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It's great to have you back. And thank you as always for your kind words and support. Has it really been that long? Time really does fly! 😊🎃

Bless you @beebee8018. Your words are so kind and inspire me to want to read more and more. Enjoy the wine and those Autumn spooky vibes! 🍷 chin chin!

Thank you very much for your feedback and kind words @HollyFormolo It is very much appreciated here in rural West Yorkshire, UK 😊

That sounds wonderful. Studying history and art in warm countries must have been idyllic. I really struggled with this one. I tried to narrate it myself, but there are so many character voices for a short story and I just didn't think I was doing it justice. And I was taking so long with it and doing retake after retake. Yes, I agree, it is a good story and she delivers her usual dark and sinister vibe. I've still got four Lettice's to do. That book is fantastic isn't it? Have you read The Trainer's Ghost yet? That story might be just right for me because it's set in York and all the characters seem to have Yorkshire accents😂. Thank you for your feedback and your way too kind words about my voice😊. It's always very much appreciated.

Is that at the Intro? I tried a little transition to morph the photo of Hugh Walpole into a creepy creature as it is approaching Halloween. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but now I think it's a bit lame and I hope Hugh Walpole wouldn't mind too much that I turned him into a Zombie 🧟‍♂️

⁠@@scarystoriesbythefiresideI am not criticising your artwork. It is a good transition. I was only wondering if the dark spot on the right side of his forehead is a bruise. It is probably just me being picky. 😊

Hello @beebee8018 😊 Great to hear from you again. I am well thank you. Hope all is good with you down by the sea. Yes, I was thinking about you as I was making this one 😁 Wine and spooky nights are perfect at this time of year (or aytime!) Enjoy.

⁠​⁠@@scarystoriesbythefiresideLovely to hear from you too. I went to a Murder Mystery Dinner last night (Halloween) on Queen Victoria’s estate (her dear Albert designed and built it for her, well the builder’s built it, Albert just laid one brick! 😂It was very good and I got the female murderer correct! Our table was voted the best dressed as we were all dressed up (Dracula, Frankenstein, the walking dead and I went as Draculas Bride😂.

Thank you ever so much for saying so. It was rather difficult finding information or images about the Weekly Telegraph in particular. I was beginning to think that it might not have been a real paper. Apparently it was published in Sheffield.

Thank you very much @inisipisTV 😊 Yes, it certainly sounds like a moment that stayed with the author.

Thank you so much for saying so @annabelladebonnay8320 😊. Yes, these great ladies had terrific imaginations and knew how to spin a compelling yarn. I'm on a personal odyssey of my own regarding these excellent writers, learning about them and hopefully introducing them to a new audience/readership.

Thank you ever so much😊! And thank you for the sub too.

So glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for your support and kind words.

Thank you very much. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.😊

Thank you very much for your feedback and kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed listening. I think atmosphere is crucial when presenting these old stories.

Once again thank you @joeharoutunian1805 and I'm glad you enjoyed it! I know what you mean, I sometimes get a bit carried away with sound effects😁. With hindsight I wish I'd left it out.

@@scarystoriesbythefireside that’s fine. I really hated to be critical at all as it was such a good production

No problem at all, I welcome the feedback and I completely agree. Sometimes less is more. Thank you again for your kind words and support

Hello and thank you. It has been a while for sure.😁 Yes of course, I don't know why I didn't think of that myself. That has to be it, and the rest of the passage "Within a wood fire burned between the dogs on the great open hearth..." makes it pretty clear. A wood fire burning between the logs wouldn't make sense 😂. Silly me! Thank you for pointing that out and for listening/watching.

Thank you for saying so @rosiemcnaughton9933 😊 . Yes, thanks to some recent research we now know much more about "Lettie" than we did when I uploaded this video. There is even a mini biography and a photograph of her in a recent publication.

Thank you. This tale is certainly a curiosity!

Thank you very much, that is kind of you. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I enjoyed making it and yes indeed, many thanks also to Lettice Galbraith whose imagination and skill provided the source material.

Thank you ever so much @sealskin2001 😊 Very kind of you to say so and I appreciate your support.

Yes indeed, it is a shame that she didn't write more supernatural tales. However, since I made this video more has been discovered about Lettice Galbraith and a mini biography has been written detailing her life. There still remains an intriguing bit of mystery surrounding her though.

Thank you very much @stewartlancaster6155 from Cumbria 😊. Very kind of you to say so. I am from Yorkshire (on the the borders of West and North of the county) so that may account for my Northern accent. Thank you for your support and kind words.

You are are most welcome and thank you so much for your kind comment😊. I'm so glad you and your wife enjoyed it. I really like the way Benson twists the comedy around the macabre in some of his tales. He was a masterful writer.

@@scarystoriesbythefireside He was indeed.😊🌞

😊👍

Thank you. I have another Lettice Galbraith on the way very soon. Just finishing up on some editing. I intend to upload more of her stories. I love her too! 😊

My apologies. This one was a bit of an experiment.

@scarystoriesbythefireside No worries, it's just most of us can stand almost anything in a story, but never hurt a dog!

Oh yes, you are so right @carolrios9216. I found it excruciatingly hard to write that part. I love dogs and it is awful to even imagine such cruelty. I should have put a warning in there for sure.

Thank you @KayBacci. Florence is my favourite city too (it even beats Leeds! 😁) Yes, it is Dame Edith from The Importance of being Ernest! I tried to turn the photograph into an illustration. When Mrs Sapson appears in the story I instantly thought of her. I even attempted to do her voice. 'A haaandbaaag'...I can hear saying it as I read that.

Thank so very much for your kind comments. I’m from West Yorkshire and I think that is responsible for my accent😁. I’m a huge Benson fan too. I became familiar with him through the Miss Mapp and Lucia tales as well. At first via the T.V. series and then from the novels. I planned to spend a long weekend in Rye last summer but unfortunately had to cancel. The main reason was to visit Lamb House. It has such history and so many great writers have occupied it. And, as you say, Rye and that part of East Sussex is so beautiful. Many great gardens to visit, including Great Dixter. Spinach is a little-known Benson story, which surprised me when I first read it because I think it's one of his best. It is very much in the Lucia and Miss Mapp vein. I’m going to try and cover all his ghost stories eventually. I’m a little slow in production right now so I need to improve and get a move on😀. Thank you once again for your support and for watching and listening.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it and thank you for saying so! I've always loved this story. There is so much lying beneath the surface in Nesbit's short tales.

Thank you so much. That's very kind of you to say so 😊. I'm glad you enjoyed listening. There's more on the way.

Thank you very much for saying so. 😊 I'm glad you enjoyed it.

That would be fabulous. I can think of a number that would transfer well to the small screen. There was a version of Mrs Amworth made in the 70's. I believe it can be found on RUclips. I didn't particularly like it because it was set in the 70's. But I would love to see some new period adaptations. They would be great to settle down and watch at Christmas.

@@scarystoriesbythefireside Yes indeed. Mark Gatiss seems to be re-hashing M.R James stories that to be frank, were not better than the excellent BBC ones in the 70's. A really good adapter like Andrew Davies would do a fine job with Benson. Thank You for sharing.

I agree @vintagebrew1057 I'd love to see an Andrew Davies treatment of a Benson tale or two. He would know just how to transfer the period and the atmosphere of the subject matter to screen. Ah! If only. You are very welcome. Thank you for watching and listening.

Thank you so much for saying so. Glad you enjoyed it 😊

Thank you so much @kimmorgan3122. It's really kind of you to say so. It's my voice 😁 , I'm not a professional voice actor, which is why it takes me so long to complete these readings with all the mistakes I make and retakes I have to do 😂. Thanks for your lovely feedback regarding the imagery too. I do wonder how many people watch the video content rather than just listen to the audio, so it is useful know.

Thank you! 😁 Glad you liked it.

Thank you for saying so😊. That's very kind of you. I never realised that I sounded like William Hague😃. But now that you mention it🤣. He comes from just a few miles up the road from me which might account for the similarity.

Is that around Doncaster way! I think his folks ran a kennels near me. 😃

Yes indeed😃. I think he's from Wentworth. I live in a small farming village about 9 miles from Doncaster. Small world! Great to have a local lady listening and watching! 😁

🤣 Thank you.

🤣 Yes indeed, tricky critters!

@@scarystoriesbythefireside indeed, this one was quite the nervy and extremely self-possessed trickster. Too bad she didn't have anyone with whom to share the wink, but at this point I think she's quite smug being the lone gunwoman, as it were!

Yes she's certainly a confident young lady with a wicked sense of humour. I get the impression that if her character were to appear in further adventures she would be happy to remain undetected, under the radar, and continue to enjoy her particular brand of entertainment!

Yes, it could well be. 😊

Thank you very much for saying so 😊 I am fond of them too. I hadn't realised just how many female writers of the age wrote interesting and high quality supernatural fiction. It has become something of a voyage of discovery for me. 😁

That's an excellent point. The demand for this type of fiction seems to have raced ahead of supply. How many short supernatural tales were written in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods always surprises me. This certainly created opportunities for women writers to get into print, which is great because we can reap the rewards by being able to read their work today, which might not be the case had things been otherwise.

Hi @beebee8018 , hope all is good with you and yours by the sea🌊😊 My apologies, this one was a bit a bit experimental but it doesn't seem to have worked. I tried narrating it myself but that just didn't seem right either.

My apologies. This was a bit of an experiment. 😊

🤣 You got me. Well spotted.😀I agonized over whether to correct the pronunciation or not, wondering if it would be noticed and because I'd heard it pronounced that way in other recordings...I should have done a retake for sure.

@scarystoriesbythefireside I just feel like so many on RUclips pander to Americans. God forbid they may have to think? Sorry but of it's a British channel, it should be pronounced in the British way. Who's language is it anyway? 😄😄😄

Yes indeed, this is an English story, set in England and told by Edwardian English Ladies. Berkeley Square is and should be pronounced "bɑhrkli"😁. It's my mistake. I should have sought to correct it before uploading. I'm getting a bit lazy in my old age. 😀

Thank you! 🤗 I've always liked this one too. Most of her stories are intriguing and have hidden depths.

🥦🥬🥕 I know, there is a bit of a “5 a day” theme going on here. The titular Spinach also says that he had planned to bury the body in the garden and cover it with a vegetable bed before things went awry for him! It makes me think that Benson may have been pitching the story to a Gardening publication of the 1920’s 😁.

Yes, indeed, @extracurricularkitty3605 , that is an excellent point. They certainly wouldn't be able to get away with that in the 21st century! A more click-alluring title like "antisocial teen makes bad decisions" would probably be what Salinger's publisher should run with today. (When I saw that, my immediate thought was, "I would really like to read about that." If I came across it on a RUclips thumbnail, I would definitely watch it!)😂 I suppose they were lucky back then in that some held such a captive audience, already waiting eagerly for their next offering. When I first came across this story, though, the title had the opposite effect; I was rather intrigued and curious about what it was about. I'm still working through the Benson cannon, but I love me some Benson too! Conan Doyle should really have come up with a better title than "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"…a title which conveyed just a little insight into what we were getting ourselves into perhaps.😊

​​@@scarystoriesbythefireside@scarystoriesbythefireside Thank you for your intelligent response. I am subscribed now (I forgot) and will be tuning in to you on a regular basis. It's so hard to find decent spook stories on RUclips due to the big thing being the (to me) amateurish, formulaic and uninspired 'creepypasta' being the big thing these days. **Yawn** is my response to those types of tales. I'm sure they're not ALL bad, it's just that they all seem to rely on being in the first person (for their supposed spooky flavor), and even the naming conventions they all use bore me. They name their stories like this: "I do freelance work for the government paranormal agency, and here's my scariest case" or: "I am a paranormal investigator, and X (or Y) happened, or: "I hunt cryptids, now X (or Y) is my life" Ugh, just makes me yawn reading the titles. Thank you for providing a more classic spooky experience, and high quality narration. 👍🏽👍🏽 I see what you mean about the title "Spinach" though, because it does make one wonder about the ghostly connection that spinach might have to the story.

Thank you so much! The sub and those very kind words are much appreciated.😊 I know what you mean about those modern creepy stories. Many of them are told in the same, or at least a similar way, and follow a rigid formula. And those types of titles are certainly hackneyed now. I have to admit that in setting up this Chanel, my initial intention was to create similar types of videos. Without copying or following that particular static style, the stories would be my own compositions and (hopefully) be presented in a novel way. Then, I got caught up in narrating these public domain works and found I enjoyed it. I’m still learning (as you can probably tell😂), and at some point, I would like to write some stories and turn them into videos for the Chanel. Just to add a bit more variety. I’m also trying to increase my output, but that’s another story…I’ve been editing the audio file for another E F Benson tale for ages and am still only halfway through! Yes indeed, “Spinach” is intriguing for that very reason. I think some great ghost stories have some terrible titles. “The Phantom Coach,” for instance…it’s almost like a spoiler.😁

❤ Thank you very kindly for saying so. Welcome aboard 😍🧡

Me too 😊

Thank you too and great to have you aboard as well 🧡🤗😊