Sir Andrew Caldecott's Not Exactly Ghosts anthology includes the entirety of his fiction: twenty-five stories originally published in the late 1940s in two collections - "Not Exactly Ghosts" and "Fires Burn Blue". This is an entertaining collection, with some fine weird tales. Unfortunately, Caldecott sometimes gets extremely wordy, and I found myself struggling a bit to get through these, but at the end, a regonition that these are still very good stories - it's just that you have to wade through some overgrown verbiage to get at it. On the plus side, sprinkled throughout his stories are some keen humorous asides which are always fun to find. To excellent effect and lending an exotic appeal, Caldecott sets a number of his stories in the fictional Asian country of Kongea; these stories were undoubtedly inspired by his civil service work in the British colonies of Ceylon and Hong Kong.

Here are the story synopses, with the standouts asterisked:

NOT EXACTLY GHOSTS
▪A Room in a Rectory - With unsettling consequences, the Reverend Nigel Tylethorpe decides to renovate and occupy a long-shuttered room of the Tilchington Rectory. *
▪Branch Line to Benceston - There's a neat little "plant and payoff" in this tale of Frent's vision of a phantom rail line and its alternate but rhyming plane of reality. *
▪Sonata in D Minor - A gramophone record has a bizarre effect on everyone who listens to it. *
▪Autoepitaphy - Bland story concerning a desk and the automatic writing that is trasmitted through whoever sits there.
▪The Pump in Thorp's Spinney - A gift of a model water pump to Philip Falmer on his fourth birthday sets in motion a curious fascination with such devices, leading to a strange occurrence.
▪Whiffs of the Sea - Rupert Madgeby relates a strange story to two friends; it concerns a watercolour drawing of a harbour, which seems to give off the distinctive scents of the sea.
▪In Due Course - Alec Judeson stands to collect an inheritance from his uncle Matthew upon his death, but growing impatient, he hatches a plan to accelerate Matthew's demise.
▪Light in the Darkness - In Kongea, a free thinking educator seeks to debunk a local religious belief that a mysterious glow within a cave, dubbed the “Holy Gleam”, is a deity. *
▪Decastroland - Lorenzo de Castro is the most popular painter in Kongea, but John Mainbarrow, an artist touring the country considers him merely a hack and his work insufferable. Mainbarrow finds a way to mock de Castro; unforeseen consequences ensue. *
▪A Victim of Medusa - An odd trifle concerning a man's obsession with jellyfish.
▪Fits of the Blues - A Kongean superstition calls for natives to sacrifice a sapphire to Vahrunda, a she-god of the waters, by throwing it into a lagoon in the village of Kokupatta. Dudley Lenbury, a jeweler who witnesses the ritual, considers it “a wanton waste of a stone beyond price.” His subsequent actions will have consequences. *
▪Christmas Re-union - A guest staying with Mr and Mrs Dreyton during Christmas arouses suspicion of a shady past.

FIRES BURN BLUE
▪An Exchange of Notes - For the first concert of the revived Telmington Philharmonic Club, Letitia Parlington is determined to change one note of the soprano part in Sir Cuthbert Kewbridge’s composition - and will go to great lengths to do so.
▪Cheap and Nasty - The Cromleys having recently purchased a new home at well below market value are unnerved by their Novelist friend Aubrey Roddeck who notes “cheapness is never without cause: the vendor must have had good reason to get it off his hands.” And he then declares his ability to keenly sense the atmosphere of a house, and one can be either haunted or “in waiting.”
▪Grey Brothers - Hilary Hillbarn, Assistant Entomologist to the Takeokuta Museum in Kongea, is responsible for collecting specimens to add to the museum's collection. Assistants on these field trips complain that Hillburn is collecting samples from the Nywedda valley - reputedly the home of devils and disease. After the death of one of the assistants, Hillbarn goes missing in the jungle, and a search party is dispatched to find him.
▪Quintet - On a cold New Year’s Eve at Brindlestone Manor, a small party of five tell ghost stories by the fireplace.
▪Authorship Disputed - Eustace Amberlake and Terence Terrison have been inseparable since their college days. The story of their unique relationship makes for one of the best tales in the anthology. *
▪Final Touches - Mrs Ridley Prandell retires to the town of Boldrington, where he learns his ancestors were involved in a family feud between the Parrandales and the Farribals. The curse cast by the Farribals states that no Parrandale can walk the bridle path to Knapton after nightfall, lest they be “touched.” Curious, Ridley decides to take that path one night.
▪What’s in a Name - Though baptized Ronald Austin Transome, the boy, given those unfortunate initials, becomes known as Rat. And when he is gifted with a pet rat for his sixth birthday, an unusual relationship develops between the two. *
▪Under the Mistletoe - Kongea legend has it that parasitic growths, resembling mistletoe, on Tebanco trees are the reputed hives of demons called “nyamika kunya”, or eye spirits. Some Kongeans abide by the legend and refuse to disturb the trees; others scoff and mock such belief. Therein lies the basis for this tale of escalating mischief with serious consequences. *
▪His Name Was Legion - The Reverend Vernon Vinetree publishes a little monthly news sheet called Kidbury Parish Notes. When a new, similarly titled, and wholly unorthodox publication appears, Rev Vernon becomes concerned that its articles have been written by spirits.
▪Tall Tales But True - Comprised of two very short stories, one concerning a phantom butler, the other a haunted house.
▪A Book Entry - Visitors, upon entering the Government House in Takeokuta, Kongea, sign their names in the calling-book. This practice seldom causes any difficulty; however, a breach of etiquette, at the very least, is suspected when the unusual name of U. Nomi appears in the book. *
▪Seeds of Remembrance - Eustace Blayne has inherited Sheldrake Hall from his recently deceased Uncle Malcolm. But in going through Malcolm’s ledgers and diary, Eustace comes across some odd entries are seen.
▪Seated One Day at the Organ - Organist R. Fustowe collapses while playing the last hymn at evensong in the Abbey. Canon Glenside wonders what could have caused this, and seeks the answer. ( )

A well-titled volume containing 25 not exactly ghost stories. There are several excellent spine-chillers here,such as 'A Room in the Rectory','Christmas Re-Union','Seated One Day at the Organ' and,a particular favourite of mine 'What's in a Name'. Regretfully there are also a fair number of stinkers.
However the publishers,Wordsworth are to be highly commended for bringing a long out of print collection into the light of day. ( )