The Orchard Book of Goblins, Ghouls & Ghosts & Other Magical Stories

Waddell shares a clutch of traditional stories he first heard from the Irish storytellers of his childhood. Some of the stories, such as ‘Tom Tit Tot’ and ‘The Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach’ have been extensively anthologized, but there are also some less familiar tales. Here you’ll meet a ghoul who shares his own bones to make soup, an undead gambler forlornly seeking the wife he left just hours but centuries ago, a young bride-to-be dancing with the corpse of her drowned lover. The collection encompasses a range of moods from the comical to the tragic, but in all of them you’ll find a sense of mingled dread and craving as humans and the ghosts, ghouls and goblins of the title gaze and reach into each other’s worlds. Some of the stories, such as ‘The Ghost of Porlock’ and ‘Dancing with Francie’, are heart-breaking, while the ‘The Solway Bride’ is as effective as a good horror film in its account of a young family cowering in a cottage while holding off a band of wife-snatching demons all night long. The final story provides a touching resolution of family strife spanning life and death, and closes the collection gently. Tony Ross’ illustrations match the moods well, though they are probably better at evoking the comic and grotesque than the sorrow that infuses some of the best of these stories.