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All the Beloved Ghosts
From 1920s Nova Scotia to the London riots of 2011, from Oscar Wilde’s grave to the Brighton Pavilion, these exquisitely formed stories capture the small tragedies and profound truths of existence.
Evocative, sensual, and tender, these stories confront reality culture and interrogate our relationship with iconic figures, coming to life at the boundary between reality and fiction.
A professor of cardiovascular physiology lingers on the cusp of consciousness as he waits for his new heart to be delivered, still beating, from another body—and is carried on a tidal wave of memories to an attic room half a century ago. Visiting Sylvia Plath’s grave in Yorkshire, the author imagines a conversation with the poet, a fellow North American who settled in grey England. She reflects on the treasured photograph of Princess Diana she took as a teenager, one of a multitude taken during a life cut short. And at Charleston, Angelica Garnett, child of the Bloomsbury Group, is overpowered by echoes of the past—all the beloved ghosts that spring to life before her eyes. MacLeod’s characters hover on the border of life and death, where memory is most vivid and the present most elusive.
Evocative, sensual, and tender, these stories confront reality culture and interrogate our relationship with iconic figures, coming to life at the boundary between reality and fiction.
A professor of cardiovascular physiology lingers on the cusp of consciousness as he waits for his new heart to be delivered, still beating, from another body—and is carried on a tidal wave of memories to an attic room half a century ago. Visiting Sylvia Plath’s grave in Yorkshire, the author imagines a conversation with the poet, a fellow North American who settled in grey England. She reflects on the treasured photograph of Princess Diana she took as a teenager, one of a multitude taken during a life cut short. And at Charleston, Angelica Garnett, child of the Bloomsbury Group, is overpowered by echoes of the past—all the beloved ghosts that spring to life before her eyes. MacLeod’s characters hover on the border of life and death, where memory is most vivid and the present most elusive.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 9, 2017
24 people are currently reading
1259 people want to read
About the author
Alison MacLeod
23 books112 followersAlison MacLeod is a novelist and short story writer. Her latest novel is TENDERNESS (2021/22), a Book of the Year for The New York Times, The Spectator, and The Hindustan Times. and a Best Paperback of 2022 for the Sunday Times. Her novel UNEXPLODED was long-listed for the Man-Booker Prize for Fiction, adapted for BBC Radio 4, and named one of the Observer‘s ‘Books of the Year’. Her short story collection ALL THE BELOVED GHOSTS was shortlisted for The Edge Hill Prize for best story collection in the UK and Ireland. It was a 'Best Book of 2017' for the Guardian, and a finalist for Canada’s 2017 Governor General’s Award for Fiction.
MacLeod was born in Montreal, Quebec of Nova Scotian parents and was raised in both Canada and the States. She is a citizen of both Canada and the U.K., and has lived in England since 1987. Brighton is her adopted home; she has lived in the city since 2000.
alison-macleod.com
MacLeod was born in Montreal, Quebec of Nova Scotian parents and was raised in both Canada and the States. She is a citizen of both Canada and the U.K., and has lived in England since 1987. Brighton is her adopted home; she has lived in the city since 2000.
alison-macleod.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
February 20, 2017
This is a wide ranging collection of short stories and meditations on the themes of death, ghosts,and the space between life and death. A number are set in Brighton and there is a trio of stories on Anton Chekov. They veer between the slight to the more substantial. They probe history, literature and delve into the lives of well known figures. I was caught by the insight, evocative and atmospheric prose of the stories although I admit that I wished some tales had more substance to them.
Marjorie Genevieve has a beautiful and expensive beaver coat. She dances with a black musician from Alabama and is offered a lift back by Charlie Thompson only to fall prey to the hazards of the thaw. The disappearance of Valentine and her family amidst riots in Tottenham is the subject of speculation. A professor of cardiovascular physiology awaits a new heart at the Radcliffe Hospital looking back at his time as a researcher and his relationship with Ella. He ponders on his understanding of the physiology of love and that it resides everywhere not just in the physical heart. A conversation with Sylvia Plath at her grave takes place. Several people on a underground train focus on the precious things they hold whilst a mother spouts an anti-immigrant rant. Princess Diana are Oscar Wilde are topics. In Brighton, a call is awaited by three men, Omar, Hamid and Lim, only for events to change course when they are in a aquarium. How to Make a Citizen's Arrest goes through the procedure with the arrest of Tony Blair. And all the beloved ghosts of the Bloomsbury group appear for Angelica Garnett.
This is an intriguing collection of stories that I enjoyed reading. However, this may not appeal to all readers as they are largely insubstantial tales. My favourites were the Chekov trio, In Praise of Radical Fish, The Thaw and the Sylvia Plath tale. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.
Marjorie Genevieve has a beautiful and expensive beaver coat. She dances with a black musician from Alabama and is offered a lift back by Charlie Thompson only to fall prey to the hazards of the thaw. The disappearance of Valentine and her family amidst riots in Tottenham is the subject of speculation. A professor of cardiovascular physiology awaits a new heart at the Radcliffe Hospital looking back at his time as a researcher and his relationship with Ella. He ponders on his understanding of the physiology of love and that it resides everywhere not just in the physical heart. A conversation with Sylvia Plath at her grave takes place. Several people on a underground train focus on the precious things they hold whilst a mother spouts an anti-immigrant rant. Princess Diana are Oscar Wilde are topics. In Brighton, a call is awaited by three men, Omar, Hamid and Lim, only for events to change course when they are in a aquarium. How to Make a Citizen's Arrest goes through the procedure with the arrest of Tony Blair. And all the beloved ghosts of the Bloomsbury group appear for Angelica Garnett.
This is an intriguing collection of stories that I enjoyed reading. However, this may not appeal to all readers as they are largely insubstantial tales. My favourites were the Chekov trio, In Praise of Radical Fish, The Thaw and the Sylvia Plath tale. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.
May 24, 2017
3.5 3.5 Life, death and aging are the common themes. The prose is gorgeous, elegant and is one of the strong point in these stories, showcasing a wide range of viewpoints. The authors own connection to her subject is explored in two stories, Sylvia wears pink the Underworld, referring of course to Sylvia Plath and Dreaming Diana:twelve frames. Of those two the Princess Diana was easier to understand and the one I liked best.
In one story a man remembers certain events in his life while waiting for his new heart to be delivered. Loved the first story, The Thaw, was probably my favorite story in this collection. The author explores the influence of Chekhow on her own short stories by featuring four shorts pertaing to him.
All in all a good solid collection, some stories easier to relate to then others, so a mixed effort in my mind. As I said though reading this just for the prose was worthwhile in and of itself.
In one story a man remembers certain events in his life while waiting for his new heart to be delivered. Loved the first story, The Thaw, was probably my favorite story in this collection. The author explores the influence of Chekhow on her own short stories by featuring four shorts pertaing to him.
All in all a good solid collection, some stories easier to relate to then others, so a mixed effort in my mind. As I said though reading this just for the prose was worthwhile in and of itself.
February 12, 2017
Recently I've started to read more short story collections - this endeavor is mostly going great and I have discovered brilliant books that I might otherwise have missed. So I was pretty pleased when I received this collection of short stories but I have to admit I really struggled this time. The stories in this collection have similar themes - people at the brink of death, ghosts looking back, and in general people dealing with death. It is a theme that had great promise - and the first story of this book really delivered. I really enjoyed the way Alison MacLeod mixed autobiographical parts with imagined parts and I was sure I would enjoy this collection vey much. But sadly, the rest of the stories fell extremely flat for me. Quite often I wasn't even sure what was happening at the time and I am sure there are several stories where the motifs went completely over my head. The theme that I enjoyed in the beginning became repetitive and predictable, and some stories felt like they were working towards the last sentence, the punchline so to speak (which is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to short stories). My main problem, however, were the characters - as in I did not feel like they were characters, fully fleshed-out and human, but rather two-dimensional protagonists only there to get to that aforementioned punchline.
Also, I hate to be the person to do this, but the way this arc was formatted was dreadful and it really made reading these already difficult stories nearly impossible.
So overall I am only giving this two stars because the first story was really great and because sometimes there were phrases or paragraphs that were intensely beautiful and showed what a collection this could have been.
____
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
Also, I hate to be the person to do this, but the way this arc was formatted was dreadful and it really made reading these already difficult stories nearly impossible.
So overall I am only giving this two stars because the first story was really great and because sometimes there were phrases or paragraphs that were intensely beautiful and showed what a collection this could have been.
____
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
November 25, 2019
It would appear that my book club is to credit for my foray into short story collections. In her fifteen stories, MacLeod explores the theme of death and the majority of her stories are set in England with a few expressing the influences of Slyvia Plath, Anton Chekhov, and Oscar Wilde. "The Thaw" which focuses on a story about the author's personal family history was the most interesting and I admit that as good as all the others were, this was by far the ultimate favorite in the collection.
Goodreads review published 24/11/19
Goodreads review published 24/11/19
April 17, 2017
This is a collection of short stories with the theme of death, dying, ghosts and loss. This may sound depressing, but it is not at all and many of the stories are very life affirming. Although many of the stories in the collection concentrate on someone famous – Sylvia Plath, the Bloomsbury Set, a trio of stories linked by Anton Chekov, Princess Diana, Tony Blair – celebrity is often viewed by others and so you have fame, but often with a twist.
These stories take you from an oddly moving love story set during a riot in Tottenham, from a racist rant on the London Underground, to a ‘pre-Jihad team building weekend in a seaside resort,’ from Russia to Nova Scotia, from hospitals and graveyards to the bedroom of someone dying. Although most of the stories deal with deep and, sometimes, dark topics, they are often also full of humour and love and memory.
My personal favourites were the Chekov trilogy, “The Heart of Denis Noble,” about a Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology waiting for a heart transplant (although, to be fair, it was partly due to the silly pleasure I always find when an author writes something set in the area where I live), “In Praise of Radical Fish,” and “Dreaming Diana.” A very enjoyable collection and one I will certainly return to. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
These stories take you from an oddly moving love story set during a riot in Tottenham, from a racist rant on the London Underground, to a ‘pre-Jihad team building weekend in a seaside resort,’ from Russia to Nova Scotia, from hospitals and graveyards to the bedroom of someone dying. Although most of the stories deal with deep and, sometimes, dark topics, they are often also full of humour and love and memory.
My personal favourites were the Chekov trilogy, “The Heart of Denis Noble,” about a Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology waiting for a heart transplant (although, to be fair, it was partly due to the silly pleasure I always find when an author writes something set in the area where I live), “In Praise of Radical Fish,” and “Dreaming Diana.” A very enjoyable collection and one I will certainly return to. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
March 4, 2017
'All the Beloved Ghosts' by Alison MacLeod
4 stars/ 8 out of 10
I read a lot of short stories, so was interested to read Alison MacLeod's latest collection. The stories are wide ranging, with many being concerned with ghosts (in the more general sense), with memory, and with the area between life and death.
As with most collections of short stories, the quality varies. I enjoyed most of them though. I found the first story 'The Thaw' immensely powerful. 'There are Precious Things' was a lovely story, and 'How to Make a Citizen's Arrest' was thought provoking.
There were several stories connected with Anton Chekhov, which I thought were very good, especially 'The Death of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov' which I found both moving and humorous.. These stories will be a reminder to me that I intend to read more of Chekhov's work.
I will definitely read more writing by Alison MacLeod.
Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing and to NetGalley for an ARC.
did-not-finish
May 11, 2018Yeah, no. The first story had a lot of promise, albeit weakened by a pat ending that disappointed. The second story was awful. A few pages in to the third story, underwhelmed, I decided to put the book aside in favor of a collection of Katherine Mansfield stories. Greener pastures, indeed!
November 17, 2017
I do. I do dream of Charleston. For many years, it was the same dream. The house was on fire and everyone was rushing around like ants. There was such confusion, such...chaos. But lately it's different. We're all gone. I can see deep rooms. The bricks are freshly whitewashed. The windows are open. The floorboards are bare and striped with sunlight. Each room is empty – of furniture, books, paintings – and dust is streaming, everywhere there's dust, but – how can I explain it? – it's golden. Endless. And we're gone: me, you, all the beloved ghosts, all of us. ~ all the beloved ghosts
All the Beloved Ghosts was nominated for Canada's 2017 Governor General's Award for English Fiction, leading me to read this short story collection. However, after the first story (The Thaw; a wonderfully interesting and insightful tale set in Cape Breton in the early twentieth century), there's nothing Canadian about this collection, other than author Alison MacLeod having been born here before moving to England to live and work. Aside from the lack of Canadian content (which is only a “lack” in the context of its GG nomination; naturally), after the first story – which I liked so much – this collection became very uneven for me: I liked the stories that featured/referenced other authors, but was made uneasy by stories from minority points-of-view that didn't feel like MacLeod's to tell. The highs and lows of this collection round out to three stars.
After The Thaw (which deftly explores race and class in a bygone time), the second story Solo, A Capella turns to the English riots of 2011, from the first-hand experience of African immigrants. And it was probably because of this side-by-side contrast that I admired the first – wherein a white woman witnesses and reacts to the racist treatment of African-American transplants – but questioned the authenticity of the second – wherein a white woman (the author herself) imagines the African immigrants' experience of and reaction to racism; is this really her story to tell? I was seriously made uncomfortable by the later story In Praise of Radical Fish, in which three loveable Muslim youths flirt with the idea of joining ISIS; is this MacLeod's story to tell? I was never unaware that the portrayal of these would-be jihadists as playful rapscallions was from the imagination of a white woman, and it rankled me. I thought that the writing in We Are Methodists was beautiful and that its inclusion of a PTSD-afflicted veteran of the Iraq War was nicely done, but the story How to Make a Citizen's Arrest (in which a woman abducts a currently depressed Tony Blair in an effort to hold him responsible for the same Iraq War) was sophomoric wish fulfillment – the first of these stories makes a powerful political statement while the second made me roll my eyes.
I found the story There are precious things to be particularly affecting, exhibiting the wide mix of people on a London Underground train; good and bad both, and the basic decency of the majority of them in the end made my own heart swell:
Voices. Such noise, such terrifying noise. Clifton stumbles to his feet. He looks around the carriage, wild-eyed. Everyone is a stranger. “Stop!” he cries out, “please stop!” as the train pulls into St. Paul's, and Edgar, music in hand, leaps from the train to the platform, where James the conductor lifts his arm, and the voice of the first soloist rises. The notes soar, like Lionel's hope as he sprints away, palm pressed to his pocket; like the wave of love that lifts Sister Kate, at last, there in the ugly light of carriage three, where Tanisha takes Clifton tenderly by the hand, and the voices swell and the harmonies surge, rising above the astonished crowd.
In addition to these more political stories, the collection has many that reference other famous authors (the eponymous story, which I quoted at the beginning, is about Angelica Garnett, niece of Virginia Woolf), and for the most part I loved them all: stories with Sylvia Plath, Oscar Wilde, and a trio about Anton Chekhov. MacLeod makes these stories her own by often injecting her authorial voice into them, and in the first of the Chekhov stories (Woman with Little Pug), by making the characters become aware that they are fictional:
At the window, the thin curtain lifted – although there was no breeze at all. Guy drew Anna close, and they stared into the night. The sea was black. The sky was black. All the lights on the Pier had gone out. Even the full moon had been extinguished from the fictive sky.
MacLeod uses real people in her stories twice more by featuring a friend of hers in The Heart of Denis Noble (a story that I loved; perhaps because I don't know Denis Noble) and by including the author's own pictures she took of Princess Diana on Di's first official visit to Canada in a story that leads up to the Princess' death in Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames; a story that didn't do much for me.
These stories represent a lovely mix of styles and voices and MacLeod is certainly a skillful writer. Ghosts and legends – the ephemeral boundary between the real and unreal; the known and unknown – tie this collection together, and overall, it feels successful. On the other hand, I had too many moments of objection to rate this collection any higher; too many eye-rolling, skeptical moments.
January 20, 2018
This was a great collection of stories! My favourites were the first: "The Thaw", "There are Precious Things", "Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames", "In Praise of Radical Fish" and the titled and last story of the collection, "All the Beloved Ghosts".
February 7, 2023
I’m not the biggest fan of short stories, I usually buy them by mistake. The same happened with this collection, but there’s no disappointment this time.
A bunch of memorable characters, protagonists of seemingly depthless stories. Somehow, it works faultlessly. The prose is a dream, almost bright, elegant. It carries you gently forward with every written word. While there are no plot twists, no action, no major surprises, there’s a delightful intensity to each and every story. The whole narrative relies on the weight of its protagonists, their lives and their losses.
I’ll probably forget most of these stories in the next couple of days, as I usually do, but for what it’s worth, I truly enjoyed just about every word of this book.
A bunch of memorable characters, protagonists of seemingly depthless stories. Somehow, it works faultlessly. The prose is a dream, almost bright, elegant. It carries you gently forward with every written word. While there are no plot twists, no action, no major surprises, there’s a delightful intensity to each and every story. The whole narrative relies on the weight of its protagonists, their lives and their losses.
I’ll probably forget most of these stories in the next couple of days, as I usually do, but for what it’s worth, I truly enjoyed just about every word of this book.
August 30, 2025
The Thaw 6/10
Solo, A Cappella 4/10
The Heart of Denis Noble 6/10
Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld 2/10
There are precious things 7/10
Oscillate Wildly 3/10
Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames 5/10
In Praise of Radical Fish 8/10
Woman with Little Pug 2/10
Chekhov's Telescope 6/10
The Death of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov 6/10
How to Make a Citizen's Arrest 6/10
We Are Methodists 8/10
all the beloved ghosts 4/10
Rating: 2.61/5
Solo, A Cappella 4/10
The Heart of Denis Noble 6/10
Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld 2/10
There are precious things 7/10
Oscillate Wildly 3/10
Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames 5/10
In Praise of Radical Fish 8/10
Woman with Little Pug 2/10
Chekhov's Telescope 6/10
The Death of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov 6/10
How to Make a Citizen's Arrest 6/10
We Are Methodists 8/10
all the beloved ghosts 4/10
Rating: 2.61/5
August 16, 2017
Please read all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!
A beautiful, evocative and wide-ranging collection of stories. Each one was so very different, but each was saturated with lovely, compelling prose. I often have a hard time connecting with short stories, but I will definitely look out for MacLeod's novels in the future based on what I read here.
This book was provided to me by Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
A beautiful, evocative and wide-ranging collection of stories. Each one was so very different, but each was saturated with lovely, compelling prose. I often have a hard time connecting with short stories, but I will definitely look out for MacLeod's novels in the future based on what I read here.
This book was provided to me by Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
June 5, 2017
Some really great stories in this collection, several interesting biographical ones.
May 18, 2017
I was left a little underwhelmed by MacLeod's novel Unexploded, but as I can rarely resist a short story collection, I picked up All the Beloved Ghosts. From the outset, I was enraptured. The stories in All the Beloved Ghosts are so varied; each encompasses a different place and time, from a riot in Tottenham, north London, to a story which speaks to the dead Sylvia Plath, who is reposing so far from her childhood home in a Yorkshire graveyard. I very much enjoyed the fact that I had no idea what was going to come next.
McLeod's writing is beautiful, and deft. Throughout, she uses a variety of different perspectives, and really demonstrates that she knows her characters, and the worlds in which they move, well. One gets the feeling that MacLeod really set out to explore the short story as a genre here; little is repeated from one tale to the next, and a lot of the techniques which she uses are quite diverse.
All the Beloved Ghosts is an accomplished collection, which spans many themes, from death and dying to love and loss; from racial discontent to community. MacLeod's writing is so strong throughout that there is truly something within the pages of this collection which will appeal to everyone. Nothing feels rushed, or cut off; each story ends perfectly, and there are some interesting ambiguities left in too. All the Beloved Ghosts is not my favourite short story collection, but it has an awful lot of merit, and I am so pleased that I gave MacLeod another chance.
McLeod's writing is beautiful, and deft. Throughout, she uses a variety of different perspectives, and really demonstrates that she knows her characters, and the worlds in which they move, well. One gets the feeling that MacLeod really set out to explore the short story as a genre here; little is repeated from one tale to the next, and a lot of the techniques which she uses are quite diverse.
All the Beloved Ghosts is an accomplished collection, which spans many themes, from death and dying to love and loss; from racial discontent to community. MacLeod's writing is so strong throughout that there is truly something within the pages of this collection which will appeal to everyone. Nothing feels rushed, or cut off; each story ends perfectly, and there are some interesting ambiguities left in too. All the Beloved Ghosts is not my favourite short story collection, but it has an awful lot of merit, and I am so pleased that I gave MacLeod another chance.
September 16, 2018
This is a great collection of short stories, with a set of memorable characters in a number of places from an aquarium in Brighton to a graveyard in Paris and the streets of London during a riot. MacLeod plays with language, genre and history. She takes the outline of recent events and builds a story around them, interrogating their wider significance through individual experience.
October 7, 2019
MacLeod captures how fleeting life is in her series of short stories. By meditating on death, she also details the value of life. Not all of the stories resonated. Some left me scratching my head in confusion. Others left me underwhelmed. There are though some lovely individual passages and scenes which stayed.
May 31, 2017
This review was originally published at the Portland State Vanguard.
I received a courtesy copy from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review, and received no compensation from the publisher.
Alison MacLeod’s All the Beloved Ghosts is a collection of short stories that blur the lines we traditionally expect from fiction, biography, and memoir. It is a journey spanning continents, royalty, celebrities, and everyday people over the course of a century.
The stories weave the voices of famous characters—Oscar Wilde, Angelica Garnett, Anton Chekhov—with relatives of MacLeod and other ordinary, contemporary people whose lives have been impacted by significant events. In the background of “Solo, A Cappella,” the 2011 London riots reach their peak. In “Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames,” readers travel from Nova Scotia to France to the Brighton pier, following the author and Princess Diana at different points of their lives and the moments when they intersected.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how stories get braided together. The Tin House fiction workshop at Portland State, led by author Christine Schutt, has spent a lot of time this term talking about how stories can be braided: what makes different threads of a story work with each other, and how certain elements can sometimes feel like they’re effectively woven together, and other times don’t.
The braiding effect of All the Beloved Ghosts is one of the beauties of this collection from story to story. Each piece deftly ties together moments of human connection, of isolation, of our ties to the past and the infinite possibilities of choices we haven’t made. Each story is similarly tied to the next.
They don’t always connect in voice or style, but in smaller ways—in images and references. The flowers that appear on Sylvia Plath’s grave in “Sylvia wears Pink in the Underworld” make a reappearance on the London Underground in “There are Precious Things.” In the title story, Angelica Garnett’s history as a talented musician echoes the classical music played during the heart surgery in “The Heart of Denis Noble.”
These are not stories to be ingested all at once, as they hold conversations with weighty themes—death, war, love, and the power of memories. They all capture moments of something that feels real. They deserve to be read slowly, each word given its own breathing room.
The contradiction, though, is that by reading the collection at a slower pace, it might be easier to lose the lovely details that connect the stories. So on one hand each piece stands as a wonderfully crafted work on its own, while on the other it is harder to tie them all together when read at the pace they deserve. It would be interesting on second reading to experience these stories in a different order.
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of All the Beloved Ghosts is how unique each story is. Each voice and character stands on its own, every one as different as the next. The stories are equal parts unexpected and familiar. The voices are so well-defined and grapple with such recognizable themes that each one almost feels unanticipated.
I received a courtesy copy from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review, and received no compensation from the publisher.
Alison MacLeod’s All the Beloved Ghosts is a collection of short stories that blur the lines we traditionally expect from fiction, biography, and memoir. It is a journey spanning continents, royalty, celebrities, and everyday people over the course of a century.
The stories weave the voices of famous characters—Oscar Wilde, Angelica Garnett, Anton Chekhov—with relatives of MacLeod and other ordinary, contemporary people whose lives have been impacted by significant events. In the background of “Solo, A Cappella,” the 2011 London riots reach their peak. In “Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames,” readers travel from Nova Scotia to France to the Brighton pier, following the author and Princess Diana at different points of their lives and the moments when they intersected.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how stories get braided together. The Tin House fiction workshop at Portland State, led by author Christine Schutt, has spent a lot of time this term talking about how stories can be braided: what makes different threads of a story work with each other, and how certain elements can sometimes feel like they’re effectively woven together, and other times don’t.
The braiding effect of All the Beloved Ghosts is one of the beauties of this collection from story to story. Each piece deftly ties together moments of human connection, of isolation, of our ties to the past and the infinite possibilities of choices we haven’t made. Each story is similarly tied to the next.
They don’t always connect in voice or style, but in smaller ways—in images and references. The flowers that appear on Sylvia Plath’s grave in “Sylvia wears Pink in the Underworld” make a reappearance on the London Underground in “There are Precious Things.” In the title story, Angelica Garnett’s history as a talented musician echoes the classical music played during the heart surgery in “The Heart of Denis Noble.”
These are not stories to be ingested all at once, as they hold conversations with weighty themes—death, war, love, and the power of memories. They all capture moments of something that feels real. They deserve to be read slowly, each word given its own breathing room.
The contradiction, though, is that by reading the collection at a slower pace, it might be easier to lose the lovely details that connect the stories. So on one hand each piece stands as a wonderfully crafted work on its own, while on the other it is harder to tie them all together when read at the pace they deserve. It would be interesting on second reading to experience these stories in a different order.
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of All the Beloved Ghosts is how unique each story is. Each voice and character stands on its own, every one as different as the next. The stories are equal parts unexpected and familiar. The voices are so well-defined and grapple with such recognizable themes that each one almost feels unanticipated.
October 15, 2021
IA short story collection by a Canadian that settled in England. Like everyone said, the themes seem to be reconciling death and loss, and at least the first two stories deal with racial inequality. So far, not too bad?
The Thaw: A family that's no stranger to death (three of seven adult children die young and the patriarch is also gone) lose yet another adult child when the car she's riding in after a dance goes through the ice. Told from the point of view of the great niece, the story was set in Canada in the '30s. She buys an expensive beaver coat and causes a stir by dancing with a black American man.
Solo, A Capella: A teenage African immigrant couple living in a poor area in England are separated when the otherwise soft-spoken girl throws a rock at a police officer doing crowd control at a protest-turned-riot her parents were participating in. Her family is there illegally and disappear before he's able to find her. She may be hurt or dead.
The Heart of Denis Noble: Dr. Noble steps in and out of the scenes of his life as he floats in anesthetized twilight waiting for his heart transplant. He's a young boy in 1940 being shielded from bomb shrapnel by his parents and then a medical research student in 1960 getting sheep hearts (yes, he himself studies hearts. Natch) from the local slaughterhouse and sneaking in rendezvous with an English student that eventually becomes his wife. He comes to after successfully receiving the heart of a 17-year-old and finds that what his wife told him is true: the body is not truly divisible and the brain isn't the only place where memories are kept. He suddenly wants to listen to Jay-Z and ride bikes.
Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld: The author compares her life with Plath's while making visits to her grave and inspecting the mysterious gifts left by other visitors. Baking cakes, dispensing with non-drab clothes. She imagines how Plath experienced her life and then offers a dreamy, perhaps comic?, vision of Plath and her husband floating into the eternal mists on a swan boat.
There are precious things: the lives and needs of a diverse cast of strangers converge inside a subway car. Compassion and joy are sometimes in short supply.
Oscillate Wildly: Liam relives his life as he's dying from cancer. He returns the balls to the angel on Oscar Wilde's grave, makes babies, sees Cat Ballou as a young boy, and gets in trouble with some local baddies. Really beautifully written. Something to do with the Smiths.
Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames: The author weaves stories of her married life with her encounters with Princess Diana. She laments Diana's death and the death of her own marriage. What could've ended up being cheesy was actually somehow made poignant.
In Praise of Radical Fish: Three immigrants of middle eastern descent imagine living the sweet 'jihad life' and await a call to service from their terrorist handler. A trip to the aquarium in a resort town makes them decide to reject the phone call and give up the "dream."
Imagining Chekhov (3 Stories): For some reason, this is my favorite part of the story collection. I don't know whether it was the surreal Woman with Little Pug that spun out of control at the end or the other two stories with first-and third-person Chekhov telling us about coming ashore from a half-sunk steamer with a new love and an old illness and then ultimately being rejected from a Viennese health spa and dying from TB in Germany? Going back to being a swallow that can fly. Yay for somewhat miserable Russian playwrights.
Maybe there were other stories between those and the next one I remember.. oh yes! The one about an imagined citizens arrest of Tony Blair. Written imaginatively with sympathy for both citizen and Blair.
But the story after that, "We are Methodists," is what my mind had gone to at first. A single lecturer hires a heating and cooling technician to fix the boiler system in the church that she's bought and intends to live in. As they spend time together, each reveals secrets: She is divorced, he is an ex-sniper that was nearly killed in Iraq in 2003 and isn't sure where he fits into the chaos of his life with his young girlfriend and kids. His stories haunt her. He finds a quiet place to be alone and his girlfriend thinks he's sneaking around to her place. Ultimately, they help each other heal, and life continues on. Continuity check here: Toby had his teeth knocked out in Iraq, but he's somehow able to bite down on some plastic packaging and open it. I thought that was funny.
All the Beloved Ghosts: A musician and painter is the daughter of two painters. She's elderly and is being taken to a Q&A for a biopic made about her family, it seems. She is seeing her relatives in front of her as she answers the attendees' questions.
MacLeod's writing style is just effusive and swirling; just so enjoyable! Like gentle swirls from your loved one's hand on your arm while you're falling asleep. To be honest, after The Thaw and Solo, A Cappella, I was kind of ready to put the collection down. They were a little too straightforward for me, and while neither were bad, they weren't unique. I feel dumb saying that.. who am I? But anyway, I'm glad I hung in, because Denis Noble, the Chekhov trilogy, We are Methodists, and perhaps Citizens Arrest were truly excellent. Mixing the factual with the surreal is where it's at, and MacLeod had me.
The Thaw: A family that's no stranger to death (three of seven adult children die young and the patriarch is also gone) lose yet another adult child when the car she's riding in after a dance goes through the ice. Told from the point of view of the great niece, the story was set in Canada in the '30s. She buys an expensive beaver coat and causes a stir by dancing with a black American man.
Solo, A Capella: A teenage African immigrant couple living in a poor area in England are separated when the otherwise soft-spoken girl throws a rock at a police officer doing crowd control at a protest-turned-riot her parents were participating in. Her family is there illegally and disappear before he's able to find her. She may be hurt or dead.
The Heart of Denis Noble: Dr. Noble steps in and out of the scenes of his life as he floats in anesthetized twilight waiting for his heart transplant. He's a young boy in 1940 being shielded from bomb shrapnel by his parents and then a medical research student in 1960 getting sheep hearts (yes, he himself studies hearts. Natch) from the local slaughterhouse and sneaking in rendezvous with an English student that eventually becomes his wife. He comes to after successfully receiving the heart of a 17-year-old and finds that what his wife told him is true: the body is not truly divisible and the brain isn't the only place where memories are kept. He suddenly wants to listen to Jay-Z and ride bikes.
Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld: The author compares her life with Plath's while making visits to her grave and inspecting the mysterious gifts left by other visitors. Baking cakes, dispensing with non-drab clothes. She imagines how Plath experienced her life and then offers a dreamy, perhaps comic?, vision of Plath and her husband floating into the eternal mists on a swan boat.
There are precious things: the lives and needs of a diverse cast of strangers converge inside a subway car. Compassion and joy are sometimes in short supply.
Oscillate Wildly: Liam relives his life as he's dying from cancer. He returns the balls to the angel on Oscar Wilde's grave, makes babies, sees Cat Ballou as a young boy, and gets in trouble with some local baddies. Really beautifully written. Something to do with the Smiths.
Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames: The author weaves stories of her married life with her encounters with Princess Diana. She laments Diana's death and the death of her own marriage. What could've ended up being cheesy was actually somehow made poignant.
In Praise of Radical Fish: Three immigrants of middle eastern descent imagine living the sweet 'jihad life' and await a call to service from their terrorist handler. A trip to the aquarium in a resort town makes them decide to reject the phone call and give up the "dream."
Imagining Chekhov (3 Stories): For some reason, this is my favorite part of the story collection. I don't know whether it was the surreal Woman with Little Pug that spun out of control at the end or the other two stories with first-and third-person Chekhov telling us about coming ashore from a half-sunk steamer with a new love and an old illness and then ultimately being rejected from a Viennese health spa and dying from TB in Germany? Going back to being a swallow that can fly. Yay for somewhat miserable Russian playwrights.
Maybe there were other stories between those and the next one I remember.. oh yes! The one about an imagined citizens arrest of Tony Blair. Written imaginatively with sympathy for both citizen and Blair.
But the story after that, "We are Methodists," is what my mind had gone to at first. A single lecturer hires a heating and cooling technician to fix the boiler system in the church that she's bought and intends to live in. As they spend time together, each reveals secrets: She is divorced, he is an ex-sniper that was nearly killed in Iraq in 2003 and isn't sure where he fits into the chaos of his life with his young girlfriend and kids. His stories haunt her. He finds a quiet place to be alone and his girlfriend thinks he's sneaking around to her place. Ultimately, they help each other heal, and life continues on. Continuity check here: Toby had his teeth knocked out in Iraq, but he's somehow able to bite down on some plastic packaging and open it. I thought that was funny.
All the Beloved Ghosts: A musician and painter is the daughter of two painters. She's elderly and is being taken to a Q&A for a biopic made about her family, it seems. She is seeing her relatives in front of her as she answers the attendees' questions.
MacLeod's writing style is just effusive and swirling; just so enjoyable! Like gentle swirls from your loved one's hand on your arm while you're falling asleep. To be honest, after The Thaw and Solo, A Cappella, I was kind of ready to put the collection down. They were a little too straightforward for me, and while neither were bad, they weren't unique. I feel dumb saying that.. who am I? But anyway, I'm glad I hung in, because Denis Noble, the Chekhov trilogy, We are Methodists, and perhaps Citizens Arrest were truly excellent. Mixing the factual with the surreal is where it's at, and MacLeod had me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2020
Fifteen of the most compelling short stories are contained in this wonderfully titled book by Alison Macleod. It is one of my favourite reads of 2019 which I ought to have reviewed and recommended long ago.
The characters are all beloved in the way in which they are portrayed, but real never ghosts; except, of course, in the fact the Alison Macleod will have encountered each person and then ‘lost’ them.
Kathleen, of the first story, a distant relation of Macleod, is truly lost; her tragedy not so much remembered as reimagined. We, as readers, are taken through the steps of how this could have taken place, are shocked at the prejudice which is, in part, the cause.
‘Solo, A Capella’ is entirely different in its setting and characters. Nevertheless in the same way we are close to the characters, a boy and girl at the beginning of their adult lives, caught up in the Tottenham riots of 2011. We are there as these horrific and scary well-researched situations take place. It is a love story that begins and is lost, and my heart ached for him and her, for what might have been.
I could write about all the stories for each one gave me a rich glimpse into others’ lives. There are four concerning Chekov which are stunning. MacLeod’s stories read like a Chekov short story which is the ultimate praise for any author.
I normally avoid short stories, the switch from one to other too disrupting. However with all the beloved ghosts, long short stories, I was enriched and drawn along each time to become involved in someone else’s life. I highly recommend.
The characters are all beloved in the way in which they are portrayed, but real never ghosts; except, of course, in the fact the Alison Macleod will have encountered each person and then ‘lost’ them.
Kathleen, of the first story, a distant relation of Macleod, is truly lost; her tragedy not so much remembered as reimagined. We, as readers, are taken through the steps of how this could have taken place, are shocked at the prejudice which is, in part, the cause.
‘Solo, A Capella’ is entirely different in its setting and characters. Nevertheless in the same way we are close to the characters, a boy and girl at the beginning of their adult lives, caught up in the Tottenham riots of 2011. We are there as these horrific and scary well-researched situations take place. It is a love story that begins and is lost, and my heart ached for him and her, for what might have been.
I could write about all the stories for each one gave me a rich glimpse into others’ lives. There are four concerning Chekov which are stunning. MacLeod’s stories read like a Chekov short story which is the ultimate praise for any author.
I normally avoid short stories, the switch from one to other too disrupting. However with all the beloved ghosts, long short stories, I was enriched and drawn along each time to become involved in someone else’s life. I highly recommend.
July 2, 2025
i think the prose of this book was excellent. it was sometimes rather difficult to follow each story as of course one halts and another one is flipped to. my favorite titles have to be how to make a citizen's arrest, we are methodists, the heart of denis noble, and sylvia wears pink in the underworld. the dialogue is just written incredibly well, every word flows as naturally as one could speak. each story was different from the rest, like peering into the lives of people you'd see walking down a busy street—everyone gathered, somehow, on the same ground at the same time, yet each person so different from the other. it vexes you.
i know its a collection of short stories, but i did find that some titles had less substance than others. some seem to be teetering on the edge of a short story and a full-on novel. or somewhere in between. a limbo of sorts? overall i enjoyed all the beloved ghosts, and although i personally feel very detached to each character (i'm not from england or the rest) it still somehow captured the innate humanness of it all that i was able to understand and sympathize with its characters and their thoughts, and complexities, and social rules. ok bye
wait i forgot to mention "all the precious things" if i'm remembering the title correctly. that was largely my favorite too, as i've seemed to forget lol.
i know its a collection of short stories, but i did find that some titles had less substance than others. some seem to be teetering on the edge of a short story and a full-on novel. or somewhere in between. a limbo of sorts? overall i enjoyed all the beloved ghosts, and although i personally feel very detached to each character (i'm not from england or the rest) it still somehow captured the innate humanness of it all that i was able to understand and sympathize with its characters and their thoughts, and complexities, and social rules. ok bye
wait i forgot to mention "all the precious things" if i'm remembering the title correctly. that was largely my favorite too, as i've seemed to forget lol.
June 17, 2017
Every story in Alison MacLeod's collection 'All the Beloved Ghosts' struck an emotional chord with me. I found each one moving or poignant in so many different ways. Often I was moved to tears, with the deeply moving 'Oscillate Wildly' and the very real feeling 'We are Methodists.' MacLeod's trademark use of the uncanny weaves through many in the collection, including the wonderfully imaginative 'How to make a citizen's arrest', where the protagonist makes a citizen's arrest on Tony Blair. There is a trio of stories in homage to Chekov and I laughed out loud at the reveal in 'Woman with Little Pug.' She's not afraid to court controversy with the rather brave story of 'The radical fish', where 3 young idealistic, but ultimately normal and modern, men spend a day at the seaside in Brighton. If I had to pick an overall favourite it would be 'The heart of Denis Noble', which I believe is as close to perfection as you can get in a short story. Once again, it made me cry.
This is a thoughtful, emotional and very accessible collection. I enjoyed every story and many linger with me long after reading.
This is a thoughtful, emotional and very accessible collection. I enjoyed every story and many linger with me long after reading.
Read
August 29, 2020
Purchase All the Beloved Ghosts here for just $8!
From 1920s Nova Scotia, to the 2011 London riots, All the Beloved Ghosts captures the small tragedies of life in these exquisitely formed short stories. Powerful and provocative, MacLeod's writing is moving and makes you feel incredibly touched to be let in on small moments of the vastness of life and death.
Lauren - The Book Grocer
From 1920s Nova Scotia, to the 2011 London riots, All the Beloved Ghosts captures the small tragedies of life in these exquisitely formed short stories. Powerful and provocative, MacLeod's writing is moving and makes you feel incredibly touched to be let in on small moments of the vastness of life and death.
Lauren - The Book Grocer
December 20, 2017
'But it's too late. There is a time and no time.'
Are ghosts formed in the past or still created in this modern age? Do we live with the terror of decisions made for us by politicians or can we hold them accountable? What echoes in our heart, causes a shadow to transform into a fear or longing? What happens when what was and is blend?
My thoughts after reading and savoring this evoking short story collection.
Are ghosts formed in the past or still created in this modern age? Do we live with the terror of decisions made for us by politicians or can we hold them accountable? What echoes in our heart, causes a shadow to transform into a fear or longing? What happens when what was and is blend?
My thoughts after reading and savoring this evoking short story collection.
November 14, 2017
Hard to rate this one. I found the endings of the earlier stories too pat/ stylistically obvious. The later ones were interesting, but I didn't find enough connection with the stories to raise them above cerebral exercises in reference. I understand the theme of the book, but with the exception of "In Praise of Radical Fish" and "We are Methodists", I feel she doesn't go beyond a limited examination of her theme.
July 17, 2023
Much to my surprise, this has taken me a couple or more years to read through. I began with enthusiasm, having so much enjoyed 'Unexploded', but most failed to engage me, unlike the short stories of Tessa Hadley, Helen Simpson, A. L. Kennedy et al. Not sure why. A couple or so months ago I began at the beginning and re-read them all, but they seem too disparate, irrelevant and in the end the only one that left an imprint was,'We are all Methodists (if I remember the title rightly.)
August 13, 2017
3.5 stars
This short story collection had stunning prose, but I found some of the plot construction of some pieces to fall flat, which led to a varying array of quality of the individual pieces. I thought the pieces that had the most impact were The Heart of Denis Noble and Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld.
This short story collection had stunning prose, but I found some of the plot construction of some pieces to fall flat, which led to a varying array of quality of the individual pieces. I thought the pieces that had the most impact were The Heart of Denis Noble and Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld.
January 22, 2018
Lovely collection of stories - some feel/read more like Memoir than story - with broad connecting arc. Definitely stories to share and discuss... We read these for book club and I appreciated them so much more after we had chatted our way through the stories. MacLeod had mastered the craft - these stories are exquisitely structured.
April 22, 2018
My favourite short story writers lately have been American, so happy to find and love this book with stories set in more familiar worlds. I did worry after the first two that it may be too melancholy but the humour and tenderness in the each story lifts it up. I'll be searching out more of her writing.
October 10, 2019
I try to read a couple of short story collections every year, despite the fact that I never feel fully satisfied by the reading experience. I just prefer a full meal to a handful of snacks! That said these snacks were better than most – and I really like the way the author sees the world, and the way people's hearts and minds work.
April 20, 2024
For me, three of these stories stood out: The heart of Denis Noble, There are precious things and In praise of radical fish. These ones I loved. If all the rest were as good, I would've given this book a rating of four or even five stars.
Unfortunately, the rest of the short stories (which comprise most of the book) didn't do it for me. Some I frankly didn't understand, some just didn't speak to me. Or maybe I'm just dumb.
Unfortunately, the rest of the short stories (which comprise most of the book) didn't do it for me. Some I frankly didn't understand, some just didn't speak to me. Or maybe I'm just dumb.
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