I absolutely loved the ending. I always tell my kids "if both people aren't laughing, it isn't funny."

Horror is often about undeserved twist and turns, but every so often we get a well deserved bit of an ending and that can be extremely satisfying...

I really enjoyed this story. I worked for a year with a mean old man . I worked 2 notes and 3 days. Felt like I was in prison. I was so glad to quit, after he raised a fist to me. It was a huge burden I wasn't cut out for.

Horror and practical jokes at the same time! Great story and narration. Thanks, Cathy and Tony! When you said Dickens, Le Fanu, Poe, James, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith so closely together, I said to myself, "That is one hell of a lineup!". I am looking forward to hearing more from Cathy. I get a daily dose of Classic Ghost Stories for my "Cozy English Story."

I love it when someone gets their comeuppance. Great story. Such a happy ending.

I enjoyed this very much. Creepy and impossible to predict. Many thanks to Cathy for suggesting Tony read it 💜👍

Holy crap! This is one of the first times I’ve actually been kind of freaked out by a story. This was giving me such claustrophobia at the end. My skin was crawling from just imaging being in that position.

Your voice is just scrumptious. I'm listening to the ramble and notes. I fall asleep a lot to the cadence. It's like a train. Rhythmic with a bass rumble. And then replay the next day to find out what I missed!

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

:)

Thank you so much for all the ghosty stories you read so well. And thanks for your little wandering chats as well. I enjoy them so much. I listen while I'm doing my painting. Love your comments about some folk being up themselves re art and drama x

if some old buzzard did that mousetrap bit on me, i'd wire his call button to an ejector seat under his bed.

@terryi.6973

Жыл бұрын

😂!!

@melfreemans

Жыл бұрын

He'd regret it for sure!

@Story-Voracious66

Жыл бұрын

👏 😂 I'd be like the woman in Misery.

@melfreemans

Жыл бұрын

@@Story-Voracious66 lol I actually wrote the same exact thing but deleted it because I didn't think anyone would remember Misery!!!!! I hate stories with weak ass women!

@lisap.1826

Жыл бұрын

Right! She knows it was probably going to be a mean trick so why not just yank back the covers instead of blindly feeling around?

Amazed I missed this one!! Great story, and though I love the classics, it's good to hear new(er) authors too--sometimes just makes you appreciate the classics even more, but other times a happy new find!

I'm imagining Mr.Mullins being placed into the hospital black van and dropped onto the mortuary slab all the time not being able to move or speak...

A wonderful reading of a truly enjoyable story! I felt like I was right there...experiencing everything as each character! 😬

Thank you! I listened to this story while cleaning my kitchen and as usual lost myself in the story and your wonderful narration I especially enjoy the digressions. They are like visiting for tea with an old friend!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TONY, BECAUSE OF YOUR EXCELLENT NARRATING SKILLS I HAVE HAD HOURS AND HOURS OF LISTENING PLEASURE!!!!

I loved this story. Thank you Cathy.

I really enjoyed this story. The author is a good writer and reading this was thoroughly enjoyable.

Just perfect Tony! Absolutely perfect! I’m going to give this another listen in a few months you always hear something new when you listen to something for the second time and if it’s a good story then it’s definitely worth it many thanks and many blessing’s!♥️

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Of course, Maria. You are very welcome :)

Very scary! Good story!

Oh Tony please carry on doing the more modern stuff as well. I really like such a wide variety of literature and much as I love old English ghost stories there are quite a few people doing them. I just want to enjoy your interpretations of a broad variety of stories. I don’t usually go for audiobooks but love hearing you read! Totally loved this story and will definitely be investigating Cathy’s work - in fact will check her out on Amazon now.

@tinaanderson6853

Жыл бұрын

Hello, Francesca! Please let me know other channels featuring readings of the older English ghost stories. Many thanks to you.

1. I like MR JAmes, Blackwood, and the like, but also Thomas Ligotti. Ligotti is like a dream you keep waking up from, and aren't sure if you're still dreaming or not, because the walls are moving, heaving organically, and then you realize that's normal. 2. I been a Lovecraft fan for 60 years, and the throat singing was an interesting take. It seemed very reasonable that on the plateau of Leng, they would throat-sing the chants to the old ones.

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

I’m actually in Providence right now. I thought I heard some throat singing from the river last night …

Ooooo i really enjoyed that one

Wow the title is like a play on Mean Mr. Mustard! I just thought of that! lol Pretty funny!

Best doctor in town indeed!

👍👍👍👍👍Horrific tale & a good scare

Thanks so much, Tony! Reeeely scary, with masterful presentation and "ramblings". Hope you will read more of Cathy Sahu.

Yes I love the old English ghost stories. They are the best written stories of all times 🙂

that was excellent!!!!

Thank you MS. Oahu, you had me from start to finish. Excellent narration Tony

Thank you for the storytelling. Enjoyed it greatly.

That was wonderful

CREEPY AND LOVE THE ENDING!

Splendid! Many Thanks Tony 🇦🇺 🌹❣️🌹

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

My pleasure!

Excellent story from this writer! I enjoyed the twisted end most of all. Thank you both for the tale!

Love this Channel!!🥰

Great story expertly narrated! Thank you for another wonderful video!

Loved Cathy's story. Loved how she manipulated us especially since I was pretty sure Mr Mullins would get his.

Loved this so much. You have a wonderful story telling voice.

Thank you dear Tony⚰️⚰️⚰️

Karma is a B....!

Great story. I was a nurse for a Mullins type years ago and found this particularly satisfying haha

The story brought on the heeby geebies having had to have had a trachiostomy and my body being completely unable to move after a coma this was very uncomfortable BUT I managed to listen till the end 🥰 Thank you for making me sooooo uncomfortable 🤣🤣🤣🤣😜🥰😘 I was singing 'head tucked ' to an American woman on zoom in Wednesday because she was singing Enery the Eighth 🤣 On the subject if Tibetan throat singing I really want you to listen to a Mongolian band called The Hu 🙈 you are not allowed to ban me though 🤣🤣🤣😜

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

I like the Hu a lot :)

@ruthwalton3457

Жыл бұрын

@@ClassicGhost excellent 🥰 I keep trying to introduce their music to people but some people have no taste 🤣. Found them by accident and so glad I did .

@DestinyKiller

6 ай бұрын

​@@ruthwalton3457The Hu are so interesting to listen to and I would love to see them live. Their stage shows look amazing

mean mister mullins lives in the dark scares for a lark trying to kill boredom plays dead to make a scene too bad it doesn't go clean ends up paralyzing his bean such a mean old man 🎶

@karenbanks5985

2 ай бұрын

❤😂😢😢😊

That.was wonderful thank for the escape.,

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

Wow Tony, that was awful and great at the same time. I was pleased you mentioned Anna Bell recently, she is another of my favorites.

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Anna is great

What an absolute pleasure! Well-crafted & perfectly fearsome. I'd file it under modern classic. An immediate favorite..!

Absolutely brilliant! He w/o laughs last…….🤣🤣

That was a good one.

I think it's the style of the old writers that I like more than that they are old. I like that it's set in the past and that they really use an extensive vocabulary. I can't really get caught up in the story if its setting is too familiar. My theory is that things are scarier when they are almost but not quite familiar.

Excellent!❤

Great story and background! ❤

Fantastic narration 👏👏👏

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Thank you Lisa!

Absolutely loved this story, the nasty guy getting his comeuppance😁. And your narration is as brilliant as ever. Your thoughts about snobbery etc, really appealed to me. I'm an amateur artist. And the snobbery I see is amazing, you know the sort, a blob of paint in the middle of a canvas, which means absolutely nothing to me, but I'm an ignoramus because I call it what it is. The kings new clothes syndrome, everyone's scared to say what they see😁. There was even a named artist who recently sold a blank canvas for many thousands. And it amazed me me, that's the ultimately snobbery. Anyway please keep them coming Tony. I've got terminal cancer, so not as mobile as I'd like and listening to your podcasts really give me somewhere to lose myself. Thank you.

What a wonderful story Cathy. Truly enjoyed it. Another fabulous reading by Tony and your best ramble yet. Tony, I could sit in a pub with you all evening and just listen to your ramblings.

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Many have.

I'm pleased you mentioned Capote. I'm obsessed with his work and his life and lifelong friendship with Harper Lee, another brilliant writer imo. To Kill a Mockingbird is in my top 5 list of favorite modern books . I've read Capote's In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's multiple times and watched that movie enough to know most all the dialogue by heart, even though it's definitely modified to appeal to the masses. I even have a Yorkiepoo named Lula Mae, (Holly Golightly's real name in the book and movie) And her nickname, Lulu is an homage to one of my top 5 movies, To Sir With Love. I'm rambling but if you mention Capote or Harper Lee that's bound to happen. Cheers my friend 💜

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Hey, ramble on! Capote is a great prose stylist.

I suppose Truman Capote would hate Anton Chekhov - or at least be flummoxed by him - since Chekhov was famous for his missing middle.

@Story-Voracious66

Жыл бұрын

Shirley Jackson would hate him too. She firmly believed Utah one should only use "said" instead of "replied, stated, quipped, retorted", and so on. I like both authors regardless.

perfect ending!! interesting ‘discussion’. it’s the same with comedy. shock value is soo boring, and yet it’s still being done. if it fits into the routine/story, that’s ok. but not make the routine 🥱🙄🌷🌱 Stanley Holloway sang that song. i loved it. i would teach it my 1st or 2nd grade kids on Halloween - with changes in the lyrics. they loved it 😋

Great story!

You should do full videos only of your ramblings, they're wonderful (no sarcasm)

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Now there’s a an idea …

Loved the story and always love listening to your narration. I wasn't able to find her book on Amazon. 😟

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Nor me. I will reach out and ask her

@donnasticher711

Жыл бұрын

@@ClassicGhost Thank you!

Thanks Tony, listen to your reading most evenings. PLEASE do Lord of the Rings one day! Love your chats at the end, too.

@susanmercurio1060

Жыл бұрын

Maybe if we all donate to Tony so that he could afford the time commitment that it would take? That would be a massive undertaking.

@terryi.6973

Жыл бұрын

You can rely on me for extra donations to contribute to that cause!! An in house go-fund me for the Tolkien masterpiece...sign me up!

@jacquelineharrod6386

Жыл бұрын

O please, l detest and abominate Lord of the Rings!

@mathonamoore123

Жыл бұрын

@@jacquelineharrod6386 me too. Rubbish books.

Loved this one Tony!Thankyou 😀

Hi Tony, enjoying the tale, trying to imagine this "charmer" as an annoying phantasm, miserable old coot...The photo, where are these houses? Rather unusual- New England? Switzerland?! Just curious. I thoroughly enjoyed this "something a bit different" story- I say, "different" because I don't usually laugh so much- obviously only at the start. I loved how Cathy used the cliche, "scared of your own shadow" - I don't know the literary terms anymore but how she artfully started with a common setting, nursing home? And quickly diverts us with "sick" humour- thoroughly Scroogian unlikable old geezer- really enjoyed the humour and the build up- the mansion and his further machinations- very talented lady. Thank you as always for something unique, narrated adeptly. Poor young girl must have expected him to "play dead" more than once...( I thought of "what might be under the covers" in the opening scene- after bowel surgery...you're a nurse so you know what I refer to. So sad about the doctor's young son, ironically dying with nothing but good intentions on his friends' part) When I did volunteer work with the SPCA, whenever we visited nursing homes, I always whispered in the ears of some of the staff, how I admired them and asked, how do you de-stress- enjoy your family after your shift. Is this like the drug, Friar Lawrence used to help Romeo and Juliet? The lengths some people will go to...Wrapped up like a mummy, in need of one of those clever, Victorian "coffin bells" in case one was buried alive...Namaste

My Goodness! That particular item has been used in real life for the same purpose by ...a nurse...true crime

Yikes that's an eerie one! Well written and narrated. Never heard of author but will wait for another!

There are limits to that forgiveness...

I just discovered this chanel. Thank you!! I look forward to listening/watching all the stories. This one was wonderful and so well written and sensationally narrated.

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Hell yeah dude

👀urhmmm..............not in my country. We don't all have goth friends that visit cemeteries and do weird stuff like that! 😂 well, not in my day anyway. This is a lovely story and as always you've done it a great justice. I actually appreciate the live authors. It's good to learn of new authors alive in my time to get to know.

Mr Mullins got his just desserts. An expat listening in S Florida.

A welcome from Tony Walker Writer and Narrator Congratulations! You're now a patron of Tony Walker Writer and Narrator Thank you very much for supporting my work. It allows me to keep going.

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

Thank you

Maybe when she's in nursing school she can find her backbone...

1:01:28 You should do anything and everything because you do narrating better than anyone I’ve ever heard!!!!

With her head tucked underneath her arm she roamed the midnight hour! I have that song to thank for you writing your amazing stories, which I would love to hear another one of…. Hint hint wink wink 😉

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

I hope Cathy is reading this!

would love to hear you do The blackstone chronicles by John saul. Or any asylum horror really.

Liked it a lot: both story and wonderful reading! Tony, you have introduced me to ghost story literature and I am enjoying them. Many thanks! I am wondering if there are really esoteric ghost stories? i think you mentioned that there was, in one of your after talks. I study the esoteric and would be grateful for the titles of any stories you might have read that have an esoteric element. Appreciate your work!

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

+4444marla hmm. Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen were members of The Golden Dawn but there is more of it in Machen, but subtle. Also Gustav Meyrink maybe?

@4444marla

Жыл бұрын

@@ClassicGhost Many thanks! Will listen and let you know what I think.🦋

I like this one. 😂

Loved the story! Not a fan of folk who play unkind 'jokes' on others, so I was glad the old fella got what he deserved! Used to know a lady who did a creative writing course, who tried to explain all these new fangled ideas about writing 🙄 Not for me! I think you sound like Robson Green...☺

Classic case of the childish, unpleasant practical joker who can dish it out but can’t take it.

I'm confused. Did Mr. Mullins come home from the hospital or is the end of the book really the beginning when he's at home? Hopefully someone can fill me in! Hope you had a good trip over here to my neck of the woods, Tony! I'm curious what state you went to. Hope you had a safe plane trip back home! Thanks for another great story!

@Story-Voracious66

Жыл бұрын

Me Mullins was being cared for at home by his relative Melanie who is a student nurse. 🙂

@sugarfalls1

Жыл бұрын

@@Story-Voracious66 which one happened first? Him being in hospital or being taken of at home?

@Story-Voracious66

Жыл бұрын

As I heard it, (and I may be mistaken), Mr Mullins was always at home, and the story runs linearly. Definitely worth a re-listen though just so we can get the story straight.🙂

@sugarfalls1

Жыл бұрын

Well first he's in the hospital and then he's at home with Melanie.

I know this is a year ago but i just had to leave this comment because a paragraph in this book startled me no end. After that it was a bit funny to me so I thought I would tell you as well (and please don't feel bad about it, just weird timing and my mom and i had a morbid little chuckle over it in the end.) I fell asleep with this Playlist on and usually it's supposed to stop after an hour (is iffy though so sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of a video or story) I may have to get a bit personal but it provides a bit of context: Last night we turned off life support for my father whom i loved dearly. He's still hanging in because his body is stubborn and now it's just waiting Anyways, not trying to trauma dump and long story short, i woke up to the part where the doctor was saying "there's no telling, the patient will choose his own time to pass away" I had a brief sense of half asleep confusion thinking i had called the hospital or they had called me and i was so confused. I do want to reassure you and promise it didn't cause any pain. My mother and i got a brief chuckle out of it and if i believed in signs as she does then maybe it was, who knows? *shrug* One last thing i wanted to add, my dad is nothing like the Mullins jerk. He was the sweetest man that walked this planet and I'm honored to have had the time with him that I've had. 🖤

@ClassicGhost

6 ай бұрын

I read this, this morning. And I’m really sorry about the loss of your dad. After my grandmother died, I woke up to hear a book ejecting itself from my bookshelf in the bedroom and coming to land on the floor. About six 6 feet away from the shelf. It was on death and dying by Elizabeth Kubler, Ross. That was my nana’s way of letting me know that she hadn’t just disappeared, and that she was still around at least for a while . All time is contained. I wrote a story about that called the ghost of Christmas past.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Was the story finished? That Mean Mr. Mullins were taken as a deadbody, thanks to the prank he'd played? Or i misesed something in the story?

Good story ending was not what I thought it would be so yes good story

I don't know about Tom Hiddleston specifically but you absolutely do NOT have a 'Wukington' accent. After 30 years away from West Cumbria the accent now really hits me if I hear it and If you hadn't mentioned Workington and Carlisle I would never have guessed.

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

I’ve been working in maryport until last week and you should hear my accent then :)

I didn't find her book on Amazon are you sure it's still there?

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

No I’m not. She will see this and reply, I hope

Where’s the cyanide when you need it!😉

Um... Did you say Poe is a "fantasy" writer? Can you say why you use that word? I enjoy your readings very much.

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

I mean listen to The Fall of the House of Usher. That’s a dark fantasy story to me

La Belle Curve Sans Merci

nope! “not real money” - not even a check!!! it is weird, isn’t it? i had to get a new debit card and couldn’t pay bills until the new one came, then i misplaced it!! it was very confusing. wouldn’t take Zelle either!!! LOL 🌹🌱 n.b. boy, am i really deliriously happy that he got his!!!! :) 😋

This may seem like pedantry but it's really not. The relationship between a very sick, near death person and carer is much more intimate and complicated by the necessities of the body than this story admits. It would have been a better tale if this had been included. Also that poor girl dissolving in tears would not have made a good nurse.

Is the narrator Irish or Scottish?

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

By accent neither, by blood both!

Like the doctor, who attended the house every day, wouldn’t have recognised Melanie walking down the road …. Stupid story.

I realize that you need to focus your effort on uploads that will result in income - but there are a couple problems with limiting yourself to popular tastes. I'm all FOR popular taste - give me an HR James anytime. But there is the first problem - how many of those writers and stories ARE there? There is a very finite supply - and even good writers have their off days. If all you are going to record is off that list, you're going to run through content pretty quick. The second problem is that people need to trust your taste as a guide and performer. If YT's algorithm and engagement dashboard tell you what to work on - we're missing YOU. I'm not super interested in what YT thinks I'd like, but I AM interested in what YOU think I might like. Just like your rambles are a part of the experience of your channel, so are the choices you make about content - you personally. If YOU thought a story worth your time to prep and perform and post-produce and upload - then it's worth our time to give it a hearing. Not every story hits the same heights, and not every performance is going to have the same view counts. Lastly - not to go on, and not to presume you are reading this - but if I were you I would average out either the production or play time of your output in a given period (three months for example), and then average your total engagement results through THAT number. Measuring by "X gets more engagement than y" is only helpful if all your output can be X. Since you must have some X and some Y, measuring engagement by overall effort might give you a more relevant picture.

Tony, Great story really enjoyed this one. I was very sad about the doctors son’s death, as those sorts of avoidable unnecessary deaths always bother me. I think you sort of show your teeth a little, and when we eventually meet and chat we will have to tackle this one. It’s that northern “chip on the shoulder” type of outlook, “just me fighting against the world”, “no man is my master” sort of a thing ! Now, we both know this isn’t the case, really is it ? You are far too clever and acute an observer and reader to conform to such a trite stereotype. I need to pick my words carefully from now on, to avoid offence. I hope you should know me by now that I write with my tongue firmly in my cheek. I like your work and think you are great, so here goes. We are i believe all products of our experience and upbringing which shapes us into the people we are. I went to public school, then university to read English and this was a somewhat privelidge route (though my parents were struggling, recent middle class Tory’s). This upbringing has inevitably shaped me, my thoughts and beliefs will be a reflection of this lived experience. I believe though we can transcend much of this “imprinting” with care and practice and effort to try and soften our bias. We both recognise that some arty farty, stuck up, creative writing class students can be a bit of a handful. These types can rather vanish up their own arse holes as they write daring and risky critiques of the semiotic relevance of the weather. Nobody likes people who assume right away that they are better than someone else, though there are many forms of elitism and the “I did it the hard way” is just another trope. I also know that you do truly value education, clever discourse and I also know you realise that before you can break away from any form, tradition or model you first have to be the master of it. I once asked my father why Picasso drew as he did, i thought the pictures looked childish and why did people respect him so much ? I asked this question as I had heard my father make the same comment and I wanted to get his praise rather than really reflecting on the idea. My father, a man who never ceased to surprise me, didn’t do the obvious and agree with me, pat on the head young man. He decided instead to educate me, always a great idea and once i recognise to this day given I’m recounting this story. He explained to me that Picasso was in fact a genius and a master of art in many forms. He drew early in his career still life pencil drawings which were realistic and highly representative, superb figurative work. He then told me that perhaps once you can draw that well, you also are able to “see more than the rest of us” and hence his later work reflected forms he understood and maybe we struggled. The point was certainly that Picasso didn’t do this because it was easy or he was a poor technician. This I feel is a great explanation of the genius mind at work. You can only discard the conventions and props, models and standards once you have mastered them all. Likewise, with the modernist, Joyce was a superb story teller, he wrote engaging fiction before we get to Ulysses of Finnegans Wake. T.S. Eliot, is just a great poet, here again we have sensitive, traditional work before we get to the wasteland (my all time favourite poem). I like the wasteland because yes I am an intellectual snob, I can understand much of it, it resonates with me on a linguistic level and because I have also changed my response as I have aged to this poem. The Wasteland has so much of the twentieth century compressed into it, that its bursting with links to all of literature. I have also read the drafts before pound got to work. I used to think pound cut out too much, but actually if you read the drafts you see pound did great work. Much of the Albert and the Demob story line was expanded for no gains. “On Margate sands I can connect nothing with nothing” - great lines and all the more resonant to anyone who has been depressed in Margate. It’s one for another time but is an interesting conversation I feel. So, the artists your mate met up with may have been pricks, they may have been poseurs but they were artists (for good or bad) and your friend was not. My Sebastian was the sensible one, it was Johnno who went off deep end and drank blood and ended up locked in his room and would only eat food that was flat and could be slid under the door. He ate a lot of biscuits and pizza that week, it was the cleaner who finally called time on Johnno and security broke his door down and we never saw him or his skulls again. So to reach synthesis we can say this: 1. We both agree that young, students, from artsy backgrounds can be undeniably annoying 2. Not all deconstructed modern work is accessible, enjoyable or even very good - though as ever the best is in a league of its own. 3. Pound for pound, I would like most of your bell curve crew, prefer a mediocre 19th century ghost story to any mediocre modernist version of the same. 4. A good place to start anything is to plot out a beginning, middle and ending. This arc may seem very traditional, it is, however it’s also why it works - tried and much tested. 5. Before you kick over the traces and pull down the Libary of Alexandria (ahead of their time the goths, who needs libraries these days ?). You can display your chip, inverse elitism, reverse snobbery, boy from black stuff, I did it my way sort of swagger all you like Tony Walker. You are not fooling anyone ! You have too much of a love for the fact that as humans we have tried these ideas, tested them, enhanced them, collated, catalogued and defined them. This is as you know meant in good humour, though perhaps making a serious point.

@ClassicGhost

Жыл бұрын

I will respond to this when I’m home but basically yes you’re right :)

Info good but way too long.

I really enjoyed the story and the way you narrated it. The incoherent rambling afterwards I turned off.

I hated this story. Stopped halfway through.