I have seen only one offered for sale: at $1000 by supernatural fictionĭealer, L.W. Never seen another despite decades of collecting. Dalby notes that, since acquiring a copy long ago, he has Anyone liking that tale will not beĭisappointed, as all the stories in Mist are of a similar standard.Ĭonsidering her past popularity, other than the Williamīooks, Crompton’s titles are surprisingly scarce possibly the rarest Of the stories in Mist has ever been reprinted, ‘Rosalind’, in The Virago Book of Ghost Stories Vol. Mysterious and macabre (not unlike, say, Daphne du Maurier). While such motifs are employed as parody, they display theĪuthor’s familiarity with genre conventions, and a feel for the

Her black cat familiar ‘William and the Ancient Souls’, reincarnationĪnd evil spirits and two stories concern a ghost, another an easternĬurse. Uses the motif of an avenging scarecrow ‘A Witch in Time’, a witch and Other writing, including the William books. The macabre and ghostly surfaces, often indirectly, in her Supernatural but used the subject directly in only two books: The House (1926), issued in America as Dread Dwelling, a haunted house novel and the short story collection. Social mores is apparent in her novels, numbering an astonishing 41 Īnd in her short stories, written for monthly periodicals like Hutchinson’s Magazine,Īppearing in nine collections. On English middle class village life in the mid twentieth century, withĮchoes of an author she admired, Jane Austen. Terms of plotting, characterisation, dialogue and style witty satires Richmal Crompton is best known for her popular Williamīooks, frequently reprinted, published 1919-70 amusing tales forĬhildren, the 38 titles display an accomplished adult sophistication in MIST And Other Ghost Stories reviewed on YouTube: Monica drew her wraps about her with a shiver. Trees were black shadows in a grey sheen of moonlit fields.Ĭlean forgot I’d used the spare tin. A river shone like burnished silver in the distance. See what you can see, Harold,’ he called to me from where he was I was motoring with my cousin Frank and his wife.

And, of course, it wasĪway from anywhere. When we discovered that we’d run out of petrol.

Richmal crompton author