Favourite Scary Stories from Graveside Al

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

These two volumes bring to five the number of anthologies edited by
retired CBC radio personality Al Maitland. It’s a treat to revisit
favorite tales by wordsmiths as varied as Йmile Zola, Robert Louis
Stevenson (who appears in both volumes), Stephen Leacock, and Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, and to read for the first time stories by such fine
contemporary authors as Jane Urquhart and Anne Rice. Two of the Sea
Stories present “a compelling portrait of people who live out their
lives on the edge of the sea.” Haida life on islands off the Pacific
coast is sketched by Emily Carr, while J.M. Synge gives a moving and
poetic account of visits to the Aran Islands, off the coast of Ireland.
Canadian writers are well represented in the Seaside collection, but
only four of the 22 Scary Stories are by Canadians. Although most of the
contributors are well known, some biographical information would
nonetheless have been welcome. Caveats aside, these are delightful
collections.