As a genre, children's ghost writing is a relative newcomer to the literary field. While children's literature has flourished for over 200 years, supernatural fiction for the young has really only come into its own in the twentieth century. Dread and Delight, a spine-tingling collection of 40 ghost stories written for children over the course of the present century, charts its development from its roots in the writings of authors such as M. R. James, A. C. Benson and Walter de la Mare, to renowned modern authors including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jan Mark, Leon Garfield, and Penelope Lively.

Compiled by the award-winning novelist Phillipa Pearce, author of the classic children's book Tom's Midnight Garden, these stories will captivate adults and children alike. Pearce includes two previously unpublished stories by Lucy Boston and Robert Westall, and a full introduction and lively notes on the authors. The collected stories represent an engaging variety--drawn from all over the English-speaking world, including America, India, and the Caribbean as well as Great Britain. Treating the supernatural with humor and whimsy, as well as with a proper respect, the tales all succeed brilliantly in creating an atmosphere of suspense or unease in order to produce the pleasurable tingle of anticipation that children relish as much as adults. As Phillip Pearce writes in her introduction, 'fear becomes awe and wonder...the delight is in the dread'.

CONTENTS
Introduction by Philippa Pearce
1. M. R. James - A School Story (1911)
2. A. C. Benson - Out of the Sea (1904)
3. H. F. W. Tatham - Manfred's Three Wishes (1910)
4. William J. Wintle - The Light in the Dormitory (1921)
5. Walter de la Mare - Miss Jemima (1923)
6. Arthur Machen - Johnny Double (1928)
7. Eleanor Farjeon - Elsie Piddock Skips on her Sleep (1928)
8. Lucy Boston - The Tiger-Skin Rug (written 1933, from MS)
9. William Pene du Bois - Elisabeth the Cow Ghost (1936)
10. Robert Bright – Georgie (1944)
11. David Severn - All in the Night's Work (1947)
12. Christopher Woodforde – Richard (1952)
13. Alison Uttley - The Wee Ghostie (1962)
14. Robert Arthur - The Haunted Trailer (1962)
15. Sorche Nic Leodhas (LeClaire Gowans Alger) - The House that Lacked a Bogle (1964)
16. Pamela Ropner - The January Queen (1966)
17. R. Chetwynd-Hayes – Brownie (1970)
18. Michael Kenyon - The Ghost of Top Wood (1975)
19. Dorothy Edwards - The Old White Ghost and the Old Grey Grandad (1975)
20. Margaret Mahy - Looking for a Ghost (1975)
21. Philippa Pearce - At the River-Gates (1977)
22. Ruth Park - Sombody lives in the Nobody House (1978)
23. J. S. Leatherbarrow - The Ghostly Goat of Glaramara (1979)
24. Joan Aiken - She was Afraid of Upstairs (1980)
25. Isaac Bashevis Singer - The Extinguished Lights (1980)
26. Jan Mark - Who's a Pretty Boy, Then? (1981)
27. Penelope Lively - Uninvited Ghosts (1981)
28. Farrukh Dhondy - The Bride (1982)
29. George Mackay Brown – Ivor (1984)
30. Vivien Alcock - Siren Song (1984)
31. Adidan Chambers - The Tower (1987)
32. Grace Hallworth - The Guitarist (1984)
33. Leon Garfield - A Grave Misunderstanding (1987)
34. Ruskin Bond - Ghost Trouble (1989)
35. Paul Yee - Spirits of the Railway (1989)
36. Barbara Griffiths – Many Happy Returns! (1990)
37. Robert Westall - The Beach (written 1990, from MS)
38. Susan Price - Across the Fields (1991)
39. Tim Wynne-Jones - The Clearing (1993)
40. John Gordon - The Burning Baby (1992)
Biographical Notes
Publisher's Acknowledgements

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Cover illustration by Angela Barrett