My Dormitory Ghosts

I wasn’t really interested in ghost stories but I was in demand as a teller of them. This constantly got me into trouble for talking after lights out in a classic English prep school in the late 50s early 60s. The Vicar of Seaford was chosen for his power of story telling too. He preached to a thousand children aged 7 to 13 each Sunday. It was a strange community then, some nine boys’ and two girls’ boarding schools all within a square mile or so. We were all given a penny to put in the collection. A copper penny (two shown with a 1921 dollar) was big and the newer ones heavy, so the collection plate must have weighed a ton. We strutted out in our short trousers and caps in a long crocodile the half mile to Church. There were two services to fit us all in. The Vicar was young and understood how to hold our attention. Some of his sermons I still remember today. On his annual evening visit to us he would tour the dormitories as part of his pastoral duties. He was entertaining, charismatic and radiated goodness.

Now I was running out of ideas to keep my “street cred” with the “after lights out ghost stories” and it was my turn to beg for a ghost story from this genial cleric. He sat on my bed with a dozen or so of my peers and told us our first adult ghost story. The fact that it came from “the horse’s mouth” gave it much credibility. How could we even consider this not to be true? We sat, mouths open and listened to his every word. It was not really a horror story by today’s standards, but it must have been frightening for the people he described. Why is it that ghost stories are always more horrifying when they involve children?

I moved on to a senior school where I eventually studied English Literature. We had two teachers for this subject and as is often the rule, one was good and the other mediocre. Henry James was taught by the good one. Washington Square was perhaps the most difficult book for a 17 year old to get into, but it was preliminary reading for the work we were to be examined on and it was forced down hard upon us. To the “Aspern Papers” I could relate better and indeed enjoyed the finer points of his literary genius.

It was of course James and his tale of Miss Jessel, Quint, Flora and the little gentleman Miles to which I warmed, “The Turn of the Screw” on which we were examined!

I was surprised to find that the latest book that I have closed also started with a Christmas Eve in a country house and fire side Ghost stories. “The woman in black” by Susan Hill a contemporary writer, has used a similar initial setting and the story is most disturbing. The plot is great, the setting fine, some of the action needs refinement; as it is told some things won’t work in reality, and I do not mean the ghostly bits more on technicalities; these I will forgive her for a captivating ghost story it certainly is. (Her books can be found here http://www.longbarnbooks.com/susan_hill_books.htm)

Perhaps my favourite Ghost story is a short one from Saki. “The Open Window”, no more that 3 pages of pure delight.

Leaving ghosts aside for my next attack is “The Awkward Age”. One I have not read. I have hesitated before due to my bad time with Washington Square, but the cover has a copy of “The White Girl” by Whistler upon it which has tipped me over the edge, being so much more the visual type.