Ringing the Changes

by Robert Aickman

This writer is known for many good horror stories. But 'Ringing the Changes' is considered the most popular of them all. Perhaps it is because it was included on the largest number of collections from all the author's stories. This story is fascinating and truly scary. There are ancient frightening creatures, ordeals for heroes, something that is beyond human understanding. It shows how the ancient world collides with the modern. Everything starts as usual. A young married couple is spending their honeymoon in a small cozy town. It is a resort town. Only one thing is strange. Church bells sound here too often. It you want to read the perfect story about evil dead, this is the right book for you.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Thriller

30 pages, Mass Market Paperback

About the author

Author of: close to 50 "strange stories" in the weird-tale and ghost-story traditions, two novels (The Late Breakfasters and The Model), two volumes of memoir (The Attempted Rescue and The River Runs Uphill), and two books on the canals of England (Know Your Waterways and The Story of Our Inland Waterways).

Co-founder and longtime president of the Inland Waterways Association, an organization that in the middle of the 20th century restored a great part of England's deteriorating system of canals, now a major draw for recreation nationally and for tourism internationally.

Grandson of author Richard Marsh.

Reviews

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very creepy story.

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is another good short story from the collection 'Roald Dahl's book of Ghost Stories' written in 1964 by Robert Aickman. This is totally the creepiest story of the collection.

An older man has married his young wife and they are on their honeymoon. She wanted to go to a town the gentleman has never been so they arrive in the seaside town at night. The town seems deserted and no one is there. They have to walk from the train station to the Inn they are staying. The few people out are weird. They find the Inn and no one is there save the owners. They go for a walk to the beach and they can't sea. They walk and walk and there is no sea. The can smell it. As they are coming back a church starts to ring it's bells. Then all the churches are ringing their bells.

If you can't guess the town has a secret and these 2 have arrived the 1 night a year the town practices this secret. This one did have me checking to make sure my locks were locked tight. I enjoyed the ending and I have to say that it was somewhat of a surprise.

This would be fun to read to a group of people at Halloween.

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant creepy short story recommended by the Guardian article.

[Kath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another story I was introduced to by The Ghost Story Book Club - Episode 6 of Series 2 - although this time at least, I was familiar with the author, having read his fantastic short story The Waiting Room last year.

This is another short and sweet ghost story about a newlywed couple who go for a honeymoon in an out-of-season resort town, and find when they get there that the church bells never stop ringing.

Not really what you want when you're trying to celebrate your nuptials, but they soon discover the reason why, and will wish they'd never picked this dreadful place for their honeymoon!

I don't think this one is available to read publicly (but you can listen to a great audio version of it on youtube which is what I did), and so I won't spoil the end in case you either happen to have a collection of Aickman's stories or if you want to have a listen, but suffice to say it's a really atmospheric story, and you really sympathise with the poor couple by the end.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man and his much younger wife on their honeymoon decide to stay at a remote coastal village out of season which has the unexpected tradition of ringing all its church bells on this one night a year where the church bells literally never stop ringing. From the start a sense of gloom and dread hangs profoundly over them: they cannot see the sea; their hotel is populated with cryptic, unfriendly locals; a rotting sickening stench permeates the air; and all around, church bells endlessly ring out. They continually ring loud enough to wake the dead. This, as it turns out, is meant quite literally.

[Frank Zegarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un cuento corto, raro y buenísimo.
Aickman logro incomodarme sin mostrarme nada directamente. Todo pasa entre líneas, en los silencios, en los gestos raros de la gente del pueblo y en las campanas que no paran de sonar.

Me gustó que va subiendo la tensión de a pocos, primero parece un viaje tranquilo, luego algo no encaja, y cuando quieres darte cuenta ya estás metido en una historia que parece sueño o pesadilla.

Phrynne me dejó pensando un montón. Hay algo en su actitud, su calma rara, como si ya supiera lo que iba a pasar o incluso lo esperara. Y al final… bueno, Aickman nunca te lo dice, pero se siente que algo cambió para siempre.

[Yoana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on the plane. It was recommended in the same Guardian article as The Summer People by Shirley Jackson and the pitch was so tantalising I couldn't wait to read it - a couple go for a night-time stroll by the sea but can't find it anywhere?! Sounds so intriguing! Well, it isn't. It's a decently spooky story, just not that scary. It's very heavy on symbolism too, and I think it's an allegory for men's eternal fear of emasculation, which is boring by default - I've read my fill on that topic, thanks.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

1965 short story, the author’s most famous work. Aickman, incidentally, was the grandson of writer Richard Marsh.

I’m afraid I wasn’t impressed, by the horror or by the real-life fear (being emasculated in front of your young wife) behind the zombie story. I did like the scene at the beach, though, with the ocean all black and hidden.

[Alexandre Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best weird story ever written.

[Vincent T. Ciaramella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atmospheric and unsettling. This story will haunt me for years to come. I’m going to have to reread it again next Spooky Season.

[Morts. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Deepak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A creepy unsettling story, will definitely read more Robert Aickman stories.

[Louis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ding dong - I almost exclusively read this because it was set in an English pub.