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Three Winter Ghosts
‘“ …My ghost was a remnant of the girl I knew, a dark winter thing from a folk tale, a bit of sharpened will powered by hatred…” Noble’s eyes glittered with vapid life as he took us in- “Think on this, Doctor Jardine, because this is the essence of all good ghost stories. Soon I will die, and after it has happened I will do everything, everything in my power to come back. For you… ”’ When dying academic Morris Noble tells one last ghost story at a gathering in his Oxford college it is received politely as entertainment, an anachronism in an age of smart phones and instant worldwide communication. But as the days grow shorter between Halloween and Christmas, and winter closes in on Oxford, two of his audience discover that his story was a confession, and for them at least, his words have an appalling relevance. Three Winter Ghosts is the perfect supernatural tale for a winter’s evening - long enough to involve (and unsettle), but short enough to read in one or two sittings. Curl up by the fire, and enjoy.
144 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 23, 2022
‘Man hands on misery to man,
It deepens as a coastal shelf’,
wrote Philip Larkin, and this long short story of Gary Sargent’s illustrates that. It’s also a story about pain, fear and hate that breed malice, a malice that can be passed from one generation to another after death in malevolent, patiently pitiless hauntings.
The tale opens in an Oxford college. Wine is being taken after dinner, and two prospective Junior Fellows are discussing ghosts. The narrator, Jack Garrod, is one of them and he is egging on his competitor, Jardine, to express his disparagingly sceptical views about the existence of ghosts knowing full well that such views are likely to bait the elderly, cancer-ridden Senior Fellow, Noble. Noble’s most recent, and his final book is titled ‘The Ghost at the Feast’, and has been badly received. Jardine’s outspoken views clearly turn the older fellows, Noble’s friends, against him, and Garrod’s Machiavellian behaviour, born, one may posit, of the malice of competition, in due course earns him the Junior Fellowship. It also earns him Jardine’s resentment and, in turn, his own malice – but not before Noble has, in death, wrought his own ghostly, malicious revenge.
Noble, it turns out, has for years also been haunted by a vengeful spirit. He remarks to Jardine and Garrod at the end of the gathering in which Garrod has trapped Jardine into voicing outspoken and ill-judged opinions that prove to be Jardine’s academic suicide, that ghosts are real enough and should be heeded:
‘Cancer is biochemical, they tell me, but for me it is also spiritual, a final physical manifestation eating me alive. And yes, she was like some dark winter thing from a folk tale, but that should concern rather than comfort you, Jardine, because it suggests that each of us might receive the ghost that we deserve.’
And this is an idea Sargent explores in the rest of his narrative.
The story is either a homage to M.R. James or intended at least to adopt a similar slow-paced erudite style (the narrator is, like James, an academic), in which simple sentences are developed by subordination to generate a sense of suspense. It’s a suspense that from time to time suggests the narrator can’t bring himself to speak the unspeakable, the dreadful, the fearful truth he’s wracked by, as if he doesn’t want to utter it at all, and is putting off doing so. The trouble for me was that it’s overused and loses its effect, and is combined with words and phrases that are repeated in a way that reminded me of Lovecraft and his eldritch miasmas etc. Nevertheless, some of the set pieces are well realised and there were at least a couple of moments when the frisson one hopes for with a ghost story worked well for me.
A further difficulty I encountered lay in the ending: it is one of those that suggests the preceding 1st person narrative could not possibly have been written down, and it also involves an unexpected sub-plot which did not strike me as aligning itself with how Jardine was for the most part presented. In fact, Sargent might have done better to have used a 3rd person narrative: I think the objectivity might have served the story more effectively.
However, if Garrod, as narrator, is following Larkin’s advice:
‘Get out as early as you can
And don’t have any kids yourself’,
then with any luck he will not be passing on the malice of misery to anyone else. Perhaps this is what Sargent was after?
It deepens as a coastal shelf’,
wrote Philip Larkin, and this long short story of Gary Sargent’s illustrates that. It’s also a story about pain, fear and hate that breed malice, a malice that can be passed from one generation to another after death in malevolent, patiently pitiless hauntings.
The tale opens in an Oxford college. Wine is being taken after dinner, and two prospective Junior Fellows are discussing ghosts. The narrator, Jack Garrod, is one of them and he is egging on his competitor, Jardine, to express his disparagingly sceptical views about the existence of ghosts knowing full well that such views are likely to bait the elderly, cancer-ridden Senior Fellow, Noble. Noble’s most recent, and his final book is titled ‘The Ghost at the Feast’, and has been badly received. Jardine’s outspoken views clearly turn the older fellows, Noble’s friends, against him, and Garrod’s Machiavellian behaviour, born, one may posit, of the malice of competition, in due course earns him the Junior Fellowship. It also earns him Jardine’s resentment and, in turn, his own malice – but not before Noble has, in death, wrought his own ghostly, malicious revenge.
Noble, it turns out, has for years also been haunted by a vengeful spirit. He remarks to Jardine and Garrod at the end of the gathering in which Garrod has trapped Jardine into voicing outspoken and ill-judged opinions that prove to be Jardine’s academic suicide, that ghosts are real enough and should be heeded:
‘Cancer is biochemical, they tell me, but for me it is also spiritual, a final physical manifestation eating me alive. And yes, she was like some dark winter thing from a folk tale, but that should concern rather than comfort you, Jardine, because it suggests that each of us might receive the ghost that we deserve.’
And this is an idea Sargent explores in the rest of his narrative.
The story is either a homage to M.R. James or intended at least to adopt a similar slow-paced erudite style (the narrator is, like James, an academic), in which simple sentences are developed by subordination to generate a sense of suspense. It’s a suspense that from time to time suggests the narrator can’t bring himself to speak the unspeakable, the dreadful, the fearful truth he’s wracked by, as if he doesn’t want to utter it at all, and is putting off doing so. The trouble for me was that it’s overused and loses its effect, and is combined with words and phrases that are repeated in a way that reminded me of Lovecraft and his eldritch miasmas etc. Nevertheless, some of the set pieces are well realised and there were at least a couple of moments when the frisson one hopes for with a ghost story worked well for me.
A further difficulty I encountered lay in the ending: it is one of those that suggests the preceding 1st person narrative could not possibly have been written down, and it also involves an unexpected sub-plot which did not strike me as aligning itself with how Jardine was for the most part presented. In fact, Sargent might have done better to have used a 3rd person narrative: I think the objectivity might have served the story more effectively.
However, if Garrod, as narrator, is following Larkin’s advice:
‘Get out as early as you can
And don’t have any kids yourself’,
then with any luck he will not be passing on the malice of misery to anyone else. Perhaps this is what Sargent was after?
October 21, 2016
The best thing about this book is the exceptional ability to create atmosphere. I read it on a damp, cold, foggy November day and realised I had chosen the perfect time to read it. The tale begins traditionally, with a group of Oxford academics gathered in the common room talking about ghost stories. Eventually, one of the party tells one of his own. Here, the author endeavours to follow in the traditions of M R James or Susan Hill and, with his evocation of imagery and the building of a sense of menace, largely succeeds. The sensation of unease and fear creeps up, gathers momentum and everything is cold, cold, cold. I felt colder and colder reading the book. So why two stars? I just didn’t like the hauntings and I really did not like the ending. Our narrator Jack tells us something about himself, but not very much, so we don’t really get to know him. At the beginning of the book, Morris Noble talks about an incident from his past in the 1970s that drives the story, but why was he haunted? I am not sure what he had done that was so terribly wrong to deserve it. The same with Peter Jardine; I thought the punishment outweighed the crime, which after all was only taking the mickey, wasn’t it? As with many of Susan Hill’s tales, this story had spiteful ghosts haunting relatively innocent people and for me this type of ghost story just doesn’t work as I don’t see the point.
Throughout Jack’s narrative, we are also unsure whether he is really being haunted or if he is going mad; a tactic employed by James and which has been used in The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, which I recently read. The story is kept moving, but in some places lacks depth, in others the descriptions are very effective.
The ending was very confused and abrupt. Though we learn a terrible secret about Jardine, we are no closer to understanding how he has embroiled Jack in his activities, because in turn all he did was show him up in the common room. I did not think the obvious about the ending regarding Jack, otherwise how did he manage to tell the story?
I prefer my ghosts without malevolence, guts and gore.
Throughout Jack’s narrative, we are also unsure whether he is really being haunted or if he is going mad; a tactic employed by James and which has been used in The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, which I recently read. The story is kept moving, but in some places lacks depth, in others the descriptions are very effective.
The ending was very confused and abrupt. Though we learn a terrible secret about Jardine, we are no closer to understanding how he has embroiled Jack in his activities, because in turn all he did was show him up in the common room. I did not think the obvious about the ending regarding Jack, otherwise how did he manage to tell the story?
I prefer my ghosts without malevolence, guts and gore.
October 2, 2020
A very clever tale where the central character becomes afraid - but of what? Normal things like putting a key in a door, attending a choir concert, going for a Boxing Day walk. They should not be scary but in this book......
September 29, 2015
…My ghost was a remnant of the girl I knew, a dark winter thing from a folk tale, a bit of sharpened will powered by hatred…”
Noble’s eyes glittered with vapid life as he took us in-
Think on this, Doctor Jardine, because this is the essence of all good ghost stories. Soon I will die, and after it has happened I will do everything, everything in my power to come back. For you…
When dying academic Morris Noble tells one last ghost story at a gathering in his Oxford college it is received politely as entertainment, an anachronism in an age of smart phones and instant worldwide communication.
But as the days grow shorter between Halloween and Christmas, and winter closes in on Oxford, two of his audience discover that his story was a confession, and for them at least, his words have an appalling relevance.
Three Winter Ghosts is the perfect supernatural tale for a winter’s evening, long enough to involve (and unsettle), but short enough to read in one or two sittings.
Curl up by the fire, and enjoy!
“Ghosts are powered by malice, by the fear that they... They want...”
A short, intense and very shivery ghost novella that begins in M R James style with an Oxford lecturer recounting a ghostly tale.
This sets the scene for a creeping foreboding tale that fills the reader with unease. Well paced, beautifully written and very atmospheric, however I felt the conclusion was a little weak.
Noble’s eyes glittered with vapid life as he took us in-
Think on this, Doctor Jardine, because this is the essence of all good ghost stories. Soon I will die, and after it has happened I will do everything, everything in my power to come back. For you…
When dying academic Morris Noble tells one last ghost story at a gathering in his Oxford college it is received politely as entertainment, an anachronism in an age of smart phones and instant worldwide communication.
But as the days grow shorter between Halloween and Christmas, and winter closes in on Oxford, two of his audience discover that his story was a confession, and for them at least, his words have an appalling relevance.
Three Winter Ghosts is the perfect supernatural tale for a winter’s evening, long enough to involve (and unsettle), but short enough to read in one or two sittings.
Curl up by the fire, and enjoy!
“Ghosts are powered by malice, by the fear that they... They want...”
A short, intense and very shivery ghost novella that begins in M R James style with an Oxford lecturer recounting a ghostly tale.
This sets the scene for a creeping foreboding tale that fills the reader with unease. Well paced, beautifully written and very atmospheric, however I felt the conclusion was a little weak.
December 17, 2015
Brilliant, promising opening but, ultimately, disappointing.
I wanted so much to like this book and for a while I did. In fact, I more than liked it for the first third. It very definitely did have the M. R. James feel and I became quite excited at having discovered a new author I could trust! I suppose that sounds a bit extreme but I think some will understand what I mean.
It is very well written: in terms of prose style I can’t fault it. However, once the superbly written set up is over the implications aren’t, unfortunately, handled with as much assurance. I never felt fully convinced by the protagonists growing sense of terror and, as some other reviewers have said, all in all, he and the other characters in the story seem rather half hearted in terms of emotional depth and this makes it more difficult to empathize with them.
Another problem is that it doesn’t really know what type of story it wants to be: we start off in good ghost story territory; Oxford dons, Gothic architecture and Christmas in the offing; only for it to veer off towards the end into bog standard serial killer country!
The novelette also has echoes of another modern ‘Jamesian’ story; ‘The Matrix’, by Jonathan Aycliffe in which, although of novel length, the author manages to gradually build and then maintain a truly unsettling undercurrent of dread. By comparison Three Winter Ghosts does suffer, but I hope Sargent perseveres because I think there may be true talent there!
I wanted so much to like this book and for a while I did. In fact, I more than liked it for the first third. It very definitely did have the M. R. James feel and I became quite excited at having discovered a new author I could trust! I suppose that sounds a bit extreme but I think some will understand what I mean.
It is very well written: in terms of prose style I can’t fault it. However, once the superbly written set up is over the implications aren’t, unfortunately, handled with as much assurance. I never felt fully convinced by the protagonists growing sense of terror and, as some other reviewers have said, all in all, he and the other characters in the story seem rather half hearted in terms of emotional depth and this makes it more difficult to empathize with them.
Another problem is that it doesn’t really know what type of story it wants to be: we start off in good ghost story territory; Oxford dons, Gothic architecture and Christmas in the offing; only for it to veer off towards the end into bog standard serial killer country!
The novelette also has echoes of another modern ‘Jamesian’ story; ‘The Matrix’, by Jonathan Aycliffe in which, although of novel length, the author manages to gradually build and then maintain a truly unsettling undercurrent of dread. By comparison Three Winter Ghosts does suffer, but I hope Sargent perseveres because I think there may be true talent there!
October 3, 2014
Quite creepy. I liked the M.R. James-ish touch to the story, particularly at the start with a group of scholars at an Oxford college gathered round to debate whether ghost stories still hold power in the age of social networking and instant messaging. Author does a great job of building a sense of menace.
September 13, 2014
I usually enjoy ghost stories, but I was a disappointed with this one. I felt that the characters lacked a lot of depth and I was saddened that Jack's family showed him no support in his hour of need; even his girlfriend who was supposed to love him.
January 31, 2017
The scariest ghost story you're likely to read.
Just wonderful. Great writing style and truly horrific. A ghost story for people who don't believe in ghosts. I read it again, but I shouldn't have.....
Just wonderful. Great writing style and truly horrific. A ghost story for people who don't believe in ghosts. I read it again, but I shouldn't have.....
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews