The Random House Book of Ghost Stories

by Susan Hill (Editor, Contributor)

Illustrated in full color. "Who's that tapping at my window?"  This classy collection and gorgeous gift volume of seventeen modern ghost stories is a refreshing antidote to all the gross and gory books presently on the market. Discriminating horror fans won't be able to put down these spooky tales written by contemporary American and British authors. The tales are devilishly diverse, ranging in mood from haunting humor to spine-tingling terror. Our original edition of The Random House Book of Ghost Stories quickly vanished, selling out of its first printing, but was never reprinted. Now, with  the explosion of the horror/Halloween market, it seems the perfect time to resurrect Ghost Stories.  
Includes
"Nule," Jan Mark
"Young Kate," Eleanor Farjeon
"Joanna's Secret," Pauline Hill
"Sam and the Sea," George Mackay Brown
"The Kindly Ghost," Ruth Manning-Sanders
"The Yellow Ball," Philippa Pearce
"The Damp Spectre," Dorothy Edwards
"Little Nym," Joan Aiken
"Beware of the Ghost," Catherine Sefton
"Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons," Walter R. Brooks
"Uninvited Ghosts," Penelope Lively
"Laughter in the Dark," Leon Garfield
"Through the Door," Ruth Ainsworth
"The Battle with the Bogles," Sorche Nic Leodhas
"Grandmother's Footsteps," John Gordon
"Bring Me a Light," Ruth Manning-Sanders
"A Friend Forever," Susan Hill

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Paranormal, Childrens

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 29, 1990

About the author

Susan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".

She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".

Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.

In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.

Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.

Reviews

[Lenno Vranken · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The clock on the tower struck midnight and as I watched, one second she was there and the next she simply wasn't. Then if I'd had any doubts at all, they were gone. I knew for sure. But I still didn't feel the least bit alarmed or afraid. As the last chimes of the clock echoed away and away and were lost to sea, I thought I heard, very faintly, borne in to me on the breeze that just sprung up from the orchard, her laughter. It was the softest, faintest laughter, as though she knew that vanashing away on the stroke of midnight was a funny, fairy-story sort of thing to do and she wanted me to enjoy the joke."
-Suzan Hill, 'A Friend Forever'

This is the type of book of wich the likes will simply never be written again in these times. It had me feeling al nostalgic and wholesome whilst reading it. If anyone is looking for an atmospheric, ghostly read, then you really don't need to look any further. This is the most atmospheric, cozy book I've ever come across. And the stories, though written by different authors, blended very well with eachother and all had the same sort of tone woven throughout them. And even though the stories seemed to be written mainly for children, I didn't come across anything that seemed to be very juvenile to me, wich means that this is a great book for adults as well.
None of the stories in this book scared me, however, but that is very clearly not the intention of the authors. Instead, each story had me feeling very comforted, with here and there just the slightest bit of unease.
The stories I enjoyed the most in particular were titled: The Kindly Ghost, Little Nym, The Battle with the Bogles, Grandmother's Footsteps and A Friend Forever.
Very lovely, with my only regrets being that I didn't manage to read this book during the month of October, since this would have been the perfect Halloween read.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only because it is illustrated by Angela Barrett, who is freaking amazing...

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho preso questo libro in una libreria che aveva un reparto dell'usato. Spinta dal titolo e dalla copertina ho deciso di acquistarlo. Si legge tranquillamente in un pomeriggio, perché alle varie storie si accompagnano delle illustrazioni molto carine. Le storie sono leggere e adatte anche ai bambini, oserei dire che sono proprio rivolte ai piccoli lettori. Se avete figli, nipoti o cuginetti appassionati di fantasmi o figure dell'orrore questo libro fa al caso vostro. Personalmente l'ho trovato scorrevole e simpatico in molti punti.

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of short ghost stories by different authors. Nothing gory or frightening, just fun stories.

[Freyja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kumpulan cerita pendek yang menempatkan hantu bukan hanya sebagai alat untuk nakut-nakutin pembaca, tapi juga tokoh penting yang punya rasa dan keinginan sama besarnya seperti manusia, kadang mereka pun malah lebih bawel daripada manusianya. Berhubung penulis cerpennya beda-beda, keliatan jelas sih drastisnya gaya bercerita masing-masing penulis, tapi overall nuansa dan flow ceritanya mirip-mirip kok. Poin utama mungkin emang ilustrasinya, ya, betul-betul cantik dan 'haunting'. Kalau pas kedapetan bagian cerita serem ya gambarnya serem, kalau ceritanya lebih ke mistis nih gambarnya bisa dipasang out-of-context dan yang liat bakal ngira sumbernya dari cerita anak-anak biasa. Cakep pokoknya! Kamu baca cuma untuk mengagumi ilustrasinya? Nggak masalah, worth it kok!

Untuk cerpen favorit sepertinya jatuh ke Nule karya Jan Mark, cerita pembuka yang nendang dan bikin merinding sampe agak nyesel kenapa mulai baca malem-malem. Grandmother's Footsteps plotnya solid, kombinasi apik antara horor dan tragedi. Dan cerpen terakhir, A Friend Forever, vibenya rada-rada cottagecore ngingetin sama film Ghibli yang judulnya Omoide no Marnie. Empat bintang untuk tiga cerpen ini, sisanya tiga bintang.

[Vera Viselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐

Questa raccolta di racconti scelti da Susan Hill conta dieci storie - Su e giù per le scale a notte fonda (Nule) di Jan Mark; sam e il mare (Sam and the Sea) di George Mackay Brown; il fantasma buono (The Kindly Ghost) di Ruth Manning-Sanders; La pallina gialla (The Yellow Ball) di Philippa Pearce; Attenti al fantasma! (Beware of the Ghost!) di Catherine Sefton; Jimmy impara a sparire (Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons) di Walter R. Brooks; Una risata nel buio (Laughter in the Dark) di Leon Garfield; La stanza segreta (Through the Door) di Ruth Ainsworth; Guerra ai fantasmi! (Tue Battle with the Bogles) Di Sorche Nic Leodhas e Ho bisogno di luce! (Bring Me a Light) Di Ruth Manning-Sanders.

Non sono racconti paurosi ma storie con protagonisti fantasmi che fanno leva sui sentimenti, sulle emozioni, che sono intrappolati e sperano che qualche essere umano si accorga di loro e li aiuti. Inoltre, il volume è impreziosito dalle splendide illustrazioni a colori di Angela Barrett.

[Sem · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems that Susan Hill isn't just the kiss of death for her own supernatural fiction; she's also the kiss of death for supernatural fiction anthologies.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

For something that looked pretty generic, this was a pleasant surprise. It’s not labeled as such, but these are pretty family-friendly ghost stories—mostly not scary, with mostly happy endings, and of course the nice illustrations. “Nule” and “Grandmother’s Footsteps” were probably the scariest stories. There were some about outsmarting and/or coming to a mutually acceptable arrangement with ghosts, e.g. “Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons” and “Uninvited Ghosts.” Some are quite nicely written, too. I was particularly enjoying “Beware of the Ghost” in that respect though it turned out to be rather a dud in the plot department (maybe that’s the one for the littlest kids). “The Yellow Ball” was admirable in how it used the ghost (of a dog) to help a child overcome a real-world fear (of dogs).

Anyway, my middle schoolers mostly wanted scarier stuff, but this is a good collection if you have either younger kids or a low horror tolerance yourself. :-)

[Tra-Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems to me that the point of a ghost story is generally (though one can always break from convention for a good reason) to spook the reader. In that regard this is barely a book of ghost stories. It's more a collection of stories about docile people who happen to be dead. Loving Angela Barrett, I feel disappointed that she was wasted on a pile of similar anodyne "ghost stories" such as these.

There were some good ones, though. I was most impressed by the story by John Gordon. It stood apart as a story that dealt with far more mature emotional matters and was possessed by a more sinister ghost than nearly every other story in the collection. (Spoiler: A grandma ghost tries to sacrifice her grandson to bring back her long-deceased baby.) I'll definitely be investigating him.

[Sam Desir-Spinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a chapter a night to my son and overall he enjoyed it. I skimmed each chapter first and selectively edited my reading of the ones with particularly sinister ghosts.

If you are reading this to a very young child, they might be scared by two or three of these ghosts... Most are harmless or even benevolent, but a couple have outright evil intentions and are unsettling in a kids book.

I'd think an 8 year old would be fine, but my 4 year old got the trimmed version of those stories. The low level scares kind of help keep the book interesting for an adult, so not so bad.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book for Christmas one year when I was a tot, and I've read it several times since then. It's a great selection, mixing scary stories, sweet stories, and funny stories, with bad ghosts and good ghosts alike. The illustrations by Angela Barrett are just gorgeous.

My favourite stories when I was a kid were "Nule", "Grandmother's Footsteps", and "A Friend Forever," and they still rank as among the best of the bunch, though now I think my favourite is the beautiful George Mackay Brown story "Sam and the Sea".

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book of short stories. All fairly child friendly with only a few nasty ghosts.

[Giorgio · Rating 1 out of 5]

★

[Juli Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of these stories were a little bland, even for a kids' book.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely illustrations. Good Halloween read. Not too spooky.

[Erin Nudi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first and last stories were decent, but the rest could be skipped.

[Laura Merrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the best young reader ghost story books I have read. The stories are spooky but not scary and many of the characters, dead or alive, are quite endearing. Lovely illustrations, too.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the best word to describe this book would be "cosy". Dont get me wrong I think there are some excellent short stories (and some of them really are SHORT) which will stick with me and I will refer back to, as I do with short stories (must one day compile my own imaginary best short story compliation - now there is a thought - where was I oh yes) - but none of them really shocked or scared me. Maybe I am totally de-sensitised to the whole ghost story genre or that these didnt quick hit the right spots for me - either way I enjoyed the book but didnt really feel either challanged or disturbed by them. for someone who wishes to be eased in to the genre this is a good place to start and for a change of pace I cannot fault it.

[Blue Caeruleus · Rating 4 out of 5]

These ghost stories were a refreshing turn from the cliche scary stories with ghosts into a gentler series of stories. While not intense, these stories are deeply meaningful, clever, playful, and beautifully entertaining. A must read for anyone who would like to imagine what it would be like if there were stories about ghosts that weren't scary.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of short stories featuring various ghosts and spirits. Some of these stories are horrifying, others are happy folk-tales, and a few aren't resolved at all in the end. The scarier stories are sure to give imaginative children nightmares, or terrify them in the dark. This is certainly not a good bedtime book.

[Caspar · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first couple of stories I liked this book, they were simple, yet elegant, fairy tale like ghost stories. Only after a few stories it got a bit boring, because all the stories were in a way more or less the same. Nothing really happend in these stories.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book of mild ghost stories, most of which would be appropriate for children. I most enjoyed "Nule," "Little Nym," "Grandmother's Footsteps," and "A Forever Friend." Of course, these are also some of the creepier ones! Still, reading it before bed shouldn't cause you to lose sleep.

[Macklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories are good. Some are meh. None are outright horrible and none are scary. I read this because it is illustrated by Angela Barrett, and her art is very good here. I just wish there was more of it.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great set of ghost stories for children, because they are not frightening or gory. The stories are short, interesting, sometimes a little spooky and sometimes funny.

[Lou Fillari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely adorable stories. Now I know which ones to read to Amber without Alicia flipping out about nightmares.

[Ardia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mild but interesting stories for young people with great illustrations.