Lucky's Grove by H Russell Wakefield

The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast

Tony Walker

Science Fiction, Fiction, Drama

4.9 • 835 Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Teaser Script Christmas at Abingdale Hall. The great house decked in festive greenery, servants bustling, family gathering from across the country. And in the entrance hall, a magnificent Scots Pine—ten feet of perfect symmetry, branches heavy with the promise of celebration. But the tree came from Lucky's Grove. The estate manager is new. He doesn't know the local warnings. He doesn't know that some groves have been sacred since before Christianity reached these shores. He doesn't know that when you take a tree from such a place, something comes with it. The guests arrive. The children play in the snow. The fires are lit, the table laid. Everything proceeds as it should. Almost. There are accidents. Small things at first. A workman injured. Strange dreams that leave everyone unsettled at breakfast. A boy builds a snowman with a wolf's head and cannot explain why. The gods of Lucky's Grove are patient. They have waited centuries. They can wait until Christmas Day. Publication Details "Lucky's Grove" by H. Russell Wakefield was first published in The Clock Strikes Twelve (Herbert Jenkins, 1940), later expanded by Arkham House in 1946. Author Biography Herbert Russell Wakefield (1888–1964) was an English writer whose atmospheric ghost stories earned him comparison to M. R. James. His fiction insisted on the reality of the supernatural, presenting hauntings with clinical precision and iron control over dread. ⭐ Join my Patreon ⭐ https://patreon.com/barcud Go here for a library of ad-free stories, a monthly members only story and early access to the regular stories I put out. You can choose to have ghost stories only, or detective stories or classic literature, or all of them for either $5 or $10 a month. Many hundreds of hours of stories. Who needs Audible? Or, if you'd just like to make a one-off gesture of thanks for my work https://buymeacoffee.com/10mn8sk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:47.9	Everybody dies, don't they?
0:55.5	Everybody come back.
0:57.8	Isn't that so?
0:59.5	You tried to get into the locked drawer today, didn't you?
1:02.9	How do the dead come back, mother?
1:05.0	What's the secrets of they'd come back?
1:07.7	Lucky's Grove by H. Russell Wakefield, first published in Clock Strikes 12, London, 1940.
1:18.6	And Loki begat Hell, goddess of the grave, Fenris, the great wolf, and the serpent, Niednog, who lives beneath the tree.
1:32.3	Mr. Braxton strolled with his land agent, Curtis, into the great barn.
1:37.3	There you are, said Curtis, in a satisfied tone, the finest little fur I ever saw, and the kiddies will never set eyes on a lovelier Christmas tree.
	...

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