I do enjoy a good ghost story and this ticked all of the boxes. I'm a bit concerned Alice Baker will be in my dreams tonight though.

What a delicious little collection of spookiness! As you would expect from Susan Hill, these stories are sinister and atmospheric and I really enjoyed them. The title story was just wonderful as was the closing story of the collection. The middle offerings were well constructed and written, if a little predictable. What Hill does so well is draw out the dread. In some ways, the predictability helps with this. You know something bad is coming, but you don't quite know when. All in all, a really solid collection - just a shame it is so short!
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

New ghost stories? By Susan Hill? Yes please! An anthology of four short stories to keep you company by a crackling fire on a dark, dark night. I love Susan Hill's work, her writing is so elegant and immediately draws me in. The first tale, The Travelling Bag of the title hit right at the heart of my darkest fears as a mottephobe of long standing. The other stories fast forward to more modern times, each with their own unexpected twist . I love this sort of writing, it's clever, chilling and creepy - there are no bloody, slasher moments, thank goodness, just the feel of small hairs standing up and the need to turn around and look behind you. If you've read and enjoyed Hill's brand of quiet horror before then you're in for a treat.

I’m eager to settle down to read a ghost story on an autumn evening, but this new collection from Susan Hill has left me with mixed feelings. The four tales are interesting, a little creepy rather than outright scary but they didn’t seem to pack the same punch as some of Hill’s earlier work. Overall I was left a little disappointed.

I’ve always loved short stories. Roald Dahl’s “Tales of the Unexpected” has long been a firm favourite of mine and more recently I enjoyed Hilary Mantel’s “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.” So when I saw that Susan Hill was bringing out a new collection of ghost stories I was thrilled. Strange Meeting was one of the few books I loved during A-Level English and I later went on to read a few other of her novels.

The Travelling Bag features 4 short stories which you will fall in love with if you’re a ghost story aficionado. My personal favourite was Alice Baker which really gave me the creeps and is so perfect for this spooky time of year.

This book was a really marvellous read and very gripping.

The Woman in Black terrified me as a teenager - it remains the most truly frightening thing I have ever read.  Not just prickles of fear or even the lingering nastiness that writers such as Shirley Jackson are so good at leaving behind, Susan Hill packs her punch on a far more primal level.  Years earlier I'm The King Of The Castle had upset me on levels that were difficult for my twelve year-old self to process.  So when I was sent a review copy of The Travelling Bag, I was equal parts pleased and petrified - I even decided to save it for October for my autumn Spooky Read ready for Halloween.  Finally sitting down to it yesterday, I startled myself by zooming through to the end in what felt like no time at all, but stranger than that, I felt ... nothing.Perhaps Hill's novel-length work has more time to build up the tension and terror but her short fiction felt distinctly under-whelming.  The main story is 'The Travelling Bag' and like several others in the collection, it felt rather under-drafted and unfinished.  If the premise of her titular story is of a psychic sharing a case story, it took a long while to reach its point and then contradicted its premise in terms of the denouement.  This seemed strange more than anything - surely an author as successful and experienced as Hill would at least have a decent editor team behind her to stop that kind of thing from happening?

The other stories were also surprisingly disappointing.  I finished 'Boy Twenty One' not quite sure what the point of it was supposed to have been, 'Alice Baker' felt very predictable and although 'Front Room' was the most disturbing of the collection, its plot was so strikingly similar to the film Grey Skies that I found it difficult to enjoy it.  In some ways though it also felt that Hill was plagiarising herself with that story returning to the themes of child loss as in The Woman in Black.  With 'Front Room', Hill hints to the reader that she can still chill the blood just as she did all those years ago, but then it too ends with an unfinished feel.

Hill's books have undergone a very pretty rebranding in recent years and I can see that The Travelling Bag has been given a matching cover design, so the book is clearly designed to appeal to the established fan.  Hill is an indisputably talented writer but despite the pretty packaging, this feels more of a colour-by-numbers exercise than a masterpiece.  She can and has done better in the past - there is very little to see here.

Although Susan Hill will of course always be remembered as the author of the "The Woman in Black" she has written other tales of the supernatural which I have personally enjoyed reading. These include such books as "Printers Devil Court", "Dolly" and "The Man in the Picture" which can be categorised as the traditional ghost story and encapsulate for me many of the essences required for a chilling tale which include the permeating sense of foreboding and unease as the story progresses through layers of increasing terror.

There are four stories in this compilation that can easily be read in one siting on a dark and windy evening that turns into night.

The first is the "The Travelling Bag" which begins in the manner of a MR James story, being told over an after dinner brandy in the library of a London club where the "the fire glowed and the lamps cast circles of tawny light". It is the story of obsessional revenge for an act of plagiarism and theft. Recognition is denied and is claimed by someone else who must now bear the consequences of their actions. But when enacting revenge one must also be aware that this may to have consequences that could if you are unlucky emanate from beyond the grave.

"Boy number Twenty One" is another classically derived psychological ghost story. Toby and Andreas have an unseparable schoolboy friendship but two weeks before the end of term Andreas disappears but they meet later in strange circumstances or do they?

"Alice Baker" is a story that will certainly stay in the mind and for me was the most chilling and sad of the four stories here. Alice Baker was the new girl in the office but there is something not quite right about her " a bit off-putting" is the phrase used. What is her secret? Once read I wanted immediately to reread this story again.

The final story is "The Front Room", a chilling tale of "Evil, and the powers of evil" with a terrifying finale. What happens when you invite someone into your house to live with you that has malevolent intent?

A thoroughly enjoyable set of spooky tales that are just right to be read at this time of year. Well worth a read.

So begins the first of four short ghost stories by Susan Hill, something I have been looking forward to reading as the nights have drawn in and with Halloween not far away. I love a good spooky story and a good old fashioned scare and Hill has always been able to manage both where I am concerned with stories like The Small Hand and The Woman in Black.
Here, all the ingredients that make those stories so successful are there. The “old school” style of story telling, the simple language that lulls you into a false sense of security, the slowly building tension as you realise not all is what it seems – leaving you wanting to read on but worried that if you do, you’ll end up lying awake listening for things that go bump in the night.
Unfortunately, for me, these ingredients only came together perfectly in two of the stories – Alice Baker and The Front Room. Alice Baker was my favourite, with a young girl appearing one day in the typing pool who is good at her job but who makes all the other women feel just a little bit off, though they can’t explain why.  It was such a good old fashioned ghost story I was completely drawn in.
The Front Room was darker and more tragic with possibly a higher “chill” factor but I had already given my heart to the characters in Alice Baker and, because I read these back to back, wasn’t ready to let them go. Here, a Young family try to do the right thing by taking in an elderly relative with terrible consequences.
For the other two stories, The Travelling Bag and Boy Twenty-One there was nothing wrong with them other than they didn’t make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, a must for ghost stories. With The Travelling Bag I felt I knew what was coming and was right. With Boy Twenty-One, I didn’t feel any danger. No one was in peril, another must for me for ghost stories.
So, overall a mixed bag (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun), a book I liked but didn’t love. Sorry!

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Not one of the best books hat I have read by this author but worth a read but put others before it.

Another cracking little book of short horror stories from the master of the art, Susan Hill. You won't find jump scares here but building atmosphere and chills, which make them truly unnerving. Bravo.

The book is actually a collection of 4 short stories: A Travelling Bag,Boy Twenty-one,Ann Baker and The Front Room. And although they do not occur in a 19th century setting,they do have a very Victorian atmosphere.They are absolutely delightful (if one can speak of a delightful ghost story?) If you like your ghost stories bloody,gory and very frightful, then this is definitely not for you. But if you like a ghostly (and mysterious)twist at the end of a good and captivating story,then this is a perfect read.

The Travelling bag by Susan Hill is a collection of short ghost stories in the classic English ghost story form. These stories remind me of M.R. James and other famous ghost writers I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys the old style of ghost stories. My favourite story in this collection was the same as the title of the collection it has that classic feel that I really enjoy. I have only one criticism is that this book isn't original, so for that reason I'll rate this a four star’s out of five. I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback. I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the chance to read and review this collection.

I don't usually read short stories, but enjoyed this book.

It made me want to sit around a campfire with a group of friends to tell these spooky stories.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

These are 0f a set of short ghost stories very much in the style of the usual Susan Hill books. They have an air of creepiness and menace about them but not grotesque horror or gruesomeness. The title story has a psychic private investigator, Gilbert, telling the story of Walter Craig, a gifted medical scientist, to Tom Williams, a retired bishop. Walter is engaged in ground breaking research when he begins to suffer from a debilitating illness. He takes on a assistant, Silas Webb, who is able to do what is required of him. After another bout of crushing illness, William returns to work and finds that Silas has left. It soon becomes apparent that an immense betrayal has taken place which William never recovers from. Years later, a bitter and resentful William takes his revenge only to find the results go further than he intended, for which there will be consequences.

A lonely and unwanted boy, Toby Garrett, finds himself at boarding school. He has an interest in maps and weaves fantasies over made up countries. He unexpectedly finds a friend in new boy, Andreas, and the two become inseparable. Until Andreas disappears. A fire at Cloten Hall guts the building and has Toby wondering if he was in it. A brief reconciliation takes place with the arrival of the 21st boy until once again Tom is alone. Alice Baker is the new self possessed girl in the office. She is hardworking but private. However, attached to her is the odour of death and decay and the old office building has strange things happening. A move to a new building seems like a breath of fresh air until similar problems begin again until Alice disappears. My favourite story is The Front Room, which begins with Pastor Lewis exhorting his congregation to put into action actual good deeds in the world. This sermon finds a receptive audience in Norman and Belinda Irwin with their two children Wallace and Fern. Norman receives a letter from his stepmother, Solange, who highlights her loneliness and isolation in old age, which results in Norman inviting her to live in their home. Norman remembers Solange as a bitter and fractious woman who sucked out any happiness from those around her. When he meets her again years later she appears to be a changed woman, but is she really? Will the Irwins end up paying a terrible price for allowing her entry into their home?

I found these short stories an entertaining and quick read. If you like the understated ghost stories as opposed to the heavily dramatic ones, then you will probably like this collection. Many thanks to Serpent's Tail for an ARC.

A collection of 4 ghostly tales from Susan Hill. Three stories are outlined in the description above – each took me around half an hour to read and the whole book is around 180 pages in length. I have my favourites, Boy Number 21 and the unmentioned 4thstory (Alice Baker - a chiller set in an office) were the two which gripped me most.

The Front Room is particularly grim reading but I found it didn’t draw me in quite in the way the other stories had done. I find that Ghost Stories are harder to pitch as a collection – while all the stories can be creepy, different people respond to different types of chills so in any collection there will be elements which impact people in different ways.

I do enjoy a creepy tale and The Travelling Bag was the welcome break from reading crime thrillers that I had hoped it would be. The physical book looks rather nice too but its relatively short length made me think it may be more likely to be given as a gift than one a reader may seek out on their own.

Fans of Susan Hill and readers who soak up ghost stories this is one to seek out.

This group of ghost stories are classic Susan Hill and will not fail to appeal to her fans. The settings aren't modern but faintly timeless and as such add to the atmosphere and eeriness as normal, everyday events and situations turn to the horrific stuff of nightmares. Although separate and unconnected, I would suggest that the stories are read in the sequence in which they are presented as the sense of uneasiness progresses and develops with each tale.

Susan Hill may be most well known for ‘The Woman In Black’ a novel which I enjoyed. Her novels are set in the past and are excellent ghosts stories. I enjoyed her other novel ‘The Small Hand’ is was a really good read but I didn’t enjoy her novella ‘Printer Devil’s Court’ for the exact same reason why I didn’t really enjoy ‘The Travelling Bag’. I hoped that this book would be better but in her short fiction although you get the amazing horror writing that you can expect from this author, some chilling scenes that resonate in the mind after you’ve finished the book, the plot and ideas don’t seem fully formed or properly finished just like ‘Printer Devil’s Court’ and and they have disappointed me.

The Travelling Bag is a collection of four stories of horror:

The Travelling Bag is a story of revenge, which at first reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes story. A psychic investigator is telling the story of this “intriguing” case. I enjoyed the way that the story was told but didn’t get the point/plot in the end. It seemed a bit of a yarn although there was a chilling resonance at the conclusion.

The second story is Boy Number Twenty-One, it starts with a fire in an old house, Cloten Hall, and a man thinking back to how much it meant to him and if someone he knew was still there. We are told the story of how he met that person. I did not understand from the beginning what/who the boy was that meant so much to him and at the end of the story I was still uncertain.

Alice Baker is a more modern story of a new member of staff in an office and a weird smell and sense of oddness around her. It was an interesting story but it meanders and ends on an old cliche, I expected more to happen.

The final story in this collection is called Front Room. It starts off a bit ambiguous from the rest of the plot with a couple musing over a sermon they’ve heard in church about helping people less fortunate. They fix up their front room and suddenly a relative is mentioned who they can help. It is a very creepy story, with this evil woman. The horror scenes-towards the end- were not tense probably because they felt rushed and the ending also felt a bit sudden.

Each of these stories I’ve felt that I didn’t quite understand the point. I often read short horror stories and they usually leave me with a feeling of satisfaction at the conclusion, where some horror has been revealed or conquered. But Susan Hill’s stories while chilling they don’t have that satisfying conclusion. With each story I expected more from the beginning which the middle and end did not deliver. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was that didn’t make these stories work for me, whether it was the pacing, or whether they were just overwritten for short stories.
Susan Hill is a good horror writer, these short stories and her novels prove that she can write horror but I I won’t be reading Susan Hill’s short fiction anymore as I really don’t enjoy it, I will stick to the writers I do enjoy.
However, please remember this is all my opinion and you should always try a book for yourself.

The short novels by this author in this genre have been universally brilliant, in my experience, but this was not anything like. Yes, you get four varied ghost stories - and four varied ghosts - but it doesn't always work nearly as well as it should. The longer title story features warring scientists of a sort, but also has a most awkward and unsatisfying structure, what with the change of narrator and some padding. I liked the ambiguity as opposed to the sheer chill of a tale of two boarding school students; a modern tale of an office worker promises much more than it delivers - all of which leaves the mother-in-law from hell to be the most creepy invention here. It's not awful, but I really had expected much more from this author.

Ooo, I woke up in the night after reading this, and couldn't keep my mind from thinking through this collection of ghost stories again. Highly recommend for those who like a bit of haunting and old-fashioned chills. Well written, quick reads. Aside from the title track, the other three stories surprised me with their twists...