Rosemary Timperley (1920–1988)

'Harry' by Timberley is about a woman named Mrs. James. She and her husband, Jim, have an adopted daughter named Christine, called 'Chris' for short. When Chris is five years old, Mrs. James notices her talking to the white rosebush in their yard. Mrs. James can't see anyone, but Christine says there's a boy named Harry.

Both Mr. James and Dr. Webster believe there is nothing wrong with Chris -- she just has an imaginary friend. Mrs. James is worried, especially when Christine doesn't want to start school because Harry won't be able to go with her.

Mrs. James visits the agency from which she and Jim adopted Christine. Mrs. Cleaver, its head, at first follows the policy of never telling adoptive parents about the origin of the child. When Mrs. James tells her about Christine's obsession with Harry, Mrs. Cleaver breaks that rule.

By story's end, we understand why Mrs. James is afraid of white roses, red-haired children, and the name, 'Harry'.… (mehr)

This is part one of a collection of spooky short stories originally published in 1970 - the paperback dates to a couple of years later but the publisher split it in two, so only nine of the stories are in this volume. My chief interest was that it contains a story by Kit Pedler, a medical scientist who was co-creator of the Cybermen (with Gerry Davies) and who was an unofficial scientific adviser on 'Doctor Who' during the 1970s. The two men went on to create Doomwatch, another British TV series of the 1970s which had a huge viewing audience.

Unfortunately I didn't think much of his story which concludes the volume and involves a 'ghost in the machine' type scenario. Neither was I impressed with the other stories. One is set on a Caribbean island and features a few stereotypes, one in a maternity ward, one is about an ill-fated schoolmistress, one a convoluted story about two sisters who hate each other, one a haunted country house with connections to WWI, one about an unhappy boy's connection to a painting (which reminded me of a story by M R James among other things). One is an odd story about a young woman who comes back from the dead, the oddest thing being that her name is Barby (not the spelling of the famous doll). The best is probably 'Death of a Ghost' where a nurse in Vietnam is trying to get back to the village where she is stationed and meets an American soldier who has been cut off from his unit: I did suspect the twist but it had a bit more characterisation than most of the others.

So overall I would rate this an OK 2 stars.… (mehr)