Wimbourne Books presents the sixteenth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 16 contains stories published between 1846 and 1901, all set at or around the Christmas period. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference in social norms, the almost comical politeness and structured etiquette, the archaic and precise language, but mostly the Victorians’ skill at stoking our fears and trepidations, our insecurities and doubts. Even if you are already an aficionado of the ghostly tale there is much within these pages to interest you. Wait until the dark of the snowy night, lock the doors, shutter the windows, light the fire, sit with your back to the wall and bury yourself in the Victorian macabre. Try not to let the creaking floorboards, the distant howl of a dog, the chill breeze that caresses the candle, the shadows in the far recesses of your room, disturb your concentration.

Includes the stories; A Real Country Ghost Story (1846) – Albert Richard Smith; The Pickled Ghost (1847) – Anonymous; The Phantom Face (1859) – Ellen Louise Chandler Moulton; Dimsleigh Grange (1865) – Emma Watts Phillips; A Story Told in a Church (1867) – Ada Buisson; My Christmas Mystery (1868) – William Kingston Sawyer; The Phantom Knell (1870) – Anonymous; The Christmas Club (1873) – Edward Eggleston; The Hidden Shrift (1874) – Charles Maurice Davies; An Unsolved Mystery (1875) – Elizabeth Owens Blackburne Casey; The Dead Man of Varley Grange (1878) – Elizabeth Anna Hart; Earthbound (1880) – Margaret Oliphant; In Very Strange Company (1884) – Henry Frith; A Speakin’ Ghost (1890) – Annie Trumbull Slosson; The Face with the Brown Spots (1893) – John Ferguson Nisbet; The Deserted Kingdom (1893) – Frank Fullerton Brumback; The Demon Spell (1894) – Hume Nisbet; The Black Lady of Doriscourt (1894) – Mabel Collins; Black Rudolph’s Mass (1896) – Anonymous; My First Ghost (1901) – M. E. Greene.