11th Armada Ghost Book

The 11th Armada Ghost Book comes in x2 different cover edition. Both are great, but I think the style of the earlier edition (shown on your left in the pic below) is my favourite version:

Peter Archer produces his usual accomplished story illustrations, with a couple of real standouts amongst them (see below):

All in all another great addition to the series.

Fingers Crossed...

Finally completed my Armada Ghost Book collection. Wasnt easy, required searching ebay in different countries and begging them to ship to UK lol. I just hope it makes from the other side of the world o my letter box now...

 

10th Armada Ghost Book

1978. The year I started Comprehensive school. The school handed out regular book catalogues selling books at a discount to encourage reading. And that is where I first came into contact with Armada Ghost Books.

To say I loved this book would be an understatement, and I also like the idea that the school was sanctioning the reading of ghost stories. :)

Peter Archer is again credited as the book's artist, and he has certainly upped his game with the interior story illustrations:

With a fantastic book cover and scary interior illustrations, the set list of supernatural stories really rounds off what I still consider the best in the Armada Ghost Book series.

Two stories, in particular, stand out amongst the selection. The first is The Sinister Schoolmaster by Rosemary Timperley. Who could resist reading this tale after seeing the genuinely scary cover art illustrating it? The thought of encountering a ghostly mystery whilst on the way to school was appealing beyond words to me as a child! 

The other tale that stuck with me was Mousey by John Halking. Now, I had a pet mouse myself at the time of reading this story, and as soon as I realised this tale was about a boy who took his mouse out and about with him, I cringed. My only hope was that I was reading a children's book, so hopefully, the mouse would make it to the end alive. But Armada was canny with their athologies and often slotted in darker themes in with with their more lightweight offerings!

9th Armada Ghost Book

Continuing my collection of Armada Ghost Books from the 1970s and early 1980s, it time to show off the 9th book in the supernatural series:

Peter Archer takes the helm as the book's illustrator, but the the inside drawing detail non-scary scenes from the ghost stories, which is disappointing.

The cover art for the book, on the other hand, is up there with the finest in the series and the book shifted enough copies to keep the series going for another x6 anthologies!

Haunting Ghost Stories

I picked up this hard cover book this week for just £3.59, and that included p&p!

As well as containing some classic ghostly tales, the book contains some fascinating illustrations, in colour as well as black and white.

7th Armada Ghost Book

Another book cover I am not overly fond of, especially for a book anthology of ghost stories:

Despite it's rather lacklustre cover, the anthology boasts a few interesting titles...

...and the tome received a more powerfully visual cover for its 1983 reincarnation! 

It is also nice to see the artist get a credit in this issue too:

Return of the Werewolf by Guy N Smith

The latest Guy N. Smith reissue was just pushed through my letterbox this evening.

For reasons I am not going to go in to, just yet, I am especially looking forward to the next book in this series being republished 🙂

6th Armada Ghost Book

The 6th Armada Ghost Book has my least favourite cover in the anthology series. It looks more like a juvenile adventure/mystery book to my weary eyes rather than suggesting the ghostly terrors awaiting readers within its pages. Again, the artist doesn't receive a credit in the book.

The book was released in 1975, for the price of 25p, making the cost of each tale within the book just a little of 2p a story, which has to be a bargain.

Along with disappointing cover art the story illustrations in the book hardly pump up the fear factor either:

All in all, this was a rather quiet entry in the series. That said, it sold well enough for Armada to start immediate work on a successor...

The later updated artwork for the book's re-release addressed the lack of scares in the original art with this:

Just look at the state of that cat!

5th Armada Ghost Book

It's January 1st, 1973, and look what has just hit the bookshop shelves:

 

Moving on to the 5th Armada Ghost Book, we find the first girl protagonist decorating a cover in the series. It also features its first horse! And doesn't that horse look terrified? 

The rear cover art does a great job, with the scariest looking treesthe in the Armada books to date terror too. Shame the publisher didn't think to credit the artist!

The story's illustrations are pretty scary too, especially for the age group the book was aimed at:

I've not read any of the stories in Book 5 yet, but when I do, the tale with the illustration directly above will definitely the first I tuck into.

3rd Armada Ghost Book

1970, two years after their previous anthology, the 3rd Armada Ghost Book hit the bookshelves. This time, a new Captain had taken the helm - Mary Danby. 

Danby's name was to become synonymous with the ghostly Armada franchise over the next thirteen years. Much to their reader's delight, as well as curating the stories presented in the anthologies, she was also happy to include her own spooky outings amongst their number.

Peter Archer was the chosen illustrator for this third volume of ghost stories, and he did a sterling job - even keeping the now familiar running boy, crooked tree and flying agressor motifs on the cover artwork.

Archer also delivered the scariest story illustration so far in the series. Imagine laying in bed as a child reading scary stories and coming across this image! 

A Visit by Shirley Jackson

 I had to order this book from the USA as it costs an arm and a leg here in the UK. 

The Amethyst Cross

With the arrival of this little gem, my Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories collection is just x2 books short of completion...

There is still no sign of A Visit by Shirley Jackson, which could be anywhere between here and the USA. The post was less than a fiver so I just hope it turn up as I snagged it as a cheap price and I haven't seen it avalaible at a price I am willing to pay anywhere else online. 

One of Seth's 2024 issues, Captail Dalgerty Returns ended up being unavailable, but I have finally managed to source and order another copy at that. It is just a waiting game now... 

Ghostly and Ghastly

What kind of kid's book had illustrations like these?