Review: The Longest Night - Five Curious Tales

 The Longest Night is a collection of five ghost stories to be read on a dark winter’s night, released as an illustrated chapbook. The stories, written by Alison Moore, Jenn Ashworth, Richard Hirst, Emma-Jane Unsworth and Tom Fletcher, concentrate on atmosphere rather than setting out to shock. As Ghostwatch creator Stephen Volk suggests in his introduction, they mirror 'the oral tradition of campfire (or candle-lit) tales from which ghost stories evolved', addressing the reader more or less directly. Rather than the howling chaos of a Lovecraft, the authors of The Longest Night take the M.R. James approach, spending their time carefully creating a detailed scenario which can then be undermined. 

Alison Moore’s Winter Closing opens the volume. The story is set in the home of a deceased female author, which is now open to the public. Rather like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, there is a sense that this is a house where bad things have happened, and the negative emotions have become stored within the walls. The house is shunned by locals, and there is a constant chill: 'the website advises visitors to wear their coats in the house whatever the season'. Due to a mix-up, one of the staff is forced to spend the night there, surrounded by the former inhabitant’s half-forgotten novels and press cuttings. The oppressive atmosphere is classic ghost story material, and Moore creates a vivid sense of claustrophobia, of the walls closing in and entrances being blocked off, as in a bad dream.

Emma-Jane Unsworth is no stranger to using uncanny imagery in her work; debut novel Hungry, The Stars and Everything featured the devil appearing to a young Mancunian girl on Christmas Eve. Her story In explores the way in which an object (in this case a swinging gate) can take on morbid significance in a mind unbalanced by depression, isolation, the pressure of dealing with other people's problems at work: 'you don't hear the gate (how could you - its fifty miles away) but you can see it, swinging, in what you have heard called the mind's eye'. Unsworth convincingly portrays her protagonist's psychological breakdown, whilst maintaining tension and cleverly foreshadowing the story’s brutal ending. 

Richard Hirst’s contribution, The Drums at Cullen, is the most other-worldly of the tales in The Longest Night, moving away from the psychological approach of the first two stories. The ghostliness here is definitely manifested. It is coming up to Christmas as two boys get off the train in the middle of nowhere, heading for the Belsham family home: 'The darkness was total. I could see no headlights of cars idling nearby, no trails of streetlights leading off into the distance'. When they arrive, they are greeted by Belsham’s father, an excellent ghost story eccentric, and soon find themselves being asked to take part in a bizarre family ritual. The Drums at Cullen is an interesting exploration of what can happen if you find yourself obliged to humour someone’s rituals and customs – especially if they turn out to have a real effect. 

The next story, Bedtime by Tom Fletcher, returns to the idea of the effect of isolation on an already troubled psyche. A family moves to old farmhouse near Sellafield, but find their new home is too big, too dark, and before long they are 'beginning to find the isolation oppressive'. While Jo finds work on night-shifts, David is unemployed, and stays at home with their three year old daughter, Holly. Holly finds herself drawn to a particular room, and begins sleepwalking: 'the thought of her walking through the pitch-dark corridor, utterly invisible, was unbearable'. Fletcher’s story shows how the stress of moving, unemployment and childcare can jangle the nerves, and how spooky a child's imagination can seem to a parent.

Finally, Jenn Ashworth’s contribution concerns a mysterious caller to a Samaritans-like listening service. The caller, who becomes known as Dark Jack, seems to attach himself to lonely, older women, in the way that poltergeists are said to be linked with adolescent girls. In amongst the drunks and potential suicides, he stands out as being somehow darker than the other callers – he doesn't talk about anything recognisable, just keeps repeating that it is dark and he is alone. Alternating between pleading and raging, Dark Jack acts like a rogue element of the volunteers’ psyche, a companion on dark nights of the soul.

A collaborative effort, The Longest Night is ideal reading for the season. While the stories function independently, they share certain interests; the idea of physical locations becoming inextricably linked to emotional states, of characters becoming isolated from the people who support them, and falling prey to psychological doubts. The writers, who self-funded this release, will be hosting readings throughout December and January: see their website for a full list of events.