From the British Library series 'Tales of the Weird, comes this collection of neglected ghost stories set on the rail system. Mike Ashley always tries to avoid the well-known regulars, thus there is no 'The Signalman' by Dickens.
There is, however, 'A Short Trip Home' by, of all people, F Scott Fitzgerald, which turns out to be startlingly effective. Of the Victorian entries I liked 'Railhead' by Perceval Landon, of whom I had never heard but who turns out to have been a friend of Kipling (he lived in a cottage at Batemans) and the author of 'Thurnley Abbey', a ghost story which M R James considered 'almost too horrid.' I must look it out.
Of the more modern ones, I am always intrigued byR Chetwynd-Hayes, represented here by 'The Underground'. Of those inbetween, I really liked 'A Subway Named Mobius' which, according to editor Mike Ashley, is the only short story by American astronomer A J Deutsch.
A good collection, then, casting light on several intriguing writers.
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