Anthology: Wry Out West

Five ghost stories and occult tales from the English West Country with a whiff of brimstone and a distinct dash of dry humour.Old CrotchetThe year is 1920, and it's Twelfth Night by the old reckoning. Festivities are about to commence at Hinton St Cuthbert Manor when something sinister stirs from its protracted dormancy, awakened, it would seem, by the arrival of two young guests. The old ways, they find, should not be treated lightly.Gwydion’s DawnMurder, mystery and magic: a satirical journey into the occult. Meet Gwydion Turner, an inept, portentous, psychedelic demon raiser; a wannabe Crowley in crushed velvet. From Haight-Ashbury to Glastonbury, this eccentric figure has been known by many, but understood by few; just who, or what, is he? Is he a fraudster, or a sage?Agnes of Grimstone PeverellOne bitterly cold December morning, snobbish theatre critic Lionel Smallwood and his wife Frances find themselves enjoying the wares of the Victorian Christmas market in the Dorset town of Grimstone Peverell. Chilled to the marrow, they retire to the town’s minster where they are accosted by a pious and enthusiastic guide. Eager to acquaint them with every aspect of its history, she seems reluctant to let them go, but return to London they must – Lionel has a play to review. That, at least, is his intention.3:05 amIt has often been said that too much television isn’t good for you. There are, however, some things you simply have to watch, even though the consequences may be neither pleasant, nor quite what you had anticipated.The Cleft OwlA tale of occult deception and intrigue in 17th-century Devon. Witness the work of a practitioner of the occult arts, a willing deceiver and interpreter of dreams, schooled in awe by a house of God rendered a charnel house by a fiery, dancing orb of light. Self-tutored in greed, and self-assured in his deceptions, Robert Tooley would have folk think him able to command the dead and do his bidding, but as his demands grow greater, so the villagers’ doubts grow deeper; there will be an end to it all, and not a pretty one.

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