I experienced the same thing in my few years' work at a crisis intervention hotline (to give a UA-cam-safe name). At the end of an astonishing number of interactions, the person would say, basically, "thanks, I think I'll make it to tomorrow after all, and then I want to volunteer with you guys". Their very first desire was to help others in the same way.
I heard a page turn once or twice, and was surprised at how much I liked it. It made me feel like a small child cozy in bed. And in romantic way it sort of made me aware of how listening to stories in this way makes us part of a long tradition of people spanning time who did the same and felt the same.
I absolutely love the theatre production of The Woman in Black. So effective which shows that the imagination is so powerful as there were only a few props, sound effects and a couple of men. Interestingly Susan Hill lost a child so perhaps it was a kind of therapy in writing that story.
I think we can all agree that if this gentleman read us a telephone book, we would listen with rap detention. I really like the psychological horrors stories.... But I am in love with his voice
I loved this story! Never heard it before, thank you! I am sorry,Tony, that you now feel you must warn people and almost apologize, for continuing to talk and chat to us after the conclusion of the story. It is half the interest of any work of art or literature, that one may discuss and compare one's impressions with others. So, you are sharing your impressions with us and inviting us to reply in the comments. Moreover, it also somewhat feels like you showing a friendly, affectionate reluctance to abruptly dismiss us and close the curtain. You are a wonderful storyteller, but your chats at the end make you seem like a caring friend. And I am sure you are a friend to humanity. Thank you, for caring to chat!
@@57trensota75 Tony Walker- enemy to humanity- lol, well, just woke, brainwashed, anti-intellectual, pearl clutching ____-ety, blankists. The irony is, as you said, this "type" tends to work themselves up into believing precisely such ludicrous stuff, then attacking those still willing to give them an unearned benefit of the doubt, the most chivalrous, decent, sympathetic people, just like T, are absurdly all to often the focus of their apoplectic fits of toddleresque permainfantile tantrums and fit throwing. Way to win people over to your idealogical pov. I had family (my literal mother as a newborn and her mother and father and her then 7 year old sis) in Sov sleigh lei pour kmpfs, so I am far less patient with these m un wll folk. lol as if they’re like the fae or trllz - need to be held accountable for advocating censorship and deleting of people's accounts for exercising their free speech (at least in my country) RIGHTS- and antiintellectualism- etc - it’s NOT okay to do this - this comment almost certainly will be censored here as it’s concordat nearly verbatim iterations have been elsewhere
Such a great story - reminds me of when I was about 4 years old, and I had no children near me to play with, and one day I had a little girl called Jane who appeared from (and told me she lived in) our fireplace. My parents always said it was my "imaginary friend", but I always thought that she was real. Once I started school and mixed with other children, I never saw her again.
These ghosts seem to be conjured from a whole genre known as “littérature fantastique” that pervaded the 19 th century, particularly in France. The tropes of loneliness, men with nervous conditions pop up everywhere. “Le Horla” comes to mind (Maupassant),etc. But your story about the author’s brush with death during WWI reminds me of a memory of Robert Graves in his autobiography “Good bye to all That”. In the trenches, he knows that he saw the ghost of his sargeant hours after his death. Haunting. There is So much to these stories!
@@ClassicGhost Of course. I taught French Literature for years , in particular The Fantastic . Do you read French? Guy de Maupassant is translated pretty universally. Some authors: Théophile Gautier, Baudelaire(who perfected his English just so he could translate the works of Edgar Allen Poe into French). Villiers de l’Isle-Adam , whose short stories towards the end of the 19th century remind me of George duMaurier. You can look into the translations of Gauthier’s Contes Fantastiques or Villiers’s Contes Cruels.Le Horla by Guy de Maupassant is very similar to Burrage’s tale. I hope this was helpful: I think all must be translated to English. I envy you discovering stories like La Morte Amoureuse (Gautier) or Vera and L’Intersigne(Villers). There are so many ! Good luck!
@@conemadamoh! I would love to discuss Stendhal's Le Rouge et Noir with you. I am a self appointed pseudo expert on "the real Julien": Antoine Berthet.
@@conemadam My reading French isn’t what it was when i did my A level study . In the channel I’ve done a few French stories: Clarimonde, The Horla, Who Knows? and maybe some others I’ve forgotten ah and an Anatole le Braz one . There are many more to do!
Good to hear another story from the writer of my favorite ghost story, Smee. And I was imagining the house in The Innocents the whole time I listened. Especially the schoolroom where Miss Giddens sees Miss Jessop crying...😰
I loved that story. It was quite touching and the maturing of both of the main characters and their growing fondness for each other was believable and poignant. Great narrating as well.
This is the first time I've listened to this podcast. I absolutely love it. I love the story, the writing, the narrator. I can't wait to hear another one!
I absolutely love this story! I was delighted when I saw you were narrating this story! It is a true gem and is fantastically written. I love the transformation from the man the narrator starts out as to who he is by the end. Fantastic job. A decent number of these amazing authors served in the military, and I wonder how their experiences shaped their works. Those actions and images shape us, our decisions, and the way we think for the rest of our lives. Fantastic chat at the end. I sooo look forward to them. Passchendale....my hat is off to this man. Thanks!
I enjoyed this story! It went in a direction I did not expect. I agree with you that it does seem headed for a win-win and it also reminds me of 'They". I also agree that you should listen to Tony's narration of "They"!
Great story. Nice to have one end on a positive note once in awhile. I agree with your comment near the end about allowing for the possibility that we may be wrong about something. There are a lot of dogmatic people when it comes to "things unseen". Thank you for the story and commentary.
Wonderful commentary at the end. It's so interesting that we tend to give what we wish we had received from the important people in our lives. Thank you for recording and commenting on these stories.
I love your read at first I didn't like the talk after the end of the story but the more I listened to it, the more I found it really interesting and I really like it, so thank you. And thank you for reading. It's so enjoyable to listen to. I don't get sick of it in the middle and shut it off and never finished the end. But with yours sworries, I stayed with it to the end. And most of the time, will Read, listen to it again, thank you.😊
What a wonderful story. Superbly read as ever. I have said this before and will say it again. I come for the stories, but always stay for your 'ramblings' at the end. The best bit of each upload.
You do something nice for us each time you spend your time chatting with us after one of your terrific readings. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and fondly recalled reading it not too long ago while relaxing on a cruise ship. So glad to hear that your wallet was returned. That man's thoughtfulness made me smile too - all the best to him.
Glad to hear your confirmation of doing something good for somebody because your wallet was found. I once found a wallet, stuck in the gutter of my house. I found the owner and returned it. The person didn't thank me or respond very much one way or the other. The person, to be fair, was probably in some sort of distress. But still, nice to hear of your response. Good man.
So glad your wallet was returned. There are so many good people in the world. I love hearing about them. The story was good too. Thanks for recording it. I just found your channel and I'm hooked. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I enjoy your chat at the end, Tony. 😊 I agree with your views on the stories of ghostly children. And I just listened to that chilling and creepy story - Woman in Black - a couple of days ago. So evil compared to the ghostly innocent children. Thank you once again. ❤
I loved listening to Tony Walker telling this tale! If he would narrate every story in the Little Blue Flames anthology, I would be very happy. Thank you, Tony Walker. Many scritches to the pups!
I loved the story, especially the optimistic note at the end. I also enjoyed your discussion about the various writers of ghost stories and their different styles. Your comments about the story itself are so perceptive.
Ach, I knew it. A tear jerker at the end. Damn yer eyes Tony! It’s one thing to get them rolling at Shakespeare, quite another to be waylaid suslectedky unsuspectedly!
This is a great story! I was so glad to listen to your commentary afterwards! It put everything in perspective for me. Please continue sharing your thoughts and insights after you narrate these wonderful works? You are so well versed on these subjects! Thanks 🙏 🤗
I don't know about an uplift in the ending of this chilling story. I cannot forget the words of the Vicar in describing other forces making entry besides the angelic humans. For Everton to ask for companionship, it may open that door.
Firstly: I enjoyed this story. It has a relatively happy ending when one considers the characters' lives. Secondly: Before I found your channel, I listened to creepypastas and Stephen King type shit. (H.P. Lovecraft is my true thing but I have listened to and read everything he has ever written at least a hundred times.) Your narrations of long ago ghost stories are wonderful and I have absorbed some culture and dare I say "education". Thirdly: I don't have a thirdly....
I like me a bit of Lovecraft. One of my favourites is the dream quest of unknown Kadath but other channels here who do Lovecraft very well so I’ve left him by and large alone
I really like Burrage. A lot.….Rather than make the guardian the “heavy,” worthy only of supernatural punishment for his emotional mistreatment of his ward (as I believe most writers in this genre would have written it), Burrage uses his “visitors” almost as guardrails; as a means for the man to understand his ward’s needs & his own deficiencies as a guardian…. Especially effective (and providing a full throttle of horror to contemplate) was the vicar’s gentle warning to the guardian at the end : “It may not be good for her to become too proficient & easy conversing with them (the dead) ….for although all of the girls were good & holy children….it may be that others, of a far more malign nature may attempt contact with her”….. (Actually gave me chills)
Another story I've never heard of or read, so thanks for that, first off. I loved it, and enjoyed your characterizations, vocally---as well as the After-ramble. I liked your point of the parson being the key, but I will slightly expand that to saying, they were all keys to one another. It was written with excellent insight, I feel. I take the view that the ghost children are 100% real---and that the "sensitive" gentleman who takes on Monica is really doing so not for the reasons he tells himself. His justification is at complete odds with his ego and outward persona----no, he senses that in Monica, there's some hidden chance he'll be able to retrieve the lost aspects of his own childhood. Of course he has no conscious notion of this at all---but, step by step---he's drawn to remove to this haunted house of a rental, and even before he has realized that Monica has "imaginary friends", he'd already sensed them. I propose that as a child he was a psychic sensitive himself, and it got stopped out of him by the conventions of the adults around his. So, He is a Key for Monica, providing a bare bones platform for sustenance and odd self-guided education. Monica is a Key for him, allowing her direct contact to re-expose him to the realms of "Other'...and then the Parson is a Key as well, a conduit for Monica to expand outward into the world, but our man then will expand inward...and set up with the little girls all around him. I got a chill at the end of the story. Too much seclusion with the spirits of the dead may lead who knows where? Sorry to go so long! Talk about a ramble. Just thinking through my keyboard on a Friday evening. Much love from across the pond. Have a nice weekend, Tony.
I love your analysis. We should do a series of spark note type things where we look at the stories. We could even do a book about it. Pick 10 stories and their analysis. It might even sell.
Enjoyed listening, quite a few narraters are bland. You have cadence and a voice that uses modulation. Thank you. Cheers Rosemary Western Australia 73yrs
Loved the commentary! I wish I could retain as much knowledge as you do about the authors and genres of writing. I was thinking of Lady In Black also when I was listening. Every time I type or say this title, I almost make the mistake of referring to that song by Chris de Burgh!💃 You know the one!! Anyhoozel! Lady in Black is scarier to me because of the intense hatred within the ghost. I am an idealist and a sucker for a happy ending. Which is why part of your commentary called to mind A Christmas Carole. Scrooge had a sad childhood, so in turn, became cold and uncaring to everyone. I love his redemption arch, which is why I try to find Dickens in everything!! Question for everyone; Dickens or Tolstoy? Cheers!
After I got past the suspension of disbelief, I have to say this was a beautifully crafted story. I’ll keep a lookout for more of Barrage’s short fiction. : )
So wonderful! I also discovered this story in the Dahl book many years ago and fell in love with it at once, it' still my favourite ghost story today - the most touching along with "The Traitor" by Joan Aiken, probably even more so. I'm just reading up on Burrage, and so far I haven't encountered a single bad story. A handful of them (The Waxwork, Smee, The Sweeper, One Who Saw) are little masterpieces - as far as "ordinary" ghosts are concerned, he might really be the best. Looking forward to exploring your channel!
This story Is written just right not sure what I mean but it makes the hair stand and not in a spooky way maybe it’s just that a good man is trying to do right by the girl without some creepy intent. To have it all read by the Master Ghost story Narrator. We need to have you knighted for your work is impeccable. This should be a movie directed by you. Sir. Tony Walker P.s we need to change up the ending though. Just to see him take care the 7 children 😢
I get the impression you would have done exactly the same thing as the lovely golfer who returned your wallet,when you say you will "have to go out of your way to be nice to somebody" i get the impression that is what you do anyway+who you are.I liked the upbeat ending to this story,i think they'll both give+receive the love they both deserve
Great story. As he admits at the end to the ghost children, he is a lonely man, which is I think why he adopted the girl, even if he told himself it was an experiment. I watched 'Bodkin' last week and really enjoyed it - a great example of how a story can work even with three initially rather unlikable characters. Followed it up with Mike Flanagan's 'Midnight Mass' - which I had somehow missed two years ago, Another corker of a series.
I love the stories and I love the information you provide afterwards thank you! YOU SAID YOU NEED TO GET RID OF SOME BOOKS?? I had a fire several years ago that burned my entire collection. I have been collecting these my whole life! So I’m back on the hunt if you have any suggestions. I’m going a different direction with it this time, but definitely gotta have my ghost stories.
I wonder if you'd like to do an episode with Talking til Dawn. You sound like you'd have a great conversation about authors and mysteries. I'd love to be a fly on the wall. Thanks for all your work. Really appreciate it. Your comment about ppl saying they want to be psychologists and your reason for it, 100% me. 😅
I’ve always liked this story, have it in that Roald Dahl anthology. One of my favorite books. I think child ghosts, though not the ones in this story, are especially creepy because of our expectation of children always being innocent. It is so against nature when they are not.
I experienced the same thing in my few years' work at a crisis intervention hotline (to give a UA-cam-safe name). At the end of an astonishing number of interactions, the person would say, basically, "thanks, I think I'll make it to tomorrow after all, and then I want to volunteer with you guys". Their very first desire was to help others in the same way.
No such thing as too many books, Tony, just never enough space 😂
Loved this story 💚❤️
I heard a page turn once or twice, and was surprised at how much I liked it. It made me feel like a small child cozy in bed. And in romantic way it sort of made me aware of how listening to stories in this way makes us part of a long tradition of people spanning time who did the same and felt the same.
I actually left the page turns in on purpose because people told me they enjoyed it.
I absolutely love the theatre production of The Woman in Black. So effective which shows that the imagination is so powerful as there were only a few props, sound effects and a couple of men. Interestingly Susan Hill lost a child so perhaps it was a kind of therapy in writing that story.
I think we can all agree that if this gentleman read us a telephone book, we would listen with rap detention. I really like the psychological horrors stories.... But I am in love with his voice
I loved this story! Never heard it before, thank you!
I am sorry,Tony, that you now feel you must warn people and almost apologize, for continuing to talk and chat to us after the conclusion of the story.
It is half the interest of any work of art or literature, that one may discuss and compare one's impressions with others. So, you are sharing your impressions with us and inviting us to reply in the comments.
Moreover, it also somewhat feels like you showing a friendly, affectionate reluctance to abruptly dismiss us and close the curtain. You are a wonderful storyteller, but your chats at the end make you seem like a caring friend. And I am sure you are a friend to humanity.
Thank you, for caring to chat!
I have just deleted such a comment from
my detective channel. that’s my new policy. ignore them and delete them
Yea it was great wasn't it?
Beautifully put. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you ❤️🔥
@@57trensota75 Tony Walker- enemy to humanity- lol, well, just woke, brainwashed, anti-intellectual, pearl clutching ____-ety, blankists. The irony is, as you said, this "type" tends to work themselves up into believing precisely such ludicrous stuff, then attacking those still willing to give them an unearned benefit of the doubt, the most chivalrous, decent, sympathetic people, just like T, are absurdly all to often the focus of their apoplectic fits of toddleresque permainfantile tantrums and fit throwing. Way to win people over to your idealogical pov.
I had family (my literal mother as a newborn and her mother and father and her then 7 year old sis) in Sov sleigh lei pour kmpfs, so I am far less patient with these m un wll folk. lol as if they’re like the fae or trllz - need to be held accountable for advocating censorship and deleting of people's accounts for exercising their free speech (at least in my country) RIGHTS- and antiintellectualism- etc - it’s NOT okay to do this - this comment almost certainly will be censored here as it’s concordat nearly verbatim iterations have been elsewhere
Such a great story - reminds me of when I was about 4 years old, and I had no children near me to play with, and one day I had a little girl called Jane who appeared from (and told me she lived in) our fireplace. My parents always said it was my "imaginary friend", but I always thought that she was real. Once I started school and mixed with other children, I never saw her again.
These ghosts seem to be conjured from a whole genre known as “littérature fantastique” that pervaded the 19 th century, particularly in France. The tropes of loneliness, men with nervous conditions pop up everywhere. “Le Horla” comes to mind (Maupassant),etc. But your story about the author’s brush with death during WWI reminds me of a memory of Robert Graves in his autobiography “Good bye to all That”. In the trenches, he knows that he saw the ghost of his sargeant hours after his death. Haunting. There is So much to these stories!
I am very interested in your reference to French literature there can you point out some stories for me?
@@ClassicGhost Of course. I taught French Literature for years , in particular The Fantastic . Do you read French? Guy de Maupassant is translated pretty universally. Some authors: Théophile Gautier, Baudelaire(who perfected his English just so he could translate the works of Edgar Allen Poe into French). Villiers de l’Isle-Adam , whose short stories towards the end of the 19th century remind me of George duMaurier.
You can look into the translations of Gauthier’s Contes Fantastiques or Villiers’s Contes Cruels.Le Horla by Guy de Maupassant is very similar to Burrage’s tale.
I hope this was helpful: I think all must be translated to English. I envy you discovering stories like La Morte Amoureuse (Gautier) or Vera and L’Intersigne(Villers). There are so many ! Good luck!
@@conemadamoh! I would love to discuss Stendhal's Le Rouge et Noir with you. I am a self appointed pseudo expert on "the real Julien": Antoine Berthet.
@@conemadam My reading French isn’t what it was when i did my A level study . In the channel I’ve done a few French stories: Clarimonde, The Horla, Who Knows? and maybe some others I’ve forgotten ah and an Anatole le Braz one . There are many more to do!
Ghost stories are just a secret longing for the idea that the soul is real
What a wonderfully sweet story!
Beautifully read, thank you. And I wouldn't miss your "yatter" for the world. It's all part of the experience.
Good to hear another story from the writer of my favorite ghost story, Smee. And I was imagining the house in The Innocents the whole time I listened. Especially the schoolroom where Miss Giddens sees Miss Jessop crying...😰
This one made me emotional.
I loved that story. It was quite touching and the maturing of both of the main characters and their growing fondness for each other was believable and poignant. Great narrating as well.
Tony, you're a gem! I wouldn't skip your commentary for anything!
I try and make them relevant and interesting, and of course you know my mind wonders and skips onto other things but people seem to like it
Not even for a Dairylee triangle?
This is the first time I've listened to this podcast. I absolutely love it. I love the story, the writing, the narrator. I can't wait to hear another one!
Thanks for listening and welcome
I absolutely love this story! I was delighted when I saw you were narrating this story! It is a true gem and is fantastically written. I love the transformation from the man the narrator starts out as to who he is by the end. Fantastic job.
A decent number of these amazing authors served in the military, and I wonder how their experiences shaped their works. Those actions and images shape us, our decisions, and the way we think for the rest of our lives.
Fantastic chat at the end. I sooo look forward to them.
Passchendale....my hat is off to this man.
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
I enjoyed this story! It went in a direction I did not expect. I agree with you that it does seem headed for a win-win and it also reminds me of 'They". I also agree that you should listen to Tony's narration of "They"!
Fun fact: I write weird fic and ghost stories, and the way I know a passage is working is if my brain starts to read it in Tony's voice.
I do that with my school papers. I read in Tony's voice or Stephen Frye. 😁
What's the HECK IS THIS GUY RAMBLAN ON ABOUT ? I GIVE IT A 2 OÛT OF TEN
Brilliant listening to you on my night shifts in security all alone in some old buildings 👻
i wrote a story about that …
Great. What did you call it ?
Ooohh I don’t think I could do that! 🙈 Best wishes on not scaring the life out of ya! 😂
The Haunting of Unit 409. I’ve listened and read this Tony Walker story many times!
Thanks
Great story. Nice to have one end on a positive note once in awhile. I agree with your comment near the end about allowing for the possibility that we may be wrong about something. There are a lot of dogmatic people when it comes to "things unseen". Thank you for the story and commentary.
Wonderful commentary at the end. It's so interesting that we tend to give what we wish we had received from the important people in our lives. Thank you for recording and commenting on these stories.
Thank you for saying that
I love your read at first I didn't like the talk after the end of the story but the more I listened to it, the more I found it really interesting and I really like it, so thank you. And thank you for reading. It's so enjoyable to listen to. I don't get sick of it in the middle and shut it off and never finished the end. But with yours sworries, I stayed with it to the end. And most of the time, will Read, listen to it again, thank you.😊
What a wonderful story. Superbly read as ever. I have said this before and will say it again. I come for the stories, but always stay for your 'ramblings' at the end. The best bit of each upload.
What a beatiful story. Thank you for introducing Burrage to me.
You do something nice for us each time you spend your time chatting with us after one of your terrific readings. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and fondly recalled reading it not too long ago while relaxing on a cruise ship. So glad to hear that your wallet was returned. That man's thoughtfulness made me smile too - all the best to him.
What a beatiful story. Thank you for introducing me to Burrage.
I also read this story in the Roald Dahl book, and it stayed with me all these years. I think you did a great job adapting it. Thanks.
Glad to hear your confirmation of doing something good for somebody because your wallet was found. I once found a wallet, stuck in the gutter of my house. I found the owner and returned it. The person didn't thank me or respond very much one way or the other. The person, to be fair, was probably in some sort of distress. But still, nice to hear of your response. Good man.
What a charming story!
So glad your wallet was returned. There are so many good people in the world. I love hearing about them. The story was good too. Thanks for recording it. I just found your channel and I'm hooked. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I am glad you're here!
Love your commentary and love these sweet ghosts. Wish more ghost stories were like this one. ❤
I enjoy your chat at the end, Tony. 😊
I agree with your views on the stories of ghostly children. And I just listened to that chilling and creepy story - Woman in Black - a couple of days ago. So evil compared to the ghostly innocent children.
Thank you once again. ❤
I loved listening to Tony Walker telling this tale! If he would narrate every story in the Little Blue Flames anthology, I would be very happy. Thank you, Tony Walker. Many scritches to the pups!
I love the stories and I love the information you provide afterwards thank you!
Alright, another story which brought me to tears (albeit, good tears). Well done!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Unexpectedly tender and poignant, rather than dark. The nuance of the clergyman's warning was also interesting and shrewd.
I loved the story, especially the optimistic note at the end. I also enjoyed your discussion about the various writers of ghost stories and their different styles. Your comments about the story itself are so perceptive.
Thank you. I enjoy your narration, and love your commentary afterwards, it makes me think of writers in a different way than I had. 😃🌺
Cheers on another well done story!
Thanks again!
This was so beautiful... thank you.
Gripping. disturbing. Painful. Also this time around. Masterful as always, Tony. Thank you.
Well wow .. I found myself tearing up at the end. What a lovely story. Thank you.
Ach, I knew it. A tear jerker at the end. Damn yer eyes Tony! It’s one thing to get them rolling at Shakespeare, quite another to be waylaid suslectedky unsuspectedly!
Great story, wonderfully narrated. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Ive never encountered this before, it is a very good story.
Great reading! I love how this story builds tension throughout but the ending really surprised me
And THAT'S what you call an ending...such a sadly beautiful tale, and wonderfully read, thank you ❤
This is a great story! I was so glad to listen to your commentary afterwards! It put everything in perspective for me. Please continue sharing your thoughts and insights after you narrate these wonderful works? You are so well versed on these subjects! Thanks 🙏 🤗
Gentle and sweet. Thank you.
My favorite story so far! I loved the end commentary too. Thank you for the suggestions on other narrations. I’m off to listen to those now!
This was an amazing story... You're a narrative rocks this. deep original. Thank you so very much!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very poignant and moving story... wonderful narration as usual 👍🏽
Thanks for all of your excellent work!
Thank you
Oh, great luck, Tony, that someone found your wallet!
I learned about Pay It Forward in the 1960s and I have practiced it ever since.
Loved this one! Nicely done.
Bhai you are too good 😊😊❤❤❤🎉🎉😊❤🎉🎉🎉best experience for ever 🎉🎉🎉❤❤😊🎉🎉🎉
I loved this story
This was so engrossing and wonderfully read! Subscribed:-)
I don't know about an uplift in the ending of this chilling story. I cannot forget the words of the Vicar in describing other forces making entry besides the angelic humans. For Everton to ask for companionship, it may open that door.
Firstly: I enjoyed this story. It has a relatively happy ending when one considers the characters' lives.
Secondly: Before I found your channel, I listened to creepypastas and Stephen King type shit. (H.P. Lovecraft is my true thing but I have listened to and read everything he has ever written at least a hundred times.) Your narrations of long ago ghost stories are wonderful and I have absorbed some culture and dare I say "education".
Thirdly: I don't have a thirdly....
I like me a bit of Lovecraft. One of my favourites is the dream quest of unknown Kadath but other channels here who do Lovecraft very well so I’ve left him by and large alone
@@ClassicGhost I have the Lovecraft stories you have done on a playlist.
I loved this story and also your reading of “They.”
This story sounds amazing, looking forward to snuggling up with it tonight, thank you Tony, you're very much appreciated 🙏 💛
A wonderful story, thank you
I really like Burrage. A lot.….Rather than make the guardian the “heavy,” worthy only of supernatural punishment for his emotional mistreatment of his ward (as I believe most writers in this genre would have written it), Burrage uses his “visitors” almost as guardrails; as a means for the man to understand his ward’s needs & his own deficiencies as a guardian….
Especially effective (and providing a full throttle of horror to contemplate) was the vicar’s gentle warning to the guardian at the end : “It may not be good for her to become too proficient & easy conversing with them (the dead) ….for although all of the girls were good & holy children….it may be that others, of a far more malign nature may attempt contact with her”….. (Actually gave me chills)
What a lovely, sad, wistful story, wonderfully read. Thank you much. Now subscribing - my only ghost story narrator worth listening too.
Such a good story!!
That was lovely!
Another story I've never heard of or read, so thanks for that, first off. I loved it, and enjoyed your characterizations, vocally---as well as the After-ramble. I liked your point of the parson being the key, but I will slightly expand that to saying, they were all keys to one another. It was written with excellent insight, I feel. I take the view that the ghost children are 100% real---and that the "sensitive" gentleman who takes on Monica is really doing so not for the reasons he tells himself. His justification is at complete odds with his ego and outward persona----no, he senses that in Monica, there's some hidden chance he'll be able to retrieve the lost aspects of his own childhood. Of course he has no conscious notion of this at all---but, step by step---he's drawn to remove to this haunted house of a rental, and even before he has realized that Monica has "imaginary friends", he'd already sensed them. I propose that as a child he was a psychic sensitive himself, and it got stopped out of him by the conventions of the adults around his. So, He is a Key for Monica, providing a bare bones platform for sustenance and odd self-guided education. Monica is a Key for him, allowing her direct contact to re-expose him to the realms of "Other'...and then the Parson is a Key as well, a conduit for Monica to expand outward into the world, but our man then will expand inward...and set up with the little girls all around him. I got a chill at the end of the story. Too much seclusion with the spirits of the dead may lead who knows where? Sorry to go so long! Talk about a ramble. Just thinking through my keyboard on a Friday evening. Much love from across the pond. Have a nice weekend, Tony.
I love your analysis. We should do a series of spark note type things where we look at the stories. We could even do a book about it. Pick 10 stories and their analysis. It might even sell.
Thank you sir 😊❤
I want that book Tony! It will fit nicely next to your wonderful ghost stories ! ❤
Enjoyed listening, quite a few narraters are bland. You have cadence and a voice that uses modulation. Thank you. Cheers Rosemary Western Australia 73yrs
Thank you !
Loved the commentary! I wish I could retain as much knowledge as you do about the authors and genres of writing.
I was thinking of Lady In Black also when I was listening. Every time I type or say this title, I almost make the mistake of referring to that song by Chris de Burgh!💃 You know the one!! Anyhoozel! Lady in Black is scarier to me because of the intense hatred within the ghost.
I am an idealist and a sucker for a happy ending. Which is why part of your commentary called to mind A Christmas Carole. Scrooge had a sad childhood, so in turn, became cold and uncaring to everyone. I love his redemption arch, which is why I try to find Dickens in everything!!
Question for everyone; Dickens or Tolstoy?
Cheers!
I have never read War and peace though when I was young I remember Richard Seymour reading it. I was a pal of his brother Howard.
Richard Seymour?
I loved it♥️the ending was so sweet-thank you Tony😎
I loved this. ❤
I love this story....i think it was made all thr better for your Narration, Tony
Thank you 😊💜💜👏🏼
After I got past the suspension of disbelief, I have to say this was a beautifully crafted story. I’ll keep a lookout for more of Barrage’s short fiction. : )
So wonderful! I also discovered this story in the Dahl book many years ago and fell in love with it at once, it' still my favourite ghost story today - the most touching along with "The Traitor" by Joan Aiken, probably even more so. I'm just reading up on Burrage, and so far I haven't encountered a single bad story. A handful of them (The Waxwork, Smee, The Sweeper, One Who Saw) are little masterpieces - as far as "ordinary" ghosts are concerned, he might really be the best. Looking forward to exploring your channel!
This story Is written just right not sure what I mean but it makes the hair stand and not in a spooky way maybe it’s just that a good man is trying to do right by the girl without some creepy intent. To have it all read by the Master Ghost story Narrator. We need to have you knighted for your work is impeccable. This should be a movie directed by you.
Sir. Tony Walker
P.s we need to change up the ending though. Just to see him take care the 7 children 😢
What a lovely story, well read. I'd have not had this experience without you. You have my gratitude for sharing this with us.
Beautiful story
I get the impression you would have done exactly the same thing as the lovely golfer who returned your wallet,when you say you will "have to go out of your way to be nice to somebody" i get the impression that is what you do anyway+who you are.I liked the upbeat ending to this story,i think they'll both give+receive the love they both deserve
I've read this story in an anthology. As always your narration brings it to life. ❤
At first this story sounded like the secret garden. I like that it was about friendly ghosts 🙂
I was listening to this story today and it made me think of ICP- Play with me, after you read 'Play with me'
I think I was getting nostalgic.
The love-gush of the modern female fiction mongers - classic. This is not only perfect but I've not heard it before.
Love this story - even though it broke my heart.
Now now Aine.
This was really excellent.
Fabulous story 💜
Gosh this version is much darker than another I've heard.
Such a short story, but great character development. Good reading and rambling
2nd time for listening I think, soon I want to hug Monica ,poor little thing 💓
Loved this story ❤
Great story. As he admits at the end to the ghost children, he is a lonely man, which is I think why he adopted the girl, even if he told himself it was an experiment.
I watched 'Bodkin' last week and really enjoyed it - a great example of how a story can work even with three initially rather unlikable characters. Followed it up with Mike Flanagan's 'Midnight Mass' - which I had somehow missed two years ago, Another corker of a series.
I love the stories and I love the information you provide afterwards thank you!
YOU SAID YOU NEED TO GET RID OF SOME BOOKS?? I had a fire several years ago that burned my entire collection. I have been collecting these my whole life! So I’m back on the hunt if you have any suggestions. I’m going a different direction with it this time, but definitely gotta have my ghost stories.
I just bought some more...
I wonder if you'd like to do an episode with Talking til Dawn. You sound like you'd have a great conversation about authors and mysteries. I'd love to be a fly on the wall.
Thanks for all your work. Really appreciate it.
Your comment about ppl saying they want to be psychologists and your reason for it, 100% me. 😅
I don't know Talking til Dawn. How would I get in touch?
I’ve always liked this story, have it in that Roald Dahl anthology. One of my favorite books. I think child ghosts, though not the ones in this story, are especially creepy because of our expectation of children always being innocent. It is so against nature when they are not.
My dear Tony you are a whale of a narrator.
that’s a lovely old-fashioned saying
Lovely!
I listened to your reading of They by Rudyard Kipling a long time ago.
How sweet