Episode 31: Back Along The Old Track by Sam Hicks

Classic Ghost Stories

Tony Walker

Fiction, Drama, Science Fiction

4.9 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam HicksSam Hicks is an English writer based in London. She caught my eye when I read the splendid anthology https://amzn.to/2NwI8MN (Fiends In The Furrows) by Nosetouch Press. The story was then lifted to the https://amzn.to/3abxnsY (The Best Horror of the Year Vol. 11). These anthologies are stuffed with good stories, but Back Along The Old Track was one of the best.It’s strange that I don’t begin these show notes with Writer was born in 1800 and died in 1900 or suchlike because Sam is still very much alive and sounds in the pink. In the interview we talk about her influences; where the story is based, is it based on a real place, what are her influences and it was really fascinating to hear that she’s only been writing for three years full time.Sam is working on more stories and more of her good stuff is coming out in further anthologies as you can hear in the interview.This is a link to Sam’s Goodreads page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3018664.Sam_Hicks (here.)Hope you enjoyed this modern story. It struck me that the English countryside features in many of these stories we're reading and we could almost chart a social history by listening to them. For example, we have The Old Nurse's Story which portrays a countryside peopled by aristocrats in their big houses and poor peasants in the 19th Century, then we have Man Sized in Marble where we have artists coming to rent a house among the poor peasants in the early 20th Century, and here in Back Along The Old Track, we have city folk in the early21st Century coming to a holiday let among the poor (well weird at least) peasants!Catch you all next week.TonyLinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)MusicIntro music is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute). Support them on BandcampPatronage & SupportPonder: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee) to keep Tony goingConsider: https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)And please, rate, share and tell your friends about the Classic Ghost Stories Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everybody dies, don't they?
0:09.0	Everybody come back.
0:12.0	Isn't that so?
0:14.0	You tried to get into the locked drawer today, didn't you?
0:17.0	How do the dead come back, mother?
0:20.0	What's the secret? Back along the old track by Sam Hicks.
0:29.2	It's funny but I can't remember how the game ended or if it ended at all,
0:34.4	but I do remember that I had just set my last but one domino on the old wooden counter,
0:39.7	and that Tom Ranscombe was chuckling softly as he looked at the piece he held shielded in his hand.
0:45.1	I don't remember if he was amused by victory or defeat, because then someone said,
0:50.4	There they all go, and in such comically doom-laden tones that I turned from our game to see what was meant.
0:58.4	Outside the deep bay windows of the Old King's Inn, a hearse was rolling past.
1:04.0	It was moving at little above walking pace, slow enough to accommodate the black-clad mourners following on foot.
1:11.3	A dense tumble of greenery, mainly ivy, I think, was heaped over the coffin,
1:16.3	piled so high that a great deal had spilled into the cavity around,
1:20.6	snaking up the windows, as if it were growing still.
1:24.9	Ten people followed the car, amongst them two small children, heads bowed and hands clasped
1:30.2	tightly, prayer-like in front. There was a stir of interest in the public bar, and some whispered
1:36.4	comments that I couldn't quite catch. Whose funeral? I asked Tom. That'll be old John Sleeters,
1:43.1	he leaned on the counter with his arms straight and the fingers of his big hands spread,
1:47.0	watching the procession with narrowed eyes.
1:50.0	About time too, some would say.
	...

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