William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with over twenty novels published in the genre press and more than 300 short story credits in thirteen countries. He has books available from a variety of publishers and his work has appeared in a large number of professional anthologies and magazines. He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company. When he's not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

The Ghost Club by William Meikle

Writers never really die; their stories live on, to be found again, to be told again, to scare again.

In Victorian London, a select group of writers, led by Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker and Henry James held an informal dining club, the price of entry to which was the telling of a story by each invited guest.

These are their stories, containing tales of revenant loved ones, lost cities, weird science, spectral appearances and mysteries in the fog of the old city, all told by some of the foremost writers of the day. In here you'll find Verne and Wells, Tolstoy and Checkov, Stevenson and Oliphant, Kipling, Twain, Haggard and Blavatsky alongside their hosts.

Come, join us for dinner and a story:
•Robert Louis Stevenson - Wee Davie Makes a Friend
•Rudyard Kipling - The High Bungalow
•Leo Tolstoy - The Immortal Memory
•Bram Stoker - The House of the Dead
•Mark Twain - Once a Jackass
•Herbert George Wells - Farside
•Margaret Oliphant - To the Manor Born
•Oscar Wilde - The Angry Ghost
•Henry Rider Haggard - The Black Ziggurat
•Helena P Blavatsky - Born of Ether
•Henry James - The Scrimshaw Set
•Anton Checkov - At the Molenzki Junction
•Jules Verne - To the Moon and Beyond
•Arthur Conan Doyle - The Curious Affair on the Embankment

CURATOR'S NOTE

William Meikle's book of Victorian ghost stories captures the style of some of the greatest storytellers of our time. Picture yourself the lucky guest at a club meeting with the likes of Bram Stoker, Jules Vernes and more, sharing their Victorian tales of terror. Such a wonderful and inventive collection. – Tricia Reeks

 

REVIEWS

  • "There are a number of solid reasons to add The Ghost Club to your reading list. For example, you love a good ghost story, or maybe you've read and enjoyed Meikle's Carnacki tales, or perhaps you're a fan of Victorian terror, or maybe you just enjoy a good read. Whatever your reason, happy reading."

    – CEMETERY DANCE

  • "...an extremely entertaining volume for any dark fiction lover."

    – HELLNOTES

  • "It holds such a bounty of great stories it could easily entertain readers of many brands of horror."

    – THIS IS HORROR

  • "Meikle has done a wonderful job in keeping with the cadence of each author. I loved each of these tales especially since I am familiar with most of these authors and have greatly enjoyed reading their words in the past. These are all good old-fashion tales that don't rely on shock or blood and guts to get your attention."

    – HORROR NOVEL REVIEWS

  • "Meikle playfully manipulates multiple styles, has sly references to real stories and has created a work which comes across as genuinely authentic."

    – HORROR DNA
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

When the venerable Criterion Club in London recently went into receivership, strenuous attempts were made to find anything of interest on the premises that might be valuable enough to stave off the landlord and the other creditors and prevent the old lady from closing her doors one last time. Silver dinner services, much of the fine china crockery, a great deal of artwork including portraits of the great and good and even some of the original wood paneling were all auctioned off for the cause. But the debt was always deemed likely to be too severe to save the old club from certain closure. After many years of serving most of the glittering names of stage, screen, and literature, along with members of Parliament, and some of the wealthiest businessmen in the world, the long service seemed to be near an end.

That might be all about to change. A finding of some note has recently come to light, and it appears to be of such significance that it is almost guaranteed to revive the fortunes of the old lady.

It was found in an upstairs room, one that has seen little use except for storage since the war. Tucked away in a dusty corner behind several stacks of magazines and periodicals dating from the Sixties, a bookcase was uncovered. It contained, among other things, a shelf of signed, first editions from some of the late Victorian era's best known authors. Those signed books, many in pristine condition, in themselves will fetch a pretty penny. But that was not the most startling of the items found.

The main hope for the future of the club ultimately rests on the tome you hold in your hands. It was almost thrown away at first, for the leather covering in which it had been stored had cracked badly and is of no value in itself. The papers found inside, however, are another matter entirely—they are a transcript of stories told around the table at a highly exclusive literary dining club. According to the notes, this Ghost Club was founded by the American writer, Henry James who was sojourning in London at the time, the then stage manager of the Lyceum, Bram Stoker, and the literary lion of the day, Arthur Conan Doyle. A study of the handwritten notes and invitations found with the book explain that the cost of a seat at the table was a story. And not just any story—the more ghostly, spooky, or outlandish, the better was the request.

As you will see for yourself, many writers of the period took up the challenge, in tales that have never appeared in any other journal, paper or collection either of the day or over the period since they were written.

The stories themselves have been transcribed on a typewriter. The ribbon was not of the best quality and the ink has faded even further in the intervening years, but it is obvious given the introductory material in the notes that Conan Doyle himself was the typist. Indeed, there seems to be more than a hint of his Lordship's peculiar dry wit seeping into these stories alongside the voices of their original tellers, indicating that he sometimes did more than merely transcribe the originals, and went as far as embellishing some of the tales. Whatever the case, it is clearly a remarkable find of huge historical significance; a new story by any one of these writers would cause a frenzy of bidding at any literary auction, and to have fourteen is a bounty of riches indeed.

Of course, the discovery of this manuscript has been fortuitous, to say the least, for the owners of the club, and there have already been allegations of hoax and trickery. There is speculation of, pardon the pun, a ghostwriter, for some modern word choices, and phrases are said to appear scattered throughout the fourteen stories.

For my part, I can only ask that you read the tales as I have provided them here—and make up your own mind as to their provenance.