{"id":76,"date":"2015-07-31T23:59:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T23:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=76"},"modified":"2016-10-09T21:40:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T21:40:05","slug":"good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/","title":{"rendered":"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph"},"content":{"rendered":"

You do not talk of him. You try not to think or dream of him. You turn your face from that column in the morning edition of The Times, and forget the body found last night in St James’ Park. But you know that he<\/strong> was there, and your appetite for those devilled kidneys has gone.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are things that you have done, people who you have crossed\u2026 You push your breakfast plate away and ring for the maid. It is time to visit your aunt, far away to the north in Cumbria. A sudden whim, of course, no particular reason.<\/em><\/p>\n

London is not as it was last week. Mr Dry is in town.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is an unashamed entry about my psychic detective stories, because I’m pleased to say that The Intrusion<\/em>, a short story featuring Edwin Dry, is now available to download.<\/p>\n

\"covdry5\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

It’s free, and in a number of formats, but I think the Kindle .mobi layout looks best. If you fancy a read, go to:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/564814<\/a><\/p>\n

A substantial number of my stories and novels are part of Tales of the Last Edwardian<\/em>. They tend to be complete in themselves, but are linked by a series of characters. About which, more later.<\/p>\n

The series currently includes two draft novels (one of which was finished, but I lost the middle section when moving house!), and a number of short stories. Some of the latter are being published in ebook form as I work my way through the piles of paper around my computer, and some are awaiting US decisions. Yes, I did say paper. I started writing on an electric typewriter, for goodness sake. And my early Amstrad PCW green-screen files are mostly lost or corrupt. The lovely days of Locoscript, when a megabyte of memory would have been the size of a fridge…<\/p>\n

Almost all of the tales include aspects of spiritualism, the occult or other psychic phenomena, especially at their late Victorian and Edwardian height. They reflect the work of the early psychic detectives, and thus cross into crime fiction in the process. A world of gas-light and lobotomies, electric pentacles and the garotte.<\/p>\n

The timeline runs from around the Second Boer War (1899 \u2013 1902), through the Edwardian age and into the horrors of the Great War and its aftermath. It continues in and after World War Two, until it reaches the present day. The phrase The Last Edwardian<\/em> will explain itself in the later stories.<\/p>\n

They are, discounting any whimsical touches I might use in writing them, fairly dark tales of murder, possession, fanaticism, abuse and suchlike. More blood than ectoplasm, let’s put it that way.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of the characters which crop up more than once:<\/p>\n

Henry Dodgson<\/strong>. One of the four regulars who took dinner with Thomas Carnacki, the Ghost Finder, at Cheyne Walk. A veteran of the Transvaal and certain episodes in South Africa that he would like to forget. After Carnacki’s death, reluctantly drawn into the field of the psychic investigator.<\/p>\n

Abigail Jessop<\/strong>. Niece of one of the other chaps who visited Cheyne Walk. Strong-minded and sensitive to many forms of psychic disturbance, human or otherwise. Far more gifted, and better read, than Dodgson, but not as good a shot. A progressive and occasionally difficult woman (according to some of the men she meets, of course).<\/p>\n

Dr Alice Urquhart<\/strong>. Resident alienist at High Helmsley Asylum. Trained in Europe where women had more opportunities in the field, familiar with Freud and others, now practising in Great Britain.<\/p>\n

Mr Dry<\/strong>. A small, inoffensive figure with pale eyes and a waist-size slightly too large for his liking. If he has a background of note, or any training, no-one knows. He kills people. He has little interest in psychic matters, and even less interest in the people he kills. Everyone should have a trade.<\/p>\n

Catherine Weatherley<\/strong>. A powerful and experienced Yorkshire spiritualist, quite capable of conning people by telling them what they want to hear. Also quite capable of identifying major disturbances of the soul.<\/p>\n

Captain Redvers Blake<\/strong>. An officer in Military Intelligence, a minor sensitive. Involved in identifying agents of the Kaiser, Bolsheviks, Anarchists and Fenians – anyone who might compromise Britain’s military security. And deciding on their disposal, if required. Special Branch, freedom, or the noose.<\/p>\n

For those of a geographical disposition, the stories are set in London, Yorkshire and various other nooks and crannies around Great Britain. My use of the Yorkshire setting is, surprisingly, not to do with it being the land of my birth. It’s because Keighley in West Yorkshire was where Britain’s first spiritualist newspaper was started \u2013 The Yorkshire Spiritualist Telegraph<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, if you like that sort of thing, try reading The Intrusion<\/em>, and if you want more, sign up to greydogtales.com<\/em> with your email address to be notified when the next story is available. All comments gratefully received.<\/p>\n

That should be enough for now. Or even too much. Ah, that far-off Edwardian world where you could send a postcard and receive the reply in the same day. Who needed email?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You do not talk of him. You try not to think or dream of him. You turn your face from that column in the morning edition of The Times, and forget the body found last night in St James’ Park. But you know that he was there, and your appetite for those devilled kidneys has … Continue reading Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":1,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,14,5],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-edwardian","tag-horror","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nGood News from the Spiritualist Telegraph - greydogtales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph - greydogtales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You do not talk of him. You try not to think or dream of him. You turn your face from that column in the morning edition of The Times, and forget the body found last night in St James’ Park. But you know that he was there, and your appetite for those devilled kidneys has … Continue reading Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"greydogtales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-31T23:59:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-09T21:40:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"greydogtales\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"greydogtales\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/\",\"name\":\"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph - greydogtales\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5-200x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-31T23:59:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-09T21:40:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1c2413a29a9d04fbc9280c12fdf7b151\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5.jpg?fit=1600%2C2400&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5.jpg?fit=1600%2C2400&ssl=1\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":2400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"greydogtales\",\"description\":\"Literature, lurchers and life\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1c2413a29a9d04fbc9280c12fdf7b151\",\"name\":\"greydogtales\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33b1544bc8676700f4c33c9ed5475632?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33b1544bc8676700f4c33c9ed5475632?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"greydogtales\"},\"description\":\"John Linwood Grant writes occult detective and dark fantasy stories, in between running his beloved lurchers and baking far too many kinds of bread. Apart from that, he enjoys growing unusual fruit and reading rejection slips. He is six foot tall, ageing at an alarming rate, and has his own beard.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/author\/greydogtales\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph - greydogtales","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph - greydogtales","og_description":"You do not talk of him. You try not to think or dream of him. You turn your face from that column in the morning edition of The Times, and forget the body found last night in St James’ Park. But you know that he was there, and your appetite for those devilled kidneys has … Continue reading Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph →","og_url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/","og_site_name":"greydogtales","article_published_time":"2015-07-31T23:59:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-09T21:40:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5-200x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"greydogtales","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"greydogtales","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/","url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/","name":"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph - greydogtales","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-07-31T23:59:38+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-09T21:40:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1c2413a29a9d04fbc9280c12fdf7b151"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5.jpg?fit=1600%2C2400&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/covdry5.jpg?fit=1600%2C2400&ssl=1","width":1600,"height":2400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/good-news-from-the-spiritualist-telegraph\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Good News from the Spiritualist Telegraph"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/","name":"greydogtales","description":"Literature, lurchers and life","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1c2413a29a9d04fbc9280c12fdf7b151","name":"greydogtales","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33b1544bc8676700f4c33c9ed5475632?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33b1544bc8676700f4c33c9ed5475632?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"greydogtales"},"description":"John Linwood Grant writes occult detective and dark fantasy stories, in between running his beloved lurchers and baking far too many kinds of bread. Apart from that, he enjoys growing unusual fruit and reading rejection slips. He is six foot tall, ageing at an alarming rate, and has his own beard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/greydogtales.com"],"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/author\/greydogtales\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6sRRV-1e","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7318,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/scotland-the-strange-the-eyes-of-doom\/","url_meta":{"origin":76,"position":0},"title":"SCOTLAND THE STRANGE: THE EYES OF DOOM","author":"greydogtales","date":"January 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, in honour of Burns Night, which celebrates Scottish poet Robert Burns (25 January 1759 \u2013 21 July 1796), our greydogtales site begins a ramble through the subject of Scottish supernatural\/horror and related cultural stuff. We\u2019ll have some classic tales, new material, guest reviews of some really bad films\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"SCOTLAND THE STRANGE","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Ben_Lomond_from_Beinn_Narnain-300x163.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7509,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/clarks-world-the-willvent-bin\/","url_meta":{"origin":76,"position":1},"title":"CLARK\u2019S WORLD: THE WILL\u2019VEN\u2019T BIN","author":"greydogtales","date":"November 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u2019re always pleased to see a new book from Alan M Clark, not only a talented author but also, as it happens, an award-winning artist. The Will\u2019ven\u2019t Bin, just out from IFD Publishing (15th October), joins his other intriguing historically-set works, this time with a Young Adult focus and science\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"alan m clark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/EbookCover_TheWillventBin_small-200x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4232,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/shiela-crerar-clay-corpses-psychic-investigation-girls\/","url_meta":{"origin":76,"position":2},"title":"Shiela Crerar, Clay-Corpses & Psychic Investigation for Girls","author":"greydogtales","date":"July 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cOh, you modern women! You dabble in science and medicine, you dabble in politics and law, and now you dabble in the occult. What else is there left for mere man?\u201d Today we get lost in Scotland and its folklore with Shiela Crerar, follow a plucky young woman's psychic endeavours,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"classic horror\"","block_context":{"text":"classic horror","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/tag\/classic-horror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"shiela crerar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/doll-626790_960_720-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4071,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/fables-disappearances-untethered-tales-gwendolyn-kiste\/","url_meta":{"origin":76,"position":3},"title":"Fables and Disappearances: The Untethered Tales of Gwendolyn Kiste","author":"greydogtales","date":"May 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, dear listener, we have loss and identity; clarity and hope; the core of writing, style, Angela Carter and some dark, magical stories. When we thought about interviewing author Gwendolyn Kiste, we realised we wanted to burrow behind her work a bit, so we went there.\u00a0 Though we centre on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"interviews\"","block_context":{"text":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/tag\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SONY DSC","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/And-Her-Smile-Will-Untether-the-Universe-Gwendolyn-300x201.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3023,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/3023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}