Sunday 28 September 2014

Reading ghost stories in the train

This picture was taken in the steam train between Totnes and Buckfastleigh during my last holidays in Devon. Not the most impressive picture, but I took it because of the unique setting and because I was even then thinking about this post. The steam train journey was one of my favourite moments of all the holiday there. I posted about it here. But I digress... I have uploaded it because this is what I read at the moment in the train. Not this particular book, but ghost/horror stories. In the upcoming weeks leading to Halloween, which is only a bit more than a month away now, I read plenty of horror stories, old and new. And I often read them in the train. While it is not as romantic an experience as reading it in an old steam train or an old train station, it is still an atmospheric setting for such readings. Supernatural literature and railways have developed simultaneously, almost hand in hand, and trains and ghosts sometimes met in fiction, if not, for those who believe in them, in real life. I do not believe in ghosts, but I do think that if I was to write a horror story featuring them, or any supernatural creature really, I would seriously consider using the train and/or a train station as a setting. In any case, as a reading place for horror stories, the train is great.

2 comments:

suzanne said...

The train is a perfect setting for a ghost story (or for ghost story reading). Even if it's just a commuter train.

Guillaume said...

It is a real treat now.