The new tenant of Nut Bush Farm finds himself intrigued by the story of his predecessor's abrupt departure. What possessed the man to leave so suddenly, and could it be related to the legend of "something that walks" in the long field?
A new, original recording of a classic public domain text, read and performed by Simon Stanhope for Bitesized Audio.
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Charlotte Riddell (1832-1906), often credited in typical Victorian style under her husband's initials as "Mrs. J. H. Riddell", was born Charlotte Eliza Lawson Cowan in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland. She moved to London in 1855 and married Joseph Hadley Riddell, a civil engineer, two years later. She apparently turned to writing to make a living after her husband lost all his money, early in their marriage. In all she wrote 56 novels and short stories, of which several had a supernatural theme. Her best remembered shorter ghost stories include 'A Strange Christmas Game' and 'The Open Door'. She was also the co-proprietor and editor of the periodicals 'Home' and 'St. James's Magazine' in the 1860s and 70s. Her husband died in 1880; there were no children from their marriage, and from 1886 she "retired in seclusion" to Upper Halliford, Middlesex, until her death in September 1906.
The first known publication of 'Nut Bush Farm' was in 'Weird Stories', a collection of Riddell's shorter supernatural fiction published in 1882; given her involvement as editor of St. James's Magazine it's likely that it originally appeared in that periodical, although this has been impossible to verify.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2020.
6 окт 2024
