The Cl Gh St podcast link on Vurbl should be
https://vurbl.com/station/classic-ghost-stories/
Don’t know why that previous link was giving an error. Maybe mis-pasted it…
Vurbl have kindly made me their ambassador for the “Ghosts and Spirits” category. My job is to put together playlists for top-notch, good quality free audio in this category. So far I’ve got a Vampire Stories playlist, a Dark Folklore playlist, and a Mediums and Psychics playlist. I’m also going to do a Haunted House playlist.
I guessed that because of your interest in this area, you might be able to send me links to podcasts episodes, free audiobooks that I can include in the playlist. They have to be good and listenable and free.
I’m open to new playlist ideas too.
But, they have to already exist. I don’t have time to record new material. Doesn’t matter who did it, as long as they are worth listening to.
Thanks in advance for your help!
P.S. You can listen to The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast episodes here too.
The Door in The Wall by H G Wells: Listen here
H G Wells
Herbert George Wells was born in 1866 in Bromley, Kent just outside London. He Died aged 79 at his grand house in Regent’s Park in London.He was a scientist by training having got his degree at Imperial College London (the Royal College of Science). He was a biologist with a strong interest in Darwin and Natural Selection. His early adult life was one of financial insecurity and job after job teaching and he earned his Bachelor of Science in 1890 through the University of London’s external teaching scheme. In 1893 while teaching A A Milne (author of Winnie the Pooh) at a school in London, he published a biology text book.By 1895 he was contributing stories and articles to different periodicals. Politically, he was a Socialist. His mother was a domestic servant and his father had been a servant gardener though later became a professional cricketer for the Kent county team and who had a sports shop which didn’t do very well. Because his family struggled financially, they put him out as an apprentice as a draper. He worked a thirteen hour day and slept in a dormitory and his later novels Kipps and The History of Mr Polly describe this lower middle class or tradesmen’s life.He suffered from Diabetes and founded the Diabetic Association in 1934.He was a progressive futurist who foresaw many modern developments such as tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons and satellite TV. His books deal with time travel (The Time Machine) and alien invasion (The War of the Worlds).
The Door in The Wall by H G Wells
The Door in the Wall was first published in The Daily Chronicle in 1906, when he was forty, and reprinted in Wells’s collection The Door In The Wall And Other Stories published in 1911. It is one of Wells’s most well-known stories, and he wrote at least a hundred short stories, mostly in the early part of his career.The story is told to Redmond, and this device of having a story introduced to an otherwise blank hearer, who then learns of the ending of the story and makes his own conclusion, is well known. In fact more Victorian and Edwardian supernatural stories than not begin in this style (e.g. The Turn of The Screw, many stories of M R James) and it was copied by Ray Russell in the 1960s in his Sardonicus series when he wanted to write as if the story were Victorian.The way Wallace recounts the story to Redmond is set out from the beginning as questioning whether Redmond should believe him. He says early on that he does, and at the end confirms this again. On balance, as fabulous as the story is, he chooses to believe Wallace.The hero of the story, is Lionel Wallace a successful politician. And it is this success that is the central theme to the story, which to me is about putting off spiritual contentment in favour of worldly obligations time after time, until in the end, he makes the right, and final choice.Every time he passes by the door and chooses a worldly goal rather that trying the door he is sure in his heart the door is unlocked and only waiting for him to step inside. The first time he goes in, he is a child. The second time he is a busy schoolboy intent on not being late for school. The third time he is on his way to his Oxford entry exam, the fourth time he is on his way to an important appointment, which seemed to be to be with a lover. There is a long gap and he is finally a successful politician, overworked with a tarnish beginning to spread on this world and he becomes more receptive to the message. He sees the door three times just when he is finding this world burdensome. He is determined that he would go in through the door. Wallace at this time is around forty years old, which was Wells’s age at the time he wrote the story. He passes the door on an urgent vote in the House of Commons which he can’t miss. The next time he was rushing to say goodbye to his father who was dying. The third time was only a week before Wallace gives this account to Redmond. This last time is when Wallace is about to be offered a position in the new Government. The ending is open, so we can choose to believe that Wallace merely fell to his death in a tawdry accident, confused and englamoured by a puerile hallucination–puerile in that it first happened when he was a small boy.Or, we can choose, and we are led by the narrator Redmond in this, to see Wallace rather entering paradise, at last choosing the road to contentment, he had been offered, and spurned, many times in his life.I think that it is interesting that the grave faced woman with the moon eyes resists Wallace’s request to turn the pages of the book of his life. When she finally give in and we see the image of an empty street, she bends and kisses him as if she knows that he will never return
I opened this substack account as a way of monetising my podcast. I have been doing the podcast for about 2 years and put lots of work into it. People like Apple and Spotify and all the different podcast apps take the feed and deliver it but do not give me a penny for my work.
Substack seemed to offer a way to change that. I have nearly 1000 free subscribers and 60 or so paid subscribers who get extra content. This is of course very welcome income and I am heartily grateful for their support and they know I love them.
But I also run Youtube Memberships and Patreon and Apple Podcasts Connect for members so having four methods of giving bonus content to paying members is exhausting. Even though there is some duplication, it’s just the uploading and tailoring, and they all want slightly different formats…
So, by after Christmas, I’m going to close this Substack.
This leaves you the listeners with some options.
You can support my channel via the Podcast host Vurbl—who will pay me but deliver free to you.
My Podcast on Vurbl (Free!)
For paid supporters I would encourage you to move over to Patreon or Youtube members. I don’t take your support for granted! Links are here
So, I am going to switch off paid memberships on this Substack pretty soon. For those who have paid a year in advance, I can’t actually give free subs to either Patreon or Youtube, but I will give you a link to my own audiobooks as recompense.
Email me at classicghostpodcast@gmail.com for the link if you are a yearly subscriber.
BUT. I will continue to serve up content on Substack until January 2022
Hope you understand why I’m doing this.
Tony
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