THE MISTLETOE BRIDE AND OTHER HAUNTING TALES

A review of Kate Mosse's  supernatural short story collection.

My more frequent readers and friends probably know I have a soft spot for any variation of the Mistletoe Bride legend ( see a previous post here.) So when a book came out with two re-tellings, I had to have it - or to be precise, to hear it. I listened to THE MISTLETOE BRIDE AND OTHER HAUNTING TALES on a long dark and bleak journey to Yorkshire and back. Ideal.

This collection  is on the gentler, more lyrical side of creepy - more eerie than horrific . There is one psychological tale I found more disturbing - but I can't say much without spoilers. There's a wide range of historical settings - and as you might expect from Kate Mosse, a strong sense of place.

These are strongly visual stories. There are black and white illustrations by Rohan Eason in the hardback edition (which sadly I don't have yet) some of which I have included here. I could easily imagine many as rather arty animations accompanied with weird little waltzes and whatnot in a minor key.

If you enjoy Susan Hill's supernatural tales, and own a few by M. R. James and Edith Wharton, this will sit well on your shelves. The stories mostly deliver pleasurable chills rather than shudders of distaste and horror. They are definitely not for fans of the gorefest.

The Wedding Ghost approves.

Top Ten Tuesday

This has taken a while but here's a selection of Ghostly Brides. I shall start with the skull-faced Edwardian 'beauty'. Even the flowers she carries are dead.

Here the setting in Highgate Cemetery and her translucency all add to the eeriness. 

 Another see-through spectre. It's the way she challenges you to follow her - and yet the floor of the ruin shines right through her. Chilling.

A ghost bride doesn't have to be white European to be be sinister - this one is both beautiful and disturbing.

Of course, there are other ways to be scary. This zombie bride would rip anyone apart.

 Dead brides are unnerving. Would she 'wake' if you got too close?

And the sadness of this deserted bride -is it contagious, could she pass on her desperate plight?

Another waiting bride - this time from the twenties. The peeling wallpaper tells its own tale.

It's hard to beat a graveyard for the habitat of the supernatural .This bride is already in mourning - who for, I wonder?

But this has to be my Number One. There is something so implacable about her. She would never stop chasing you - slowly.

Brides and burials

On Sunday I was walking around a churchyard in Itchenor looking at gravestones. They can be very beautiful and sad - like this one here. This is from Chicago - so young and so lovely.

They can also be quite unnerving. This extraordinary funerary statue is from Brooklyn.

Rather older, this one seems to be in a shroud - or some sort of Greek veil.

It doesn't have to be white marble to be eerie. Bronze will do just as well.

I think it is the idea that they are waiting that people find unsettling. 

Drawing a veil...

Brides in many cultures wear veils.

They represent modesty often - but there is also something mysterious about the half-covered face.

What is going on behind that gauze?

What is the bride truly feeling?

We might well wonder if anything is being concealed.

Perhaps lifting the veil might lead to something we would rather not see.

The Women in White...

... or the many White Ladies that haunt the British Isles.

Huntley Castle, Aberdeenshire

There are at least a score of spectral White Ladies known  in England alone. I've heard of at least five in Wales (including the kindly Princess Nest of Carew Castle) and in Scotland, a good half dozen - usually in castles. Ireland (north and south of the border) has its share too. Thee are ghostly  ladies of other colours too, but white seems to be the most usual.

They are also found in Europe, and I believe other parts of the world. They usually seem to be sad, re-enacting some painful part of their lives. The white clothes could be their wedding dresses - or their shrouds.

White Lady remixed - original by Joseph Brauer

Because there are just so many to choose from, and because I'm from Yorkshire, I'm going to focus on three from the North:

A story from  Blenkinsopp Castle, Northumberland.
In the beginning of the 19th century ( Jane Austen's time) a poor family lived in part of the castle. One of the children,  a little boy of eight, was woken from his sleep by a richly dressed white lady. She begged him to go with her to recover a chest of treasure but he was too frightened. His tears woke his parents and the ghostly lady fled.
The boy emigrated to Canada as young man but still remembered her cold kisses in 1845. Towards the end of the 19th century, a vault was found. One brave man went down the long dark passageway and then down a twisting staircase. Something blew his candle out and he returned. Though he tried again, he never found the treasure.

Car park and ruins, Blenkinsopp Castle (Karl and Ali) / CC BY-SA 2.0

White-lass-beck, Thirsk, North Riding of Yorkshire
Here the stream was haunted by a young woman dressed in white who sometimes might change shape into a white dog. Some unfeeling workmen dug gravel out of the stream and found a skeleton of a girl supposed to have been murdered and the source of the haunting.

Highlow Hall, Derbyshire
This once grand 14th century manor house became a farmstead in Victorian times. A White Lady was seen drifting across the courtyard and then heard rustling her silk dress up the oak staircase. One farmworker touched his cap at her and tried to speak but she seemed not to see him. Another time, she was seen gazing down sadly at her reflection in a cattle trough at two in the morning.
The worst was the sound of thumps down the stairs - the sound of a murdered woman's body being dragged to an unknown grave.

Highlow Hall, Derbyshire (Neil Theasby) / CC BY-SA 2.0

Which is worse -  seeing a ghost or just hearing it?

Murdered Brides

My friend and colleague Diane McIlmoyle pointed me in the direction of a haunting by a murdered bride, knowing it was just my thing. Her account of the hauntings at Armboth House is on her excellent site on Cumbrian History and Folklore. Few things better than mysterious glowing lights on Halloween! (though I would say that scientists are still undecided about the cause of will o' the wisps)

She is now drowned in Thirlmere Reservoir

Here's one - a traditional story from American Folklore, with a headless bride for extra scariness. This one seems rather forlorn, still hoping for her groom to come.

The bride on Route 26 Maine never even makes it to her own wedding. She's a kind of spectral hitch hiker - though we don't know if she was murdered or an accident victim. Report from Strange Maine .

The disappointed bride of Waterworks Valley, St Lawrence, Jersey re-enacts her wedding procession. She takes out her loss on passers by, it seems.

You may hear the spectral coach rumbling up behind you.

Finally, how about this from the splendidly named Weddington Castle site? Not only is there the original story but a recent update - with photos. There's also a link to more information about the historical case which is worth a look.

Now only a ghostly memory itself...

Review: The Way of the Leaves by David Tallerman

I recently received a chapbook from the rather wonderfully spooky Spectral Press.

The story inside was reminiscent of a ballad or a folk story retold. The writer has used a traditional structure to good effect where present day reflection takes the reader back to a previous, unnerving event. Told consistently from the unnamed protagonist's point of view, there is a pervading sense of menace throughout.
Despite winning the 2012 Spectral Press/This is Horror competition, I'd have to say it seemed to me more eerie and tragic than viscerally horrific. This is not a criticism. Rather the well-conveyed atmosphere and steadily unfolding plot made it unsettling and memorable. 

I thought it was particularly effective that the events were not explained, only their effects seen.

In short, well worth adding to your collection of chilling tales.

Beauty is in the eye...

So many times I have heard it said 'all brides look beautiful'. It would probably be churlish to disagree but there certainly can be rather creepy images of brides.

This one - is she comatose, or does she completely disdain her husband to be?

Image courtesy of Holly Gramarzio
 (Creative Commons)

How about this? The mannequin looks so sad - was she modelled from life - or death?

Image courtesy of Robyn E. Jay
(Creative Commons)

And as for her, would you trust what she put in your mouth?

Image by Danny
(Creative Commons)

There is a place for the disconcerting, the melancholy and the not-entirely-trustworthy on this site - and in my written work. Please call back for more marital strangeness next week.

Dead White Roses

August 1st is Yorkshire Day and as a Leeds-born lass, I had to mark it somehow. This blog being centred around a ghost story, I wanted to find something eerie.

Dead White Roses by Jeremy Cherfas

I love the elegantly macabre. I'm for the lovely but unnerving, so abandoned wreaths, the bouquets of forgotten brides and the remnants of faded beauty delight me. 

A skeleton form lay mouldering there

In the bridal weeds of a lady fair.

from the Mistletoe Bough by Thomas Haynes Bayley 1884

 

(Note: I've chosen a West Riding singer for this)

Now the War of the Roses included the bloodiest battle on English soil at Towton near Tadcaster. Not only was it gruesome, it also gave rise to several ghost stories (of Cock Beck running red with blood on the Palm Sunday anniversary, of groaning unseen warriors, and lights seen at night in Lead Chapel, which has no electricity) - and a legend about a rose.

The story goes that wild white roses grew around the site but ever after the battle, they came up splashed with blood from the dreadful battle. See here for more.

So ghosts, brides and roses have a welcome place here, and in my imagination, today and every day. 

Black Dog

Dogs  - frightening or friendly?

I've just read a superb ghost story by Penelope Lively called 'Black Dog' in the highly commendable Virago Book of Ghost Stories. It made me think of other Black Dogs:

Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead

a name for Depression, used by Winston Churchill, and further back in time by Samuel Johnson, James Boswell & Hester Thrale

Guytrash, Barghest and Padfoot - three legendary haunting Black Dogs of Yorkshire

Shucks, Cappels, and any number of other scary  hounds from the rest of the UK

The Guardian Black Dog - a traditional story where the Black Dog saves a man's life - which can be found in K. M. Briggs' Dictionary of British Folk-Tales (a wonderful resource for any fantasy writer)

Monty Hall's mad Black Alsatian Reuben

Do hounds haunt you - or delight you? 

Ghost Dresses

I find these enchanting - so delicate and ethereal in appearance - yet made from such a humble material. Sadly, I do not know the original sculptor - if you do, I'll happily credit them.

It occurs to me that hanging these from nylon fishing wire would make an even eerier effect - they were turn as though dancing to unheard music.

There's a link here to a sequence showing the construction of something similar - and spooky.

Where am I?

The first draft of The Wedding Ghost has been completed - and the opening chapter is with Greg Mosse. I feel rather in limbo waiting for for feedback so that I can move on.


It is like being surrounded with mist and listening for sounds. I'm a bit shivery and uncertain where to put my feet.  I hope the voice will lead me in the right direction but I am wary of trusting too much to someone else. Perhaps I may mistake which way to go, perhaps I am deluded. 


It's a scary business, this writing.

Starting off...

Inspirational reading

My current work in progress 'The Wedding Ghost' is taking shape. I am happy to admit that I owe a lot to Susan Hill's 'The Woman in Black' which I have loved since it came out in 1983. My story is quite distinct but informed by her structure - the way the mood shifts from beautiful description to eerie scenes and then on to deep fear - and yet there is a surprising amount of happiness too. The reader becomes aware of how much is threatened.

         I love ghost stories and I expect I will discuss a good few more as this blog develops. This first post is to acknowledge the debt that I owe one of my most-read writers. Few others convey that intensity of feeling with precision of observation in my view. It can feel a bit claustrophobic - but that is no bad thing in a supernatural tale, I believe. This strength of emotion is essential to a well-told ghost story - and my intention is to convey a similar psychological state. Prepare to be chilled.