Herbert Van Thal – 2nd Bedside Book Of Strange Stories

Herbert Van Thal (ed.) – The Second Bedside Book Of Strange Stories (Arthur Baker, 1976)

John H Snellings – Flies
Dulce Gray – Mumsie
Sally Franklin – The Strange Gift Of Sidney Higgins
Robert Aickman – The House Of The Russians
Harry Harrison – The Last Train
A. L. Barker – Happy Event
Roger Malisson – Regression
Morag Greer – A Cross At Her Head And Feet
Willis Hall – Long Winter’s Night

Flies are unpleasant insects, little more than nuisances in an ordinary house – but what happens if they develop a taste for fresh blood?

Is it possible for humans and insects to exchange bodies?

What happened to the people living on an island on the ‘wrong’ side of a Finnish town?

What was the strange face that appeared momentarily at a window of a great hall?

Is there such a thing as a ghost train?

includes:

John H Snellings – Flies: Having learned by chance of their passion for raw hamburger and (her) fresh blood, Katherine Morrow takes to feeding up her secret collection of flies with the vague intent of using the big beauties to avenge herself on appalling husband Charles. Come the night when, finding the stifling heat in their bedroom uncongenial to sleep, he ventures down into the cellar for a fan …

Hugh Walpole – A Second Century of Creepy Stories

Hugh Walpole (ed.) – A Second Century of Creepy Stories (Hutchinson, 1937)

Thanks to Rob Humphreys for the cover scan

Wilkie Collins – Mad Monkton
John Metcalfe – Mortmain
Anonymous – The Dead Bride
J. S. Le Fanu – Carmilla
Bartimeus – The Green Door
Hugh Walpole – Tarnhelm
Ambrose Bierce – A Watcher by the Dead
Walter De La Mare -The Trumpet
Ralph Strauss – The Most Maddening Story In The World
Arthur Machen – Change
Algernon Blackwood – Keeping His Promise
Ex-Private X – The Oak Saplings
M.R. James – Mr. Humphreys And His Inheritance
Oliver Onions – The Beckoning Fair One
Guy de Maupassant – The Horla
F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
Hector Bolitho – The House In Half Moon Street
T. O. Beachcroft – The Inn In the Estuary
Marjorie Bowen – The Crown Derby Plate
Henry James – The Turn Of The Screw
Margaret Irwin – Monsieur Seeks a Wife
Ann Bridge – The Accident
Martin Armstrong – Mrs. Vaudrey’s Journey
A.M. Burrage – Browdean Farm
M. Joyce – Perchance to Dream
Shane Leslie – The Drummer of Gordonmuir
Rupert Croft-Cooke – Banquo’s Chair

Hugh Lamb, writing in Steve Jones & Kim Newman’s Horror: 100 Best Books (Xanadu, 1988), says of this one:  “Simply the best anthology ever assembled; I’ve held this view for over thirty years”.

A Century Of Creepy Stories

Anon – A Century Of Creepy Stories (Hutchinson, n.d.: 1934)

Thanks to Rob Humphreys for the cover scan

Hugh Walpole – The Snow, The Tarn, A Little Ghost, Mrs. Lunt
Arthur Machen – The Islington Mystery, The Cosy Room, Opening The Door, Munitions Of War
Flavia Richardson (Christine Campbell Thomson) – The Red Turret
Oscar Cook – When Glister Walked, Si Urag Of The Tail, The Great White Fear, Boomerang
Elizabeth Bowen – The Apple Tree, Telling, The Cat Jumps
Walter De La Mare – Crewe, A Recluse
Oliver Onions – Two Trifles, The Smile Of Karen, “John Gladwin Says ….”
E. F. Benson – The Hanging Of Alfred Wadham
Shane Leslie – As In A Glass Dimly, The Hospital Nurse, The Lord In Waiting
Barry Pain – A Considerable Murder
Lady Cynthia Asquith – The Lovely Voice, The Playfellow, “God Grante That She Lye Stille”, The Corner Shop
J. M. Barrie – Shall We Join The Ladies?
D. H. Lawrence – The Rocking-Horse Winner, The Lovely Lady
M. R. James – Rats
L. P. Hartley – The Killing Bottle, The Travelling Grave, A Visitor From Down Under, The Cotillion
W. B. Maxwell – The Prince, The Last Man In
C. H. B. Kitchen – Dispossession, Beauty And The Beast
Hilda Hughes – Those Whom The Gods Love, The Birthright
Charles Dickens – The Haunted Man And The Ghosts Bargain
May Sinclair – The Villa Desiree
Mrs. Belloc-Lowndes – The Duenna, The Unbolted Door
Daniel Defoe – The Apparition Of Mrs. Veal
Dennis Mackail – The Lost Tragedy
Clemence Dane – Spinster’s Rest
Edgar Wallace – Circumstantial Evidence
Edgar Allan Poe – A Descent Into The Maelstrom, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, The Black Cat
Charles Whibley – Twelve O’Clock
Enid Bagnold – The Amorous Ghost
Desmond MacCarthy – Pargiton And Harby
H. G. Wells – The Country Of The Blind
Washington Irving – The Spectre Bridegroom
Mary Webb – Mr. Tallent’s Ghost
Ann Bridge – The Buick Saloon
W. S. Morrison, M. P. – The Horns Of The Bull
William Gerhardi – The Man Who Came Back
Philip MacDonald – Our Feathered Friends
Ambrose Bierce – The Stranger
Michael Joseph – The Yellow Cat
A. J. Alan – My Adventure In Norfolk
Honore De Balzac – The Mysterious Mansion
Algernon Blackwood – The Stranger.

There are 1178 pages of this one. Hugh Walpole has sometimes been attributed  editorship of this epic. Be that as it may, the hard work had already been done by others: Essentially, A Century Of Creepy Stories compiles the contents of at least three Lady Cynthia Asquith collections – The Ghost Book, When Churchyards Yawn and The Black Cap – loans Oscar Cook and ‘Flavia Richardson’ from the Not At Night series, and throws in a number of genre classics to keep everybody happy.
The Asquith anthologies would go on to provide the backbone of the Aickman-edited Fontana Ghost books thirty years later.

Victorian Ghost Stories: An Oxford Anthology

Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert (eds.) – Victorian Ghost Stories: An Oxford Anthology (Oxford University Press, 1991)

Introduction – Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert

Elizabeth Gaskell  – The Old Nurse’s Story
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street
J. Y. Akerman – The Miniature
Dinah Maria Mulock – The Last House in C——  Street
Charles Dickens – To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt
R. S. Hawker – The Botathen Ghost
Rhoda Broughton – The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth
Henry James – The Romance of Certain Old Clothes
Anon – Pichon & Sons, of the Croix Rousse
Mrs. Henry Wood – Reality or Delusion?
George MacDonald  – Uncle Cornelius His Story
Tom Hood – The Shadow of a Shade
Mary Elizabeth Braddon – At Chrighton Abbey
Anon (Thomas Street Millington) – No Living Voice
Wilkie Collins – Miss Jéromette and the Clergyman
Anon – The Story of Clifford House
Amelia B. Edwards – Was it an Illusion?
Charlotte Riddell – The Open Door
Arthur Conan Doyle – The Captain of the “Pole-Star”
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Body-Snatcher
Mary Louisa Molesworth – The Story of the Rippling Train
Rudyard Kipling – At the End of the Passage
Mrs. B. M. Croker – “To Let”
Edith Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Rosa Mulholland – The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly
Jerome K. Jerome – The Man of Science
M. R. James – Canon Alberic’s Scrap Book
W. W. Jacobs – Jerry Bundler
Bernard Capes – An Eddy on the Floor
F. G. Loring – The Tomb of Sarah
Barry Pain – The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit
Mary E. Wilkins – The Shadows on the Wall
Robert Hugh Benson – Father Macclesfield’s Tale
Perceval Landon – Thurnley Abbey
Algernon Blackwood – The Kit-Bag

Sources
Select Chronological Conspectus of Ghost Stories: 1840-1910

Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories

Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert (eds.) – The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories (Oxford University Press, 1986)

Introduction – Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert

Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber
Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – Squire Toby’s Will
Mary Elizabeth Braddon – The Shadow in the Corner
F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
Vernon Lee  – A Wicked Voice
Bram Stoker  – The Judge’s House
E. Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble
Sir Arthur T. Quiller-Couch – The Roll-Call of the Reef
Henry James – The Friends of the Friends
H. G. Wells – The Red Room
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – The Lost Ghost
M. R. James – “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”
Algernon Blackwood – The Empty House
Oliver Onions – The Cigarette Case
Barry Pain – Rose Rose
E. F. Benson – The Confession of Charles Linkworth
Richard Middleton – On the Brighton Road
E. G. Swain – Bone to His Bone
Ingulphus (Arthur Gray ) – The True History of Anthony Ffryar
W. Somerset Maugham – The Taipan
May Sinclair – The Victim
L. P. Hartley – A Visitor from Down Under
John Buchan – Fullcircle
William F. Harvey – The Clock
H. Russell Wakefield – Old Man’s Beard
Edith Wharton – Mr. Jones
Ex-Private X (A. M. Burrage) – Smee
Hugh Walpole – The Little Ghost
A. E. Coppard – Ahoy, Sailor Boy!
Thomas Burke – The Hollow Man
Charles Williams – Et in Sempiternum Pereant
L. T. C. Rolt – Bosworth Summit Pound
A. N. L. Munby – An Encounter in the Mist
Elizabeth Bowen – Hand in Glove
V. S. Pritchett – A Story of Don Juan
Christopher Woodforde – Cushi
Walter de la Mare – Bad Company
Simon Raven – The Bottle of 1912
Robert Aickman – The Cicerones
T. H. White – Soft Voices at Passenham

Notes
Select Bibliography

Mammoth Book Of Thrillers, Ghosts & Mysteries

J. M. Parrish & John R. Crossland (eds.) – The Mammoth Book Of Thrillers, Ghosts & Mysteries (Odhams, 1936)

A. J. Alan – The Diver
Michael Arlen – The Ghoul Of Golders Green
Arnold Bennett – The Murder Of The Mandarin
J. D. Beresford – Powers Of The Air
Algernon Blackwood – Keeping His Promise
Gerald Bullett – Dearth’s Farm
G. K. Chesterton – The Hammer of God
Agatha Christie – The Blue Geranium
Joseph Conrad – The Secret Sharer
A. E. Coppard – The Tiger
Walter De La Mare – The Looking Glass
Guy De Maupassant – The Hostelry
Lord Dunsany – A Large Diamond
Jeffrey Farnol – The Cupboard
J. S. Fletcher – The Other Sense
Pamela Hansford Johnson – Ghost Of Honour
O. Henry – Roads Of Destiny
C. D. Heriot – The Trapdoor
C. F. Hoffman – Ben Blower’s Story
Tom Hood – The Shadow of A Shade
Aldous Huxley – The Dwarfs
Washington Irving – Guests From Gibbet Island
M. R. James – The Mezzotint
Jerome K. Jerome – The Dancing Partner
D. H. Lawrence – The Woman Who Rode Away
Somerset Maugham – Honolulu
Oliver Onions – Rooum
Barry Pain – The Green Light
Eden Phillpotts – The Iron Pineapple
J. B. Priestly – The Demon King
Alexander Pushkin – The Queen Of Spades
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch – The Seventh Man
Saki – Laura
W. B. Seabrook – Goat-Cry, Girl-Cry
May Sinclair – The Mahatma’s Story
H. De Vere Stacpool – Deep In The Forest
R. L. Stevenson – The Island Of Voices
Edgar Wallace – Man Of The Night
Hugh Walpole – Major Wilbraham
H. G. Wells – The Inexperienced Ghost
Rebecca West – The Salt Of The Earth
Anon – A Tale Of A Gas-Light Ghost

Sealed Section

E. F. Benson – The Confession Of Charles Linkworth
Ambrose Bierce – The Moonlit Road
L. P. Hartley – A Visitor From Down Under
W. H. Hodgson – The Voice In The Night
W. W. Jacobs – His Brother’s Keeper
Edgar Allen Poe – Berenice
A. E. D. Smith – The Coat
Bram Stoker – The Squaw
P. C. Wren – Presentiments

Mary Danby – The Green Ghost

Mary Danby (ed.) – The Green Ghost and Other Stories (Armada, 1989)

Terry Tapp – The Green Ghost
Rita Morris – Hallowe’en
Rosemary Timperley – The Sinister Schoolmaster
Sydney J. Bounds – Hunters’ Hill
Alison Prince – The Baby-Sitter
Tony Richards – The Sound of Sirens
Ken Burke – Dance of Death
Catherine Gleason – The Woodeaves Ghosts
Mary Danby – Lorimer’s Bride
Joyce Marsh – The Shepherd’s Dog
Terry Tapp – The Junk Room
Daphne Froome – This Book Belongs To…
Rosemary Timperley – The Murderous Ghosts
Roger Malisson – Sarah –
Ruth Cameron – A Red, Red Rose
Alan W. Lear – Whoever Heard of a Haunted Lift?
Tony Richards – The Girl in the Cellar
Catherine Gleason – The Longest Journey
Sydney J. Bounds – Spirit of the Trail
Mary Danby – The Grey Lady
John Duncan – Child of the Future
Daphne Froome – Lisa
Sydney J. Bounds – The Train Watchers
Joyce Marsh – The Warning
Catherine Gleason – House of Glass
Anon – Teeny-Tiny
Rosemary Timperley – Stella
Ann Pilling – Gibson’s
Terry Tapp – The Doll
Mary Danby – Mr. Jones
Ruth Cameron – The Ghostly Gardeners
Tony Richards – Someone Drowned
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – The Third Eye
Alison Prince – The Servant
Rosemary Timperley – The Thing That Went Bump in the Night
Joyce Marsh – Sir Harry Mortlake’s Clock
Sydney J. Bounds – The Haunted Circus
Catherine Gleason – The Post Room
Terry Tapp – The Day I Died
Alison Prince – Can’t Help Laughing
Ken Burke – The Return of the Lorelei
Mary Danby – The Ghost Writer

Mammoth selection from the long-running childrens series The Armada Book Of Ghost Stories (1967-1983) the first two books being edited by Christine Bernard with Danby taking over on number three (there were fifteen volumes as far as I’ve been able to establish).