I’ve always been determined not to be pigeonholed as a particular kind of writer. And so, whereas my first book, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, had been warm and inviting and likeable and funny (or at least that was my intention), I decided whatever I did next should be something altogether darker. I eventually settled on the idea of writing a collection of ghost stories held together by a linking narrative, now known as Thirteen Chairs.
My tastes as a reader of ghost stories are quite wide ranging, and since the publication of Thirteen Chairs I’ve discerned traces of influence from various sources, as well as discovering writers new to me who would certainly have been an influence had I known of them before. Here’s a list of my top 13 stories to make you shiver:
1. A Warning to the Curious by MR James
This is sort of what started Thirteen Chairs off, as far as I remember. I heard a reading of it by an actor on the radio and I thought it was just wonderful: dark and rich and strange, and beautifully written. It made me wonder if I would ever be able to write a ghost story even a tenth as good. So I thought I’d give it a try.
2. His Face All Red by Emily Carroll
Emily Carroll writes and draws comic strips that are often a bit like folk tales but always satisfyingly creepy. She writes brilliantly, draws superbly and, most importantly, knows how to combine words and images so that they become something more than the sum of their parts. His Face All Red (from the collection Through the Woods) is one of her best.
3. The West Wing by Edward Gorey
This is not, in the normal sense, a story at all. Writer/illustrator Edward Gorey’s The West Wing is a series of pictures of rooms in some bizarre imagined old house. There are no words and often no people in the illustrations, but somehow the overall effect is still unsettling. There is occasional obviously spooky content - a candle floating in the air; a pale face outside a window - but mostly the haunting effect of the illustrations comes from very ordinary objects. It’s hard to say quite how, for instance, three shoes on a floor by a window in an otherwise empty room could ever be in any way unsettling. But they really are.
4. The Haunting (1963 film)
The book, by Shirley Jackson, is called The Haunting of Hill House, but I confess I haven’t read it. But I really love the 1963 film directed by Robert Wise. It’s a ghost story in which you never see a ghost, but it’s still terrifying.
5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
An obvious choice, maybe, and not a story that I love everything about (I’m afraid I’d cheerfully send Tiny Tim to the grave myself), but still wonderful. And, of course, the Muppet version is very good too.
6. An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley
Not really a ghost story, nor a spooky one, but its characters (apart from the Inspector himself) are certainly haunted, albeit more by their consciences than by any supernatural element.
7. The Swords by Robert Aickman
Aickman is new to me - so far this one story is all I’ve read - but I’m eager for more. It’s properly weird, but not because it’s full of outrageous supernatural goings on in outlandish locations. Instead the setting is dull and grubby and realistic which just makes the bizarre and unsettling events of the story stand out more. Delicious stuff.
8. The Boy in the Boat by Chris Priestley
I was slightly terrified of meeting Chris while I was writing Thirteen Chairs. We both live in Cambridge - only five minutes’ walk from each other - and we have a mutual friend, so it seemed likely that we’d bump into each other eventually. But while I was still writing my collection of short ghost stories with another story running through the book linking them all together, I didn’t want to have to talk to Chris who’d already done that (brilliantly) three times before me. I was worried that he might think I was being a bit cheeky. In the end I was happy enough that Thirteen Chairs turned out quite different to his Tales of Terror series (phew) and I have met him since and we got along just fine.
This particular story is from Tales of Terror from the Black Ship and it’s a cracker. The seemingly innocent Boy in the Boat of the title is discovered adrift at sea and rescued by the crew of a passing ship. The gently escalating disaster that then befalls the crew is beautifully controlled, and the whole thing is exquisitely crafted.
9. The Ghost and the Bonesetter by J Sheridan Le Fanu
Not a terrifying ghost story, this one, but neat and clever and funny, and narrated in a brilliant voice. A long time ago I drew illustrations for this for a proposed small press edition, but in the end it never saw the light of day (a shame regarding the one good illustration I produced, a relief regarding the other rubbish ones).
10. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively
A Carnegie medal-winning tale of a poltergeist disturbing a family’s rural idyll. I especially recommend the recent beautiful Folio Society edition with exquisite illustrations by Pam Smy.
11. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
The Arctic (or Antarctic) is a great setting for a supernatural tale. Where can your small group of characters escape to when Bad Things start to happen if they’re stuck together in a frozen wasteland? I’m also grateful to this one for inspiring one of my favourite songs - Steady On - by the wonderful Bookshop Band (www.thebookshopband.co.uk). Both the novel and the song are appropriately chilling and atmospheric.
12. Uncanny Tales (American comic series)
Or any of the many other titles (Astounding Stories, Sinister Tales, Suspense Stories…) given to the cheap British reprints of old black and white American comic strips that I would pick up as a child while on family holidays at the seaside. The stories they contained seemed to have been written very quickly without worrying much about whether or not they made any sense. This meant that a lot of them were just plain bad, but also that some very weird ideas made it into print rather than being rejected as too silly. Bags of fun.
13. Jessica’s Ghost by Andrew Norriss
I would probably never have read this if I hadn’t been asked to design the cover for it, but I’m very glad that I did. It’s not really scary at all - at least its supernatural element isn’t - but it does have a ghost in it, and it’s a perfectly judged piece of work tackling a tricky subject matter with a light touch. Quietly brilliant.
You can buy Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton at the Guardian bookshop by clicking here...if you dare.
