They Return At Evening

Wakefield himself based one of the stories in  "They Return at Evening"  on a James story: “He Cometh and He Passeth By!”  is a recognisable variation of  "Casting the Runes." The plots of the stories are similar: a practitioner of the Black Arts uses his power to eliminate those who have crossed him, by means of sending them a small slip of paper on which is printed mysterious characters. Death follows in due course, caused by something hideous and only half-glimpsed.  "The Red Lodge" is probably the best known story in the collection, and was inspired by a visit Wakefield paid to a house near Richmond Bridge in 1917. The house had an evil reputation, and while there Wakefield felt himself “oppressed by a fear without a name”. One day, while out in the garden, he glanced up at a row of windows on the first floor and saw “a blurred face at one of them. It was a man’s face, but there was no man in the house”. The story itself is not Jamesian, but it moves the reader along in the brisk manner of James: before the first paragraph – even the first line – is finished, we know that the Red Lodge is an evil house, and there is scarcely a word wasted as we are carried along by the events of the story. It is almost impossible to fault the story in any way: perhaps it should be used as a textbook example for aspiring ghost story writers. It is all the more amazing that this accomplished, assured, and elegant performance was one of Wakefield’s first ghost stories. Probably not since M R James cleared his throat one evening in October 1893 and began reading Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book at a meeting of the Chitchat Society has a more auspicious debut been made in the field of the supernatural short story. Were the malevolence of spectres, revenants and demons to be the yardstick by which to judge writers of supernatural tales, then Wakefield and James would be at the top of the list, with little to separate them. Wakefield’s ghosts, like James’s, show no quarter: they are pure evil, and no genteel spirits need apply. Those who like ghost stories that send a shiver up the spine, and which are best not read at night, will find much to savour in  "They Return at Evening." A word of warning: read the book in a well-lit room. You will be glad you did!