The Virago Book of Ghost Stories ed. Richard Dalby

The Virago Book of Ghost Stories is an entertaining way of exploring the world of ghost stories.

The book is an anthology of ghost stories written by talented female authors of the 20th Century, including Edith Wharton, E Nesbit, Mrs Gaskell, Elizabeth Bowen, Angela Carter and Fay Weldon. Their talent ensures that as you read their stories the hair on the back of your neck stands on end and you are sitting on the edge of the seat as you wait to find out who and what the ghost is.

There is everything in this book from the more traditional ghost stories told around the fireside late in to the evening, to psychological experiments and manifestations. The ghosts are both real and imaginary. Some of the ghosts are human and some are not. Some are old and some are young. There are innocent victims, perpetrators of crime, disturbed men and women and of course there are haunted houses that are out to get their inhabitants. Some of the stories are written from the perspective of someone that is decidedly alive, and others are told from the perspective of the ghost themselves. If you are looking for variety, you will find it in the pages of The Virago Book of Ghost Stories.

The stories are collected in this anthology by Richard Dalby and his enthusiasm for the genre is very contagious. He has arranged the contents of The Virago Book of Ghost Stories in chronological order. This was a wonderful way to show how the ghost story has changed (or not changed) over time. I will admit to enjoying the ghost stories from the early 20th century that little bit more than the stories from the later 20th century. I think that this may be because the earlier the ghost story the more traditional it seemed to be. It could, however also be accounted for the fact that the book is quite long.

In the introduction to The Virago Book of Ghost Stories, Richard Dalby explains how hard he found it to cut the book down because of the sheer volume of quality ghost stories told by the talented female authors of the 20th century. In fact, I believe that there is a second volume, and that there is also The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories. Although I don't doubt that it would have been extremely difficult to limit the number of stories to include in the anthology, I thought that there were a few too many and that I was ready to move on to another book before I had read all the stories it contained.

Despite that, Richard Dalby's The Virago Book of Ghost Stories was a mesmerising collection and has not dulled my enthusiasm for a good ghost story (click here to read more about my personal enthusiasm for the ghost story).

6 / 8: Really enjoyable and well written. I would recommend it. 


Two Questions: 1. Do you enjoy ghost stories? and 2. Do you enjoy reading anthologies?

Guest Review: Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality by Sarah Husain

The following guest review is written by a wonderful friend of mine who has given me permission to publish her review of Voices of Resistence: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality ed. by Sarah Husain.  

This is not the usual sort of book that you would find reviewed on Page Turners. It is non-fiction and it is political and I hope that you enjoy something different.

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I can’t count the number of times that I’ve read a blurb on the back of a book where a reviewer says the book is ‘life changing… a book everyone should read’. More often that not what they mean is, ‘this is a really great book’. However, Sarah Husain’s, Voices of Resistance really is one of those books that everyone should read.

In this collection of short essays, poetry, letters and art works, Muslim women make their voices heard – shouting their stories of resistance from ‘battle fields’ across the globe. These ‘battle fields’ include the home, the body and faith; schools, war zones and oneself; making the book both a exploration of the diversity of Muslim women’s experiences and identities and a powerful statement of defiance.

The Collection is introduced by Sarah Husain and structured into four chapters – (Un)naming Wars, Witnessing Acts, (Un)claiming Faiths/Unclaiming Nations, Reclaiming our Bodies/Reclaiming our Sexualities. While Husain’s introduction is at times a touch polemic, it puts the collection into context a passionate statement about why a collection of this nature is so necessary.

The opening chapter includes pieces from the occupation of Iraq and Palestine to racial profiling and personalised accounts of prejudice, opening up the notion that ‘war zones’ extend far beyond where bombs are dropped. The theme of this chapter was well conveyed in Dhikr, Afghanistan who have “no names and no faces”; the opening borders for capital and their violent protection from the movement of people. The author also raised the difficulties of being critical of her own communities at a time when they are under attack from the outside. which deals with contradictions of war and ‘modernity’ – the individuals who died on September 11 and the dead in

Among the poetry, art and personal stories is a more academic piece on the meanings of violence and terrorism, Violence, Revolution and Terrorism: A Legal and Historical Perspective. This unique piece provides a really useful framework to analyse the rest of the collection, drawing a distinction between violence as a means of terror and violence as a means of resisting oppression.

Chapter Three opens with a lengthy, personal correspondence between three Muslim women discussing faith, identity, culture, family, war and resistance – a piece that really draws the reader into the minds and hearts of the writers – and continues to explore the complexity of what faith means to different Muslim women across communities. The book concludes with powerful statements of women who claim their bodies and the right to define them as they wish, dealing with homosexuality, female circumcision, stereotypes of the ‘erotic’ Arab woman, and the power of sisterly solidarity.

The collection is perhaps most aptly illustrated by the image When Alone by Samira

Abbassy, depicting the many faces, overlapped and interwoven, individual, yet inextricably linked. This was what I gained most out of this book – an understanding of the diversity of Muslim women and their communities, and an incredible feeling of the strength of the voices and resistance.

Many collections are able to be picked up and put down between pieces. While each piece in Voices of Resistance is powerful in itself, they are even stronger as a collection. The reader feels as though the contributors are speaking to you personally. You live their experiences. Feel their emotions. Have an insight into their identities and struggles.

I write this review from the perspective of a white, straight, middle class feminist who has limited experience struggling in solidarity with Muslim women. It is with this background I say that Voices of Resistance should be read by all, or at least anyone who thinks Muslim women need a knight in shining armor to liberate them.