The Ghost's Companion [Stories of the Supernatural]

by Peter Haining (Editor), Harry Hants (cover illustration), M.R. James

The theme of this collection of fifteen chilling stories is strikingly original: each story is based on its author’s personal experience of the supernatural and is introduced with details of that ghostly confrontation.

Peter Haining is skilled in the art of bringing together horrifying tales. He is the editor of Nightfrights and The Monster Makers which were especially selected for younger readers, as well as many anthologies for adults. He is considered one of the foremost authorities on ghosts and witchcraft in the country.

Table of Contents
9 • Editor's Introduction (The Ghost's Companion) • essay by Peter Haining
15 • A School Story • (1911) • short story by M. R. James
25 • The Red Lodge • (1928) • short story by H. Russell Wakefield [as by H. R. Wakefield]
41 • The Furnished Room • (1904) • short story by O. Henry
50 • A Haunted Island • (1899) • short story by Algernon Blackwood
70 • My Own True Ghost Story • (1888) • short story by Rudyard Kipling
80 • The Boy Who Drew Cats • [Japanese Fairy Tale Series • 23] • (1898) • short story by Lafcadio Hearn **
87 • The Monstrance • (1915) • short story by Arthur Machen
94 • Escort • (1940) • short story by Daphne du Maurier —an eerie sea story
114 • South Sea Bubble • (1973) • short story by Hammond Innes
123 • Hallowe'en for Mr. Faulkner • (1962) • short story by August Derleth *variant of Halloween for Mr. Faulkner (1959)
135 • The Ghost • (1926) • short story by Richard Hughes
140 • The Case of the Red-Headed Women • [Neils Orsen] • (1943) • short story by Dennis Wheatley
154 • Smoke Ghost • (1941) • short story by Fritz Leiber
174 • Aunt Jezebel's House • (1975) • short story by Joan Aiken about a very unusual small boy
183 • Fever Dream • (1948) • short story by Ray Bradbury
**Lafcadio Hearn's "The Boy Who Drew Cats" replaces "The Hands of the Karma" for this edition.

Genres: Horror

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Peter Alexander Haining was an English journalist, author and anthologist who lived and worked in Suffolk. Born in Enfield, Middlesex, he began his career as a reporter in Essex and then moved to London where he worked on a trade magazine before joining the publishing house of New English Library.

Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.

In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).

He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.83⭐

Editor's Introduction • (1975) • essay by Peter Haining ✔
A School Story • (1911) by M. R. James 4.25⭐
The Red Lodge • (1928) by H. Russell Wakefield 4⭐
The Furnished Room • (1904) by O. Henry 4⭐
A Haunted Island • (1899) by Algernon Blackwood 4.25⭐
My Own True Ghost Story • (1888) by Rudyard Kipling 3⭐
The Boy Who Drew Cats • [Japanese Fairy Tale Series • 23] • (1898) by Lafcadio Hearn 4.25⭐
The Hands of the Karma by Lafcadio Hearn 4⭐
The Monstrance • (1915) • by Arthur Machen 5⭐
Escort • (1940) by Daphne du Maurier 4⭐
South Sea Bubble • (1973) by Hammond Innes 3⭐
Hallowe'en for Mr. Faulkner • (1962) by August Derleth 3⭐
The Ghost • (1926) by Richard Hughes 3⭐
The Case of the Red-Headed Women • [Neils Orsen] • (1943) by Dennis Wheatley 3.25⭐
Smoke Ghost • (1941) by Fritz Leiber 4.25⭐
Aunt Jezebel's House • (1975) by Joan Aiken 3⭐
Fever Dream • (1948) by Ray Bradbury 5⭐

[Matt Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the paperback version of this as a kid & there were a few stories in this which scared the shit out of me. I think I must've been around 10 years old. There was one about a house near a river where a guy had just moved in with his wife & son & something was leaving splots of slime all round the place. He blamed his son & told him on no account to play near the river. He started having feverish nightmares about something in the river & his kid drowning, & later on there's the horrible reveal where he's in an upstairs room looking out on the river, watching this green mouldy algae-covered figure take his son into the water unconscious. There was another about a public school where the Latin teacher got a curious note in red, & disappeared mysteriously. The note said something like "Remember the grove where the Yews grow" & years later there's a couple of bodies found down a well, one is identified as the schoolmaster, the other much, much older & more decayed, yet holding the schoolmaster tight in its arms as if it dragged him down into the well.

Yeah, good ghost stories, serious heebie-jeebies.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of the prolific Peter Haining's ghost anthologies; the angle for this collection is that each of the ghost stories is based around something that really happened to each of the authors. As such, each tale gets an introductory paragraph or two describing its origin. I skipped A SCHOOL STORY, THE RED LODGE, A HAUNTED ISLAND and SMOKE GHOST as I've enjoyed them all elsewhere, the latter three in particular. The James story is slight but the Wakefield effort has a truly creepy apparition, the Blackwood story is one of his wilderness epics, and the Leiber tale updates the ghost for the urban era.

O. Henry's THE FURNISHED ROOM is a typical ghost story with an unexpected psychological angle and a tragic touch that works. Kipling's MY OWN TRUE GHOST STORY is also nondescript in terms of the haunting, but as usual the vivid descriptions of colonial life in India are what bring it to life. Lafcadio Hearn's THE HANDS OF THE KARMA is the best story here, a shocking and surprisingly graphic story of revenge from beyond the grave that counts as an early example of the body horror genre - quite literally!

THE MONSTRANCE sees Arthur Machen mixing apparitions with WW1 trench action to good effect, while Du Maurier's ESCORT is a fine example of the ghost story at sea, mixing wartime suspense with timeslip spookiness. Hammond Innes' SOUTH SEA BUBBLE is a slight effort enhanced by the author's realistic detail, while August Derleth's HALLOWE'EN FOR MR FAULKNER is an obvious riff on November 5th hijinks.

THE GHOST, by Richard Hughes, offers the brief novelty of having a tale's protagonist the ghost itself and even adds a twist ending. THE CASE OF THE RED-HEADED WOMEN sees Dennis Wheatley in full-on Carnacki mode, and he brings the same level of technical proficiency and realism to this psychic sleuth effort as he does to his black magic novels. Joan Aiken's AUNT JEZEBEL'S HOUSE is a slight effort written while the author was still a teenager, and finally Ray Bradbury's FEVER DREAM is a spin on Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS which works a treat.