Recently in Classic Literature Category

A few nights ago, I made the mistake of rereading Charles Dickens' 'The Signal-Man' in bed. Bad, baaaaad idea. It's long been my favourite ghost story - and the BBC adaptation one of my favourite short slabs of telly - but even knowing every story beat in the tale didn't protect me from that growing unease and dread.

It may sound odd to some, but the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas has a long heritage. For many, Christmas is associated with more repeats of Chevy Chase struggling with Christmas lights or some animated piece of schmaltz banging on about the 'spirit of giving'. But, particularly in Europe, the Christmas ghost story has a long tradition.

Shelley and I just returned from a few days away in Kangaroo Valley. There, we discovered a wonderful second hand book and antique store that sucked the time from our day and the money from our pockets. I walked away with a pile of fascinating old comics and 'story papers' dating all the way back to 1901 and representing a wide shift on childhood reading.

Even I'm having trouble believing I said it. This morning I awoke after a luxurious lie-in: early to bed, late to rise. Boy, did it feel good. I turned to the wife and said "Wow, I really needed that Raymond Chandler".

What did I mean? A big sleep!

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…"

I'm sure I don’t need to spell out that today, being Christmas Day, is the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Of course, these days, most people only consider the twelve days of Christmas when singing the song, but Christmas as a holiday actually extends from December 25th to the feast of the Epiphany on January 5th.