out the customers.

Word: "If Nameless had not been the man he was — thick, bovine and costive — he would have flung up his arms and screamed."

2. fig. Slow or reluctant in action; esp.
a. in speech or utterance: Close, reticent, uncommunicative;
b. Reluctant to give, niggardly, stingy.
c. Given with reluctance or sparingly.

3. Hard and impervious.

27. H. Russell Wakefield - Old Man's Beard, 3 stars. Otherwise healthy and physically blessed young woman has nightmares about a man with a long gray beard.
28. Edith Wharton - Mr. Jones, 4 stars. Woman inherits a lovely run down house, but finds her household efforts blocked by an old servant she's never met.
29. A.M. Burrage - Smee, 3 stars. Hide and seek style game seems to have one silent player too many.

24. L.P. Hartley - A Visitor from Down Under, 3 stars. Rich man returns to old familiar places, but an unwanted visitor follows him all the way from Australia.
25. John Buchan - Fullcircle, 4 stars. Friend introduces man to a couple who recently bought a beautiful old home, is surprised by the swift changes in their personalities.
26. William Fryer Harvey - The Clock, 3 stars. [2020]

Wiki: "It was beside a groyne about half a mile from the house."