Uploaded October 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Family ghost stories become notoriously embellished when handed down over generations, but are credible indeed when issued from the horse’s mouth.
To mark Hallowe’en for the older generation, herewith some background on the accompanying vignette, the tale of which, lengthy as it may seem, is nonetheless a salutary lesson on witchcraft.
Your correspondent’s father, who served in the Royal Navy as part of the Fleet Air Arm during World War II, had occasion to enjoy some well earned leave in Scotland from time to time (I was born in Edinburgh myself). On one such sortie, he was rash enough to accept a bet from his great friend, and fellow night-fighter, James Flooks, that sorcery, magic and the occult in general should never be taken seriously.
His account of what ensued when, armed with one of Aleister Crowley’s more apocryphal works, offset by a rather more respected guide to black magic, the two comrades-in-arms spent the night in an ostensibly unoccupied house on the Scottish moors, is a cautionary tale, indeed.
That master of the ghost story, M.R. James, wrote “Whistle and I’ll Come to You”. As my father records in his own autobiography, “Let those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind.”
Agreed.
More annals of the Hoare House on our website:
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/annals-of-the-hoare-house
Family ghost stories become notoriously embellished when handed down over generations, but are credible indeed when issued from the horse’s mouth.
To mark Hallowe’en for the older generation, herewith some background on the accompanying vignette, the tale of which, lengthy as it may seem, is nonetheless a salutary lesson on witchcraft.
Your correspondent’s father, who served in the Royal Navy as part of the Fleet Air Arm during World War II, had occasion to enjoy some well earned leave in Scotland from time to time (I was born in Edinburgh myself). On one such sortie, he was rash enough to accept a bet from his great friend, and fellow night-fighter, James Flooks, that sorcery, magic and the occult in general should never be taken seriously.
His account of what ensued when, armed with one of Aleister Crowley’s more apocryphal works, offset by a rather more respected guide to black magic, the two comrades-in-arms spent the night in an ostensibly unoccupied house on the Scottish moors, is a cautionary tale, indeed.
That master of the ghost story, M.R. James, wrote “Whistle and I’ll Come to You”. As my father records in his own autobiography, “Let those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind.”
Agreed.
More annals of the Hoare House on our website:
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/annals-of-the-hoare-house
