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Curfew & Other Eerie Tales
"...his eye sockets were appallingly hollow, and he lifted his chin as the blind do when they seek." - from "Curfew"
Lucy M. Boston is best remembered today as the Carnegie Medal-winning author of a series of children's novels set in Green Knowe, an ancient, haunted house based on Hemingford Grey Manor near Huntingdon, Cambridge. She began writing these chilling tales when she was already in her sixties, but they were not her first attempts at fiction. A handful of supernatural tales dating from the early 1930s exist among her papers, and these are here published together for the first time, along with her only play, The Horned Man, which has been out of print since 1970. An introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry considers the literary influences on these works and looks at them in the context of Boston's personal life.
Lucy M. Boston is best remembered today as the Carnegie Medal-winning author of a series of children's novels set in Green Knowe, an ancient, haunted house based on Hemingford Grey Manor near Huntingdon, Cambridge. She began writing these chilling tales when she was already in her sixties, but they were not her first attempts at fiction. A handful of supernatural tales dating from the early 1930s exist among her papers, and these are here published together for the first time, along with her only play, The Horned Man, which has been out of print since 1970. An introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry considers the literary influences on these works and looks at them in the context of Boston's personal life.
193 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2011
3 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Lucy M. Boston
34 books110 followersLucy M. Boston (1892–1990), born Lucy Maria Wood, was an English novelist who wrote for children and adults, publishing her work entirely after the age of 60. She is best known for her "Green Knowe" series: six low fantasy children's novels published by Faber between 1954 and 1976. The setting is Green Knowe, an old country manor house based on Boston's Cambridgeshire home at Hemingford Grey. For the fourth book in the series, A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961), she won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.[1]
During her long life, she distinguished herself as a writer, mainly of children’s books, and as the creator of a magical garden. She was also an accomplished artist who had studied drawing and painting in Vienna, and a needlewoman who produced a series of patchworks.
During her long life, she distinguished herself as a writer, mainly of children’s books, and as the creator of a magical garden. She was also an accomplished artist who had studied drawing and painting in Vienna, and a needlewoman who produced a series of patchworks.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 27, 2021
Lucy M. Boston’s responsible for a favourite, classic children’s book, the magical The Children of Green Knowe, so I was really pleased to find an affordable copy of this selection of material I’ve never seen before. There are six supernatural stories included together with a brief play, only three of the stories have ever been published before, scattered across obscure collections. Reading these M. R. James’s influence’s evident, although I was also reminded me of a more recent discovery Eleanor Scott’s Randall’s Round. Boston’s characters find themselves in out of the way, isolated country houses, frequently stumbling across cursed objects that change their lives, and never for the better. The stand-out was the distinctly unsettling “Pollution,” eco-fiction before its time, a cross between Nigel Kneale and Lovecraft with its creepy, budding monstrosities, born from industrial waste spilling out into surrounding countryside.
Unlike other ghost stories I’ve tried recently which link their apparitions and hauntings to quests for justice or vengeance, Boston’s otherworldly encounters are frequently rooted in malevolence or pure evil, although the perversity of people has a central role, particularly in “The Horned Man” an acid account of a seventeenth-century witch finder descending on a sleepy, rural community. A perspective that goes some way towards explaining Boston's desire to live in relative seclusion, away from town or village gossip. I was trying to work out what I liked so much about Boston’s eerie fiction, her endings are frustratingly vague, and the sources of the disturbances are sketchily-drawn. But Boston’s brilliant at conveying a sense of place, an atmosphere of unease, and there’s something very satisfying about her descriptive passages and turns of phrase, making the journey through her narratives surprisingly worthwhile. Although there were some grating elements, mildly xenophobic attitudes and traces of mainstream, colonialist stereotypes which marred a couple of the pieces presented here. This is published by the Swan River Press, a wonderful Irish indie publisher, based in Dublin, who focus on gothic and weird fiction, much of it hard to obtain or rescued from obscurity.
Rating: 3.5
Unlike other ghost stories I’ve tried recently which link their apparitions and hauntings to quests for justice or vengeance, Boston’s otherworldly encounters are frequently rooted in malevolence or pure evil, although the perversity of people has a central role, particularly in “The Horned Man” an acid account of a seventeenth-century witch finder descending on a sleepy, rural community. A perspective that goes some way towards explaining Boston's desire to live in relative seclusion, away from town or village gossip. I was trying to work out what I liked so much about Boston’s eerie fiction, her endings are frustratingly vague, and the sources of the disturbances are sketchily-drawn. But Boston’s brilliant at conveying a sense of place, an atmosphere of unease, and there’s something very satisfying about her descriptive passages and turns of phrase, making the journey through her narratives surprisingly worthwhile. Although there were some grating elements, mildly xenophobic attitudes and traces of mainstream, colonialist stereotypes which marred a couple of the pieces presented here. This is published by the Swan River Press, a wonderful Irish indie publisher, based in Dublin, who focus on gothic and weird fiction, much of it hard to obtain or rescued from obscurity.
Rating: 3.5
Want to read
January 13, 2019Lucy M. Boston (1892 – 1990) was born in Southport, Lancashire. She studied English at Oxford and served as a nurse in France, before settling in Cheshire towards the end of the First World War. After her marriage broke down in 1935 she trained as a painter in Europe, eventually returning to England on the eve of the Second World War. In 1939 she bought the eleventh century Manor in Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire, which was her home and literary inspiration until her death. It is the setting of her much-loved series of Green Knowe novels for children, and is now open to visitors.
Contents:
v - Introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry
001 - "Curfew"
013 - "Pollution"
035 - "Blind Man's Buff"
045 - "Many Coloured Glass"
057 - "The Italian Desk"
071 - "The Tiger-Skin Rug"
091 - "The Horned Man: A Play in Two Acts"
195 - Acknowledgements
Contents:
v - Introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry
001 - "Curfew"
013 - "Pollution"
035 - "Blind Man's Buff"
045 - "Many Coloured Glass"
057 - "The Italian Desk"
071 - "The Tiger-Skin Rug"
091 - "The Horned Man: A Play in Two Acts"
195 - Acknowledgements
January 4, 2024
This was a delight to read. A short, charming collection of forgotten ghost stories from the author of a beloved children's fantasy series, perfect for the Fall months when the evening air grows cold and the nights being to stretch out. I've exhausted the works of the masters of this fiction form (James, Aickman, De La Mare) long ago, so I'm always on the lookout for obscure collections by lesser-known authors. These are usually passable but can often be disappointing (like Eleanor Scott's Randall's Round, which failed to deliver on the promise of its incredible title story). I'm happy to say that this is not the case at all with Mrs. Boston's work. She's not reinventing the wheel here or delivering something wholly new and unprecedented, she's just doing a celebrated and beloved genre of short fiction very, very well. The Introduction by celebrated Jamesian actor Robert Lloyd Parry was excellent in providing background knowledge about Mrs. Boston's life and career. Indeed, I originally discovered her through a recording of her story "Curfew" uploaded by Lloyd Parry and for that I'm very grateful. I'd recommend this lovingly-made collection to anyone who likes classic English ghost stories. I truly doubt you'll be disappointed.
One thing that struck me about this collection was the actual feeling of menace. Often in lesser-known literary ghost stories the ghost is sad rather than scary, and the stakes feel very low; nobody emerges hurt from their encounter with the supernatural and is shaken at most. Another hallmark of English ghost stories (especially from the early 20th century) is use of then-fashionable spiritualist pseudoscience to explain away the ghost as something that makes "sense." This is quite frustrating to modern readers like myself who want to be immersed in a menacing fictional narrative and don't need to be assured that whatever is happening is grounded in "science." This is not true at all for Curfew. As another Goodreads reviewer pointed out, Boston's ghosts and spirits mean business. They seem to be genuine agents of evil, violence, and chaos (much like M.R. James') and as a result are so much more sinister. The stakes of the stories are also excitingly unpredictable. In these stories, people are killed (including a child) by the forces of the supernatural or go violently insane. This, obviously, makes them a lot more effective in raising chills. As to my second complaint about traditional English ghost stories, Boston satisfyingly explains very little. We get hints but she never truly spells it out for us, trusting us to come to our own conclusions about what is occurring. The ambiguity leaves matters unsettled in a menacing way, and the conclusions we draw ourselves will always be more haunting than if we were explicitly told. I feel that I'll be revisiting some of the stories in this collection (especially the title story and "Pollution") for years to come and I'm grateful to the amazing Swan River Press for bringing these stories out of the darkness. Indeed several stories (including one of the best) had gone unpublished until they were compiled here.
Because the collection is so short I'll give my thoughts on each story.
"Curfew"- Title stories are typically the best in the collection, right? The beautifully-written "Curfew" is no exception. In it, our narrator reminisces on his boyhood holidays spent with his eccentric aunt and uncle at their home on the grounds of an ancient Anglo-Saxon estate. While gardening, they dig up an old stone coffin with a foreboding message carved into it, as well as a bell that once hung from a now-ruined tower. The uncle foolishly restores the bell tower and a spirit from the past is summoned by its ringing. I loved this story. So many parts of it worked for me. When the supernatural happens many will have seen it coming, but I found it to still be very effective and the "wallop" is perfectly executed and paced. There's a delightful moment after the narrator comes face-to-face with the ghost and his disbelieving uncle is telling the kids ghost stories and Boston writes that, for the narrator, "all [the ghosts] had to me the same face." The description of the bell's ringing is also very eerie and effective: "in it there was something wild and almost screamlike." More than that though, the characters and setting are wonderfully set. The fiery-tempered Uncle Tom whose toying with the past may have had fatal consequences, the broke and mournful old aristocrat Sir Roger who haunts the fringes of his now-decaying estate much like a ghost himself. The setting of the old estate is also beautifully-conjured: silent, weed-choked, forlorn. I think, more than anything, what I loved about this story was the acute sense of melancholic Autumn nostalgia conjured in the setting and narrative. Childhood holidays ending. Out beloved relatives growing old and vulnerable. The past allowed to rot away, like the old manor house "allowed to fall down in its own good time." Every aspect of this story contributes in setting an unforgettable, painfully real tone and haunting atmosphere. Perhaps I'm exaggerating due to how deeply I'm thinking about it now, but this might be one of my favorite ghost stories ever written.
"Pollution"- This is my close-second favorite story of the collection. A young man takes up the position of a holiday tutor to a young boy living in an old manor near a rapidly-industrializing city. Strange things begin to happen. Bizarre insectine creatures emerge from taps and water pipes. A series of mysterious murders plague the neighborhood. An ancient water tower exudes a foul, threatening miasma over the landscape. All these phenomena seem to be contributing to each other but how? They are all left mysterious and ambiguous. What is in the water tower? Who or what is committing the murders? What's the deal with the abandoned village and its folklore about the pit? Is industry polluting the ancient landscape or is ancient landscape polluting modern society? These unanswered but fascinating questions put me in mind of the writing of Robert Aickman. Like Aickman's work, the story is wonderfully written with a half-joking, half-sorrowful poeticism and effective dialogue and characters. The story is a wonderful mystery, with larger-than-life gothic flourishes and an icky, eerie sense of growing dread. I loved it.
Blind Man's Bluff - This was a fun, grim story. It was a bit more "Tales from the Crypt" than M. R. James or Aickman, but entertaining nonetheless. An adventurous Englishman fails to save the life of his menacing Indigenous guide in the Sierra Nevadas and is haunted by his vengeful spirit. The final denouement of the story is gruesome and bizarre and definitely subverted my expectations. The tale is definitely more minor than the previous two and tainted a bit for me by the xenophobic, racially insensitive legacies of Boston's time. I think this story becomes better when you question what we are being told, after all the narrator is being told these events. Was Captain Fenley's guide as menacing as we are told or is he trying to justify his actions? Could he have had a larger role in his guide's death than he feels comfortable telling us? A fun story, but not unforgettable.
Many Colored Glass - This story was published in the twilight of Boston's life in the 70s and it shows. I'm not suggesting it's bad but it seems very, very 70s-y if that makes sense. The sweetheart of a local heartthrob attends an opulent party at the home of his father. She notices a striking young man in the crowd of radical students protesting the party and comes to realize that the glass display cases with dioramas of mannequins set up in the house for the party may contain a presage of the future. This story is subtle and eerie and almost feels made for a 70s anthology horror show like Nigel Kneale's Beasts. It's such a departure from the previous story that you'd think a different writer wrote each of them. Either way, I liked this story a lot, especially the references and themes to the cultural clashes of the times. Social criticism or insight into the times is mostly sterilized from ghost stories (usually preoccupied with the past) like this, so I felt its inclusion made this story a lot more unique.
The Italian Desk- Another highlight of the collection. A burnt-out doctor with unclear mental strains vacations at a small country house to rest. He's drawn to portraits of an enigmatic young woman that dwelled at the house before him as well as the strange art she collected and the bizarre and sinister wooden desk she used, with its hidden carvings of strangled, bloated faces. Unsurprisingly, things do not end well for the poor doctor, mostly do to his fascination with the titular desk. The supernatural force here is again a mysterious agent of pure evil and the fate of the doctor is grim. "The Italian Desk" doesn't shy away from the macabre and gruesome and small details really stuck out to me. I loved the moment when the spirit seemingly thanks the doctor for inviting him in as well as the characterization of the loving but bumbling housekeeper that seems straight out of an M. R. James story. I also appreciated that the story didn't go with the obvious expectation of what the haunting would be. It wasn't as memorable as "Pollution" or "Curfew," though it may have been the scariest story in the collection.
"The Tiger-Skin Rug" - A mysterious, haunting story about a (you guessed it) haunted tiger-skin rug. When a family purchases it, a charming but enigmatic visitor comes to stay, one who seems to have a very close relationship with the rug. I loved the small weird details of the story, like the vicious monkey that goes AWOL on the grounds and the mysterious, obdurate Malay organ-grinder. I also appreciated the folklore that Boston drew from of cursed man-tigers living on the fringe of society seems to be relatively accurately drawn from actual folktales of Southeast Asia. This another story where we're *pretty* sure we know what happens, but a lot is still satisfyingly vague and mysterious. The conclusion is genuinely shocking and horrible (in a good way). This story is one of the three or four best stories in the collection. My one criticism though is the villain being named Dr. Sathanos. Seems a bit on the nose!
"The Horned Man"- Due to its 90-page length I assumed that this would be a novella but it's actually a two act play. It's a story set in the reign of James I about witch-hunting. The characters are mostly archetypes you'd expect to find in this story: the evil, cunning witch-hunter, the naively cruel, scheming young girls who throw accusations without minding the consequences, the morally right but powerless judge, the innocent, persecuted old woman. Lloyd Parry writes in his introduction that this story was likely written for a very young audience and I think I agree. It was fun to read, but it wasn't too engaging, either because of its format (I haven't read a play since high school) or its black-and-white characterization. That said, I did appreciate the vague references to some sort of devilish cult that the witch-hunter and governess were both part of and that may have been using the witch hysteria to garner human sacrifices. I think I may have been too old to be affected by the play, though it would be great to see it performed and I imagine it would had a strong effect on me if I saw it as an adolescent, as Boston likely intended its audience to be. We're told that it was put on at a local school and that Mrs. Boston was able to see it performed by the students, which must have been a real treat for her. I'd love to know if it has been performed since.
One thing that struck me about this collection was the actual feeling of menace. Often in lesser-known literary ghost stories the ghost is sad rather than scary, and the stakes feel very low; nobody emerges hurt from their encounter with the supernatural and is shaken at most. Another hallmark of English ghost stories (especially from the early 20th century) is use of then-fashionable spiritualist pseudoscience to explain away the ghost as something that makes "sense." This is quite frustrating to modern readers like myself who want to be immersed in a menacing fictional narrative and don't need to be assured that whatever is happening is grounded in "science." This is not true at all for Curfew. As another Goodreads reviewer pointed out, Boston's ghosts and spirits mean business. They seem to be genuine agents of evil, violence, and chaos (much like M.R. James') and as a result are so much more sinister. The stakes of the stories are also excitingly unpredictable. In these stories, people are killed (including a child) by the forces of the supernatural or go violently insane. This, obviously, makes them a lot more effective in raising chills. As to my second complaint about traditional English ghost stories, Boston satisfyingly explains very little. We get hints but she never truly spells it out for us, trusting us to come to our own conclusions about what is occurring. The ambiguity leaves matters unsettled in a menacing way, and the conclusions we draw ourselves will always be more haunting than if we were explicitly told. I feel that I'll be revisiting some of the stories in this collection (especially the title story and "Pollution") for years to come and I'm grateful to the amazing Swan River Press for bringing these stories out of the darkness. Indeed several stories (including one of the best) had gone unpublished until they were compiled here.
Because the collection is so short I'll give my thoughts on each story.
"Curfew"- Title stories are typically the best in the collection, right? The beautifully-written "Curfew" is no exception. In it, our narrator reminisces on his boyhood holidays spent with his eccentric aunt and uncle at their home on the grounds of an ancient Anglo-Saxon estate. While gardening, they dig up an old stone coffin with a foreboding message carved into it, as well as a bell that once hung from a now-ruined tower. The uncle foolishly restores the bell tower and a spirit from the past is summoned by its ringing. I loved this story. So many parts of it worked for me. When the supernatural happens many will have seen it coming, but I found it to still be very effective and the "wallop" is perfectly executed and paced. There's a delightful moment after the narrator comes face-to-face with the ghost and his disbelieving uncle is telling the kids ghost stories and Boston writes that, for the narrator, "all [the ghosts] had to me the same face." The description of the bell's ringing is also very eerie and effective: "in it there was something wild and almost screamlike." More than that though, the characters and setting are wonderfully set. The fiery-tempered Uncle Tom whose toying with the past may have had fatal consequences, the broke and mournful old aristocrat Sir Roger who haunts the fringes of his now-decaying estate much like a ghost himself. The setting of the old estate is also beautifully-conjured: silent, weed-choked, forlorn. I think, more than anything, what I loved about this story was the acute sense of melancholic Autumn nostalgia conjured in the setting and narrative. Childhood holidays ending. Out beloved relatives growing old and vulnerable. The past allowed to rot away, like the old manor house "allowed to fall down in its own good time." Every aspect of this story contributes in setting an unforgettable, painfully real tone and haunting atmosphere. Perhaps I'm exaggerating due to how deeply I'm thinking about it now, but this might be one of my favorite ghost stories ever written.
"Pollution"- This is my close-second favorite story of the collection. A young man takes up the position of a holiday tutor to a young boy living in an old manor near a rapidly-industrializing city. Strange things begin to happen. Bizarre insectine creatures emerge from taps and water pipes. A series of mysterious murders plague the neighborhood. An ancient water tower exudes a foul, threatening miasma over the landscape. All these phenomena seem to be contributing to each other but how? They are all left mysterious and ambiguous. What is in the water tower? Who or what is committing the murders? What's the deal with the abandoned village and its folklore about the pit? Is industry polluting the ancient landscape or is ancient landscape polluting modern society? These unanswered but fascinating questions put me in mind of the writing of Robert Aickman. Like Aickman's work, the story is wonderfully written with a half-joking, half-sorrowful poeticism and effective dialogue and characters. The story is a wonderful mystery, with larger-than-life gothic flourishes and an icky, eerie sense of growing dread. I loved it.
Blind Man's Bluff - This was a fun, grim story. It was a bit more "Tales from the Crypt" than M. R. James or Aickman, but entertaining nonetheless. An adventurous Englishman fails to save the life of his menacing Indigenous guide in the Sierra Nevadas and is haunted by his vengeful spirit. The final denouement of the story is gruesome and bizarre and definitely subverted my expectations. The tale is definitely more minor than the previous two and tainted a bit for me by the xenophobic, racially insensitive legacies of Boston's time. I think this story becomes better when you question what we are being told, after all the narrator is being told these events. Was Captain Fenley's guide as menacing as we are told or is he trying to justify his actions? Could he have had a larger role in his guide's death than he feels comfortable telling us? A fun story, but not unforgettable.
Many Colored Glass - This story was published in the twilight of Boston's life in the 70s and it shows. I'm not suggesting it's bad but it seems very, very 70s-y if that makes sense. The sweetheart of a local heartthrob attends an opulent party at the home of his father. She notices a striking young man in the crowd of radical students protesting the party and comes to realize that the glass display cases with dioramas of mannequins set up in the house for the party may contain a presage of the future. This story is subtle and eerie and almost feels made for a 70s anthology horror show like Nigel Kneale's Beasts. It's such a departure from the previous story that you'd think a different writer wrote each of them. Either way, I liked this story a lot, especially the references and themes to the cultural clashes of the times. Social criticism or insight into the times is mostly sterilized from ghost stories (usually preoccupied with the past) like this, so I felt its inclusion made this story a lot more unique.
The Italian Desk- Another highlight of the collection. A burnt-out doctor with unclear mental strains vacations at a small country house to rest. He's drawn to portraits of an enigmatic young woman that dwelled at the house before him as well as the strange art she collected and the bizarre and sinister wooden desk she used, with its hidden carvings of strangled, bloated faces. Unsurprisingly, things do not end well for the poor doctor, mostly do to his fascination with the titular desk. The supernatural force here is again a mysterious agent of pure evil and the fate of the doctor is grim. "The Italian Desk" doesn't shy away from the macabre and gruesome and small details really stuck out to me. I loved the moment when the spirit seemingly thanks the doctor for inviting him in as well as the characterization of the loving but bumbling housekeeper that seems straight out of an M. R. James story. I also appreciated that the story didn't go with the obvious expectation of what the haunting would be. It wasn't as memorable as "Pollution" or "Curfew," though it may have been the scariest story in the collection.
"The Tiger-Skin Rug" - A mysterious, haunting story about a (you guessed it) haunted tiger-skin rug. When a family purchases it, a charming but enigmatic visitor comes to stay, one who seems to have a very close relationship with the rug. I loved the small weird details of the story, like the vicious monkey that goes AWOL on the grounds and the mysterious, obdurate Malay organ-grinder. I also appreciated the folklore that Boston drew from of cursed man-tigers living on the fringe of society seems to be relatively accurately drawn from actual folktales of Southeast Asia. This another story where we're *pretty* sure we know what happens, but a lot is still satisfyingly vague and mysterious. The conclusion is genuinely shocking and horrible (in a good way). This story is one of the three or four best stories in the collection. My one criticism though is the villain being named Dr. Sathanos. Seems a bit on the nose!
"The Horned Man"- Due to its 90-page length I assumed that this would be a novella but it's actually a two act play. It's a story set in the reign of James I about witch-hunting. The characters are mostly archetypes you'd expect to find in this story: the evil, cunning witch-hunter, the naively cruel, scheming young girls who throw accusations without minding the consequences, the morally right but powerless judge, the innocent, persecuted old woman. Lloyd Parry writes in his introduction that this story was likely written for a very young audience and I think I agree. It was fun to read, but it wasn't too engaging, either because of its format (I haven't read a play since high school) or its black-and-white characterization. That said, I did appreciate the vague references to some sort of devilish cult that the witch-hunter and governess were both part of and that may have been using the witch hysteria to garner human sacrifices. I think I may have been too old to be affected by the play, though it would be great to see it performed and I imagine it would had a strong effect on me if I saw it as an adolescent, as Boston likely intended its audience to be. We're told that it was put on at a local school and that Mrs. Boston was able to see it performed by the students, which must have been a real treat for her. I'd love to know if it has been performed since.
October 6, 2016
Some very nice spooky stories and a short play about witch hunting in Stuart England. A great read!
January 26, 2018
Lucy Maria Boston (1892~1990) is best known today for her series of children's novels set in Green Knowe, an ancient house based on Boston's own home, Hemingford Grey Manor near Huntingdon, Cambridge, which was built in the 1130s. Her first two books, Yew Hall (a novel for adults) and the first of the Green Knowe series, The Children of Green Knowe, were published in 1954. At the time, Boston was already in her sixties. She won the Carnegie Medal for A Stranger of Green Knowe, the fourth book in the series, in 1961.
Curfew & Other Eerie Tales was published by Swan River Press as a limited edition hardback in 2011. It contains six tales and a play: Curfew, Pollution, Blind Man's Buff, Many Coloured Glass, The Italian Desk, The Tiger-Skin Rug, The Horned Man.
As their parents are abroad, the narrator of 'Curfew' and his two brothers are staying with their Uncle Tom and Aunt Catherine, at the cottage they have bought in the outlaying land of a fifteenth century manor house. In the process of doing up the garden, after rolling away a boulder atop a hillock, Aunt Catherine and Uncle Tom discover a stone coffer, the lid of which carries the inscription 'Deliver us O Lord from the Evil One'. Well, as we all know, digging up ancient hillocks is never a good thing to do, any more than discovering old coffers is.
The narrator of 'Pollution', Mr Gable, has taken a post as holiday tutor to a delicate boy at St. Mark's Abbey Lodge. Gable and his charge share an interest in entomology, but when revolting insects begin dropping out of taps in households throughout the area they soon lose all enthusiasm for their hobby.
In 'Blind Man's Buff', Captain Fernley, at an early stage in his career in the diplomatic service, is sent out to Venezuela, where he takes the opportunity to do some climbing on the Sierra Nevada. He takes with him a native guide, Quibar. But events take a tragic turn, the consequences of which poison the rest of the Captain's life.
Click here to read the rest of the review...
Curfew & Other Eerie Tales was published by Swan River Press as a limited edition hardback in 2011. It contains six tales and a play: Curfew, Pollution, Blind Man's Buff, Many Coloured Glass, The Italian Desk, The Tiger-Skin Rug, The Horned Man.
As their parents are abroad, the narrator of 'Curfew' and his two brothers are staying with their Uncle Tom and Aunt Catherine, at the cottage they have bought in the outlaying land of a fifteenth century manor house. In the process of doing up the garden, after rolling away a boulder atop a hillock, Aunt Catherine and Uncle Tom discover a stone coffer, the lid of which carries the inscription 'Deliver us O Lord from the Evil One'. Well, as we all know, digging up ancient hillocks is never a good thing to do, any more than discovering old coffers is.
The narrator of 'Pollution', Mr Gable, has taken a post as holiday tutor to a delicate boy at St. Mark's Abbey Lodge. Gable and his charge share an interest in entomology, but when revolting insects begin dropping out of taps in households throughout the area they soon lose all enthusiasm for their hobby.
In 'Blind Man's Buff', Captain Fernley, at an early stage in his career in the diplomatic service, is sent out to Venezuela, where he takes the opportunity to do some climbing on the Sierra Nevada. He takes with him a native guide, Quibar. But events take a tragic turn, the consequences of which poison the rest of the Captain's life.
Click here to read the rest of the review...
April 10, 2022
As I’ve said in the past, I’m not a great lover of short stories but this help to fill in a little bit of time I had before I got up. That also applies to the other book I’ve read by the same author author.
June 4, 2015
Recommended for Lucy M Boston fans. It was interesting to see how some of the same themes appear in these earlier works and in the Green Knowe books.
January 4, 2013
This was a small press publishing offered by the person who does the M.R. James ghost story readings. The book is throughly gorgeous the boards are covered with a gorgeous picture of the house from 1899 that the authour moved into in the middle of the 20th century. The stories were all pretty enjoyable, my favourite one was about a very disturbing desk that drove two people insane. The stories were all quite good but the endings never seemed to quite fit, not enough was revealed or explained or what was explained didn't quite sit well with the rest of the story (the desk story probably being the exception to this). The first half of the book was short stories and the second half was a two act play. I enjoyed the play immensley, it did have a satisfying ending. It was set during the reign of James I and had witch hunters, witches, and little girls making up stories. The girls were quite horrible, the real witches schemeing was pretty great and there was a very satifisfactory retribution at the end. I'm not sure how well it would actually work staged but it was very enjoyable to read.
March 9, 2024
Boston, Lucy - Curfew And Other Eerie Tales
Born in 1892, died in 1990, Boston worked as a nurse in France during the Great War, wrote a popular series of children's books, as well as assorted ghost stories.
The boys’ aunt and uncle rented the cottage, close by the crumbling manor. The aunt is mad for gardening and repurposing, and that includes an old bell from the ruin. The “Curfew” bell, as it is called, bears a sinister reputation. Does the aunt heed?
How had I missed “Pollution” over the years? This is an exemplary piece and belongs in more anthologies. This is a creepy work, not of fouled air, but tainted waters, worsened by neglect. Wrigglers that lurk in the depths, rising, however, when hungry.
Francis was recovering from appendicitis surgery in the countryside. The house was restful, the furnishings a tasteful mix of antiques. Including “The Italian Desk” … provided one did not examine the intricate carvings too closely.
The collection concludes with “The Horned Man” which is a chamber play. Normally, I dislike reading scripts: film, TV, theatre. This one was brief, and features a charismatic witch-finder who understands how to charge the treachery of testimony.
The boards for this book show a painting of Boston’s house. Inside, there is a website listed of the home where one can arrange a visitation appointment.
As always from Swan River Press, thoughtful touches.
Born in 1892, died in 1990, Boston worked as a nurse in France during the Great War, wrote a popular series of children's books, as well as assorted ghost stories.
The boys’ aunt and uncle rented the cottage, close by the crumbling manor. The aunt is mad for gardening and repurposing, and that includes an old bell from the ruin. The “Curfew” bell, as it is called, bears a sinister reputation. Does the aunt heed?
How had I missed “Pollution” over the years? This is an exemplary piece and belongs in more anthologies. This is a creepy work, not of fouled air, but tainted waters, worsened by neglect. Wrigglers that lurk in the depths, rising, however, when hungry.
Francis was recovering from appendicitis surgery in the countryside. The house was restful, the furnishings a tasteful mix of antiques. Including “The Italian Desk” … provided one did not examine the intricate carvings too closely.
The collection concludes with “The Horned Man” which is a chamber play. Normally, I dislike reading scripts: film, TV, theatre. This one was brief, and features a charismatic witch-finder who understands how to charge the treachery of testimony.
The boards for this book show a painting of Boston’s house. Inside, there is a website listed of the home where one can arrange a visitation appointment.
As always from Swan River Press, thoughtful touches.
June 15, 2025
Ali duh... stvorenje koje koristi eho-lokaciju... lele.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2025
I love these eerie stories, they are not very well known but great fun. A fascinating introduction by MR James expert Robert Lloyd Parry.
November 3, 2011
This collection of short supernatural stories is a real pleasure to behold (with its aesthetic dust jacket and beautiful inner-cover illustration) as well as to hold (Swan River Press has meticulously produced a typo-free book with thick pages and old-fashioned typeface). But the real pleasure is to be derived from the stories. The contents are: -
(*) Introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry: a biographical sketch of the author, as well as a short preview of the physical & literary world that she had inhabited.
1) Curfew: a proper Jamesian story with all the antiquarian trappings and gentle suggestions that we can associate with such stories, but rather inconclusive, and is too ambiguous to enjoy, since the source of the malicious presence as well as its impact and eventual handling is kept open & vague.
2) Pollution: a powerful story that had remained unprinted till now, but this one also loses its way after creating a tremendous potential for heart-stopping climax, since it is never cleared as to whether the disgusting blood-sucking creatures are a result of industrial pollution, or have been the off-shoot of some demoniac presence coming out from the bottomless pit below the water-works, neither is it stated as to exactly how the menace was dealt with and by whom (God, in the form of the lightning? Ministry of Health? The Parson?).
3) Blind Man's Buff: the most powerful story of this collection (unprinted so far), that manages to shock the reader despite it having the theme of revenge from beyond the grave that has been done-to-death by almost every writer of spooky stories.
4) Many Coloured Glass: a predictable story, but not without its charm and wonderful depictions of social events and the tension that dominates them while remaining subterranean.
5) The Italian Desk: another (until now) unprinted story, but awesome in its gentle depiction of descent into insanity aided & abetted by suitable physical & emotional stimuli.
6) The Tiger-Skin Rug: a predictable story, and rather common in these days of werewolf-dominated literature, but it still works because even in its denouement the story hovers between supernatural and misguided imagination on part of the protagonists.
7) The Horned Man: a drama that uses the supernatural as a pretext to show the darkness that hides inside human heart, that can be exploited by others with slightest of subtlety to destroy innocent lives.
Overall, the stories are good, and despite being written in a polished and muted manner that would be considered almost 'invisible' these days, I am being compelled to take away 1 star because of my grudge concerning the first two stories. But I would encourage you to judge the book on your own, after you have read it. Recommended.
(*) Introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry: a biographical sketch of the author, as well as a short preview of the physical & literary world that she had inhabited.
1) Curfew: a proper Jamesian story with all the antiquarian trappings and gentle suggestions that we can associate with such stories, but rather inconclusive, and is too ambiguous to enjoy, since the source of the malicious presence as well as its impact and eventual handling is kept open & vague.
2) Pollution: a powerful story that had remained unprinted till now, but this one also loses its way after creating a tremendous potential for heart-stopping climax, since it is never cleared as to whether the disgusting blood-sucking creatures are a result of industrial pollution, or have been the off-shoot of some demoniac presence coming out from the bottomless pit below the water-works, neither is it stated as to exactly how the menace was dealt with and by whom (God, in the form of the lightning? Ministry of Health? The Parson?).
3) Blind Man's Buff: the most powerful story of this collection (unprinted so far), that manages to shock the reader despite it having the theme of revenge from beyond the grave that has been done-to-death by almost every writer of spooky stories.
4) Many Coloured Glass: a predictable story, but not without its charm and wonderful depictions of social events and the tension that dominates them while remaining subterranean.
5) The Italian Desk: another (until now) unprinted story, but awesome in its gentle depiction of descent into insanity aided & abetted by suitable physical & emotional stimuli.
6) The Tiger-Skin Rug: a predictable story, and rather common in these days of werewolf-dominated literature, but it still works because even in its denouement the story hovers between supernatural and misguided imagination on part of the protagonists.
7) The Horned Man: a drama that uses the supernatural as a pretext to show the darkness that hides inside human heart, that can be exploited by others with slightest of subtlety to destroy innocent lives.
Overall, the stories are good, and despite being written in a polished and muted manner that would be considered almost 'invisible' these days, I am being compelled to take away 1 star because of my grudge concerning the first two stories. But I would encourage you to judge the book on your own, after you have read it. Recommended.
November 25, 2011
This collection of short supernatural stories is a real pleasure to behold (with its aesthetic dust jacket and beautiful inner-cover illustration) as well as to hold (Swan River Press has meticulously produced a typo-free book with thick pages and old-fashioned typeface). But the real pleasure is to be derived from the stories. The contents are: -
(*) Introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry: a biographical sketch of the author, as well as a short preview of the physical & literary world that she had inhabited.
1) Curfew: a proper Jamesian story with all the antiquarian trappings and gentle suggestions that we can associate with such stories, but rather inconclusive, and is too ambiguous to enjoy, since the source of the malicious presence as well as its impact and eventual handling is kept open & vague.
2) Pollution: a powerful story that had remained unprinted till now, but this one also loses its way after creating a tremendous potential for heart-stopping climax, since it is never cleared as to whether the disgusting blood-sucking creatures are a result of industrial pollution, or have been the off-shoot of some demoniac presence coming out from the bottomless pit below the water-works, neither is it stated as to exactly how the menace was dealt with and by whom (God, in the form of the lightning? Ministry of Health? The Parson?).
3) Blind Man's Buff: the most powerful story of this collection (unprinted so far), that manages to shock the reader despite it having the theme of revenge from beyond the grave that has been done-to-death by almost every writer of spooky stories.
4) Many Coloured Glass: a predictable story, but not without its charm and wonderful depictions of social events and the tension that dominates them while remaining subterranean.
5) The Italian Desk: another (until now) unprinted story, but awesome in its gentle depiction of descent into insanity aided & abetted by suitable physical & emotional stimuli.
6) The Tiger-Skin Rug: a predictable story, and rather common in these days of werewolf-dominated literature, but it still works because even in its denouement the story hovers between supernatural and misguided imagination on part of the protagonists.
7) The Horned Man: a drama that uses the supernatural as a pretext to show the darkness that hides inside human heart, that can be exploited by others with slightest of subtlety to destroy innocent lives.
Overall, the stories are good, and despite being written in a polished and muted manner that would be considered almost 'invisible' these days, I am being compelled to take away 1 star because of my grudge concerning the first two stories. But I would encourage you to judge the book on your own, after you have read it. Recommended.
(*) Introduction by Robert Lloyd Parry: a biographical sketch of the author, as well as a short preview of the physical & literary world that she had inhabited.
1) Curfew: a proper Jamesian story with all the antiquarian trappings and gentle suggestions that we can associate with such stories, but rather inconclusive, and is too ambiguous to enjoy, since the source of the malicious presence as well as its impact and eventual handling is kept open & vague.
2) Pollution: a powerful story that had remained unprinted till now, but this one also loses its way after creating a tremendous potential for heart-stopping climax, since it is never cleared as to whether the disgusting blood-sucking creatures are a result of industrial pollution, or have been the off-shoot of some demoniac presence coming out from the bottomless pit below the water-works, neither is it stated as to exactly how the menace was dealt with and by whom (God, in the form of the lightning? Ministry of Health? The Parson?).
3) Blind Man's Buff: the most powerful story of this collection (unprinted so far), that manages to shock the reader despite it having the theme of revenge from beyond the grave that has been done-to-death by almost every writer of spooky stories.
4) Many Coloured Glass: a predictable story, but not without its charm and wonderful depictions of social events and the tension that dominates them while remaining subterranean.
5) The Italian Desk: another (until now) unprinted story, but awesome in its gentle depiction of descent into insanity aided & abetted by suitable physical & emotional stimuli.
6) The Tiger-Skin Rug: a predictable story, and rather common in these days of werewolf-dominated literature, but it still works because even in its denouement the story hovers between supernatural and misguided imagination on part of the protagonists.
7) The Horned Man: a drama that uses the supernatural as a pretext to show the darkness that hides inside human heart, that can be exploited by others with slightest of subtlety to destroy innocent lives.
Overall, the stories are good, and despite being written in a polished and muted manner that would be considered almost 'invisible' these days, I am being compelled to take away 1 star because of my grudge concerning the first two stories. But I would encourage you to judge the book on your own, after you have read it. Recommended.
February 2, 2017
A disappointment, as the book completely lacks the fun and magic of her Green Knowe novels. This is clearly not my favourite genre. I don't normally read horror stories, but here I expected some of her charming magic I knew from her children's novels. The book itself as an object is beautiful.
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