Episode 26: A Christmas Meeting by Rosemary Timperley

Classic Ghost Stories

Tony Walker

Fiction, Drama, Science Fiction

4.9 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2019

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rosemary TimperleyRosemary Timperley was an English author born in 1920 who died aged 68 in 1988. She was a very prolific writer and published 66 novels and several hundred ghost and several hundred short stories. She particularly liked writing ghost stories and ended up editing several volumes of ghost stories and choosing other peoples.As well as writing she was a school teacher and taught English language and literature in schools in Essex and London. Very interestingly she also was an agony aunt from 1949 for a popular magazine. Her writing related to ghosts the most famous ghost stories are this one a Christmas Meeting which was published in 1952 and also the Mistress in Black published in 1969.This is a very short Christmas themed ghost story which I thought was appropriate for Boxing Day, or as I note in the audio version of the show notes: St Stephen's Day.I could see the twist in the tail coming for this story and I'm sure that you did also, as we have read a number of ghost stories together now and we can anticipate what will happen.A Christmas Meeting is a very modern story and the writing is modern but I thought that Rosemary Timperley put in some very sweet touches. And I particularly enjoyed her musings and descriptions of Christmas past. But she manages to evoke a lifetime of sweet memories.Though she was only 32 when she wrote the story she has a very sunny outlook on life and I like the way she says the time doesn't exist. Now you can take that anyway you want put on this Christmas holiday period I wish you all a lovely time and many happy memories of Christmases past and imaginings of Christmases future.All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well!LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage & Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everybody dies, don't they?
0:10.4	Everybody come back, isn't that?
0:14.4	You tried to get into the locked drawer today, didn't you?
0:17.3	How do the dead come back, mother?
0:20.0	What's the secret?
0:22.0	Christmas Meeting by Rosemary Timperley.
0:26.6	I have never spent Christmas alone before.
0:29.5	It gives me an uncanny feeling sitting alone in my furnished room with my head full of ghosts
0:35.3	and the room full of voices of the past.
0:38.3	It's a drowning feeling.
0:40.3	All the Christmases of the past coming back in a mud jumble,
0:44.3	the childish Christmas with a house full of relations, a tree in the window,
0:49.3	sixpences in the pudding and the delicious crinkly stocking in the dark morning,
0:53.3	the adolescent Christmas with mother and father, the war and the delicious crinkly stocking in the dark morning.
0:58.5	The adolescent Christmas with mother and father, the war and the bitter cold,
1:00.2	and the letters from abroad.
1:03.5	The first really grown-up Christmas with a lover,
1:06.6	the snow and the enchantment, red wine and kisses, and the walk in the dark before midnight,
1:09.5	with the ground so white and the stars diamond bright in the black sky,
1:14.0	so many Christmases through the year,
1:16.7	and now the first Christmas alone.
1:20.3	But not quite loneliness.
	...

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