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Yesterday Knocks
NOEL BOSTON (1910–66) was a member of a very select group of ghost story writers: those antiquarians, scholars, and clergymen who were inspired by the writing of M. R. James to create their own accounts of supernatural occurrences. E. G. Swain, A. N. L. Munby, R. H. Malden, L. T. C. Rolt, and Noel Boston all used their own experiences, and the world in which they lived, as background and settings for their ghostly tales, creating recognizable worlds full of people going about their daily business and unexpectedly crossing paths with something that defies rational explanation. In the case of Boston, a clergyman, these people are often members of the Church, and their world is one of cathedrals and cloisters, country churches, and manor houses, peopled by the spirits of those who linger still in the places they knew in life, sometimes with malevolent—even deadly—purpose.
Boston wrote his stories for the amusement of himself and his friends, but in 1953 was persuaded to collect five of his tales together in the privately printed (and now very scarce) collection Yesterday Knocks. He was then encouraged to write more ghost stories, which appeared in the magazine Supernatural Stories. These six tales have never before been collected into book form, making the Ash-Tree Press edition of Yesterday Knocks the only complete collection of the ghost stories of Noel Boston.
CONTENTS: Preface; An Appreciation of Canon Noel Boston by Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe; The Half Legs; The Bellarmine Jars; Lot 629; The North Cloister Walk; P Aia Johns Blak; Right Through My Hair; The Audit Chamber; Bump in the Night; The Face at the Window; The Barrier; Scraping the Barrel.
Boston wrote his stories for the amusement of himself and his friends, but in 1953 was persuaded to collect five of his tales together in the privately printed (and now very scarce) collection Yesterday Knocks. He was then encouraged to write more ghost stories, which appeared in the magazine Supernatural Stories. These six tales have never before been collected into book form, making the Ash-Tree Press edition of Yesterday Knocks the only complete collection of the ghost stories of Noel Boston.
CONTENTS: Preface; An Appreciation of Canon Noel Boston by Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe; The Half Legs; The Bellarmine Jars; Lot 629; The North Cloister Walk; P Aia Johns Blak; Right Through My Hair; The Audit Chamber; Bump in the Night; The Face at the Window; The Barrier; Scraping the Barrel.
- GenresHorror
162 pages, Hardcover
First published January 28, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 15, 2022
Die bei ASH TREE erschienene Ausgabe ist etwas für Sammler und Liebhaber klassischer "Gespenstergeschichten". In einem Vorwort von Partricia und Lionel Fanthorpe erfährt der Leser einiges über Noel Boston, der ansonsten wohl nur den wenigsten bekannt sein dürfte. Tatsächlich ist diese Einführung sympathisch und hilfreich, zeigt sie doch auf, wie sehr Bostons Profession und seine Interessen die Grundierung für die Geschichten abgeben: Kirchengeschichte, Landesgeschichte, Waffenkunde, Musikgeschichte, Antiquitäten.
Die "Gespenster" sind in diesen Stories Geschehnisse aus der Vergangenheit, die sich dem aufmerksamen Erzähler, der durch sein Fachwissen auch entlegene Verbindungen herzustellen versteht, bemerkbar machen: die Vergangenheit klopft an!
Es sind keine blutigen Horrorstories, die Boston erzählt, sondern unheimliche Geschichten, die tief in der angelsächsischen Erzähltradition verankert sind.
Ursprünglich hatte Boston nur fünf dieser Erzählungen geschrieben, auf Drängen von Bekannten schrieb er später noch sechs weitere; YESTERDAY KNOCKS enthält alle 11 Schauergeschichten, die Boston geschrieben hat. Die ersten fünf fand ich ganz wunderbar, sie verdienen stellare fünf Sterne. Die nachfolgenden waren dann leider ein klein wenig schwächer.
Die "Gespenster" sind in diesen Stories Geschehnisse aus der Vergangenheit, die sich dem aufmerksamen Erzähler, der durch sein Fachwissen auch entlegene Verbindungen herzustellen versteht, bemerkbar machen: die Vergangenheit klopft an!
Es sind keine blutigen Horrorstories, die Boston erzählt, sondern unheimliche Geschichten, die tief in der angelsächsischen Erzähltradition verankert sind.
Ursprünglich hatte Boston nur fünf dieser Erzählungen geschrieben, auf Drängen von Bekannten schrieb er später noch sechs weitere; YESTERDAY KNOCKS enthält alle 11 Schauergeschichten, die Boston geschrieben hat. Die ersten fünf fand ich ganz wunderbar, sie verdienen stellare fünf Sterne. Die nachfolgenden waren dann leider ein klein wenig schwächer.
January 26, 2018
Joseph Noel Thomas Boston (1910~1966) was born in Elmdon, Warwickshire, and educated at Wrekin College and Jesus College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1935, becoming Minor Canon of Norwich Cathedral and eventually the Vicar of Dereham, where he was also responsible, along with Dr Eric Puddy, for founding the Dereham Antiquarian Society.* He was the author of a number of factual books, including The Monasteries of Warwickshire, Solihull and the Surrounding Districts, Dereham: The Biography of a Country Town, and books on musical history.
Yesterday Knocks, was privately published in 1953 by G. Arthur Coleby of Dereham. Boston's only volume of supernatural tales, it was intended for circulation amongst friends. As a result, it is an extremely rare book; I've never seen a copy. A slim book of seventy-one pages, it contained five tales: 'The Half Legs', 'The Bellarmine Jars', 'Lot 629', 'The North Cloister Walk', and 'P Aia Johns Blak'.
Ash-Tree Press published a limited edition jacketed hardcover in 2003, and that is the one shown here on the left. That added a further six tales: 'Right Through My Hair', 'The Audit Chamber', 'Bump in the Night', 'The Face at the Window', 'The Barrier', and 'Scraping the Barrel'.
In his preface to the first edition, Boston explains that whilst his five tales, mostly written during holidays in 1953, are works of fiction, a part of every story is true. 'The fiction has, so to speak, a frame in fact and, in this, is modelled on Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye by the late Arthur Gray, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge.'
Several of the tales involve Thomas Rotrod, 'a scholar who added to a small private income by lecturing and writing on antiquarian and historical subjects. He lived in a large book-filled old house on the outskirts of Queen's Thorpe'.
Click here to read the rest of the review...
Yesterday Knocks, was privately published in 1953 by G. Arthur Coleby of Dereham. Boston's only volume of supernatural tales, it was intended for circulation amongst friends. As a result, it is an extremely rare book; I've never seen a copy. A slim book of seventy-one pages, it contained five tales: 'The Half Legs', 'The Bellarmine Jars', 'Lot 629', 'The North Cloister Walk', and 'P Aia Johns Blak'.
Ash-Tree Press published a limited edition jacketed hardcover in 2003, and that is the one shown here on the left. That added a further six tales: 'Right Through My Hair', 'The Audit Chamber', 'Bump in the Night', 'The Face at the Window', 'The Barrier', and 'Scraping the Barrel'.
In his preface to the first edition, Boston explains that whilst his five tales, mostly written during holidays in 1953, are works of fiction, a part of every story is true. 'The fiction has, so to speak, a frame in fact and, in this, is modelled on Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye by the late Arthur Gray, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge.'
Several of the tales involve Thomas Rotrod, 'a scholar who added to a small private income by lecturing and writing on antiquarian and historical subjects. He lived in a large book-filled old house on the outskirts of Queen's Thorpe'.
Click here to read the rest of the review...
March 11, 2023
A delightful read, and another 'historical' volume worth adding to any collection of similar authors. Noel writes with a gentle tongue in cheek, very subtle, which does not detract from his stories.
There is a recurring character in some of them, and the typical and wonderful English settings of the early 1950's add so much color. Unusual ghosts, country houses with dark secrets, missing church brasses, old family curses and similar plots make for an enjoyable read and reminiscence of earlier, simpler and gentler times. There are a few shudders in here too - 'Right Through My Hair' is the best, and provides the excellent cover illustration.
There is a recurring character in some of them, and the typical and wonderful English settings of the early 1950's add so much color. Unusual ghosts, country houses with dark secrets, missing church brasses, old family curses and similar plots make for an enjoyable read and reminiscence of earlier, simpler and gentler times. There are a few shudders in here too - 'Right Through My Hair' is the best, and provides the excellent cover illustration.
April 23, 2021
Very glad to have belatedly "discovered" Boston. Recommended for ghost-story lovers in the Jamesian tradition.
August 29, 2022
An interesting collection of odd stories, Yesterday Knocks is a sedate way to spend a few hours. Not essential.
October 11, 2022
A very enjoyable read in the Benson and James tradition - particularly the later stories added to the volume.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews