Safe Return Doubtful

introduced by Mark Gatiss

This selection of the prolific ‘Fred’ Benson’s ghost stories was selected by Mark Gatiss, and the audio version I have listened to over the last few weeks while wandering the forests of Central Europe was read by him. His voice perfectly suits the mood.

There’s quite a variety here, from a splendidly entertaining comedy about spiritualism, Spinach, to the more traditional ghost story like In The Tube.
My personal favourite fits more into the weird literature category, and concerns a young man who is something of a Dorian Gray type character.

At times it seems that Benson’s greatest influence was MR James, but at others, Lovecraft. It’s fair to say that he was no lover of insects. Three of stories concern insect-like monsters. It’s the aspect of the horror genre that I find less entertaining. Some creatures in our world have unjustly had a hard time at the hands of authors over the years; sharks, wolves, spiders.. I struggle to find slugs and caterpillars scary.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5