One Last Story
A Strange and
Terrible Podcast The One Last Story podcast brings you full readings of stories from the early days of horror literature and weird fiction. Gothic, ghostly, ghoulish, or gruesome - from H.P. Lovecraft and M.R. James to pulp shockers and Victorian penny dreadfuls.   |
Throughout history, the University of Aldergate has been a home and a haven for great and disruptive minds. From art to A.I., from stagecraft to statecraft, the University is proud to welcome and defend fearless innovation. At Aldergate, every idea is welcome and no idea is sacred except one: that, as long as humanity exists, learning shall have no end. |
About Adrian Ward
Hallo, strange world. I am Adrian Ward, KBE, ES (Alds), 51st Vice Chancellor of the University of Aldergate, invalid, human parasite, and lover of bizarre and macabre fiction.
It's a strange old thing, life. Lately I have come to appreciate that strangeness ... and I would like to share it with you. |
One Last Story - Told After Supper, by Jerome K. Jerome
One must laugh once in a while, eh? Merry Christmas Eve to all you lovely dead persons.
One Last Story - The Hog, by William Hope Hodgson
Carnacki the Ghost-Finder strays outside his specialty
One Last Story - Halloween Poe-Stravaganza
Three favorites from dear old E.A.P - The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Cask of Amontillado
One Last Story - The Rats in the Walls (Part 2/2), by H.P. Lovecraft
After all ... what family doesn't have its ups and downs?
One Last Story - The Rats in the Walls (Part 1/2), by H.P. Lovecraft
There's no place like home.
One Last Story - Casting the Runes, by M.R. James
It is better to give than to receive.
One Last Story - The Repairer of Reputations (Part III), by Robert W. Chambers
The thrilling conclusion.
One Last Story - The Repairer of Reputations (Parts I&II), by Robert W. Chambers
Making America great again - 1895-style.
One Last Story - The Diary of a Madman, by Guy de Maupassant // Sredni Vashtar, by Saki
Yea, though you stroll through the valley of death, you shall fear no weasel.
One Last Story - The Cold Embrace, by Mary E. Braddon
Need a love to last forever? Perhaps not so much as you might think.
One Last Story - The Torture of Hope, by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
What do you give the man who has nothing?
One Last Story - Extracts From Gosschen's Diary No. 1, by ???
One meets the most interesting people in dungeons.
One Last Story - The Man in the Bell, by William Maginn
Just the cure for that irksome ringing in your ears.
Hallo, world!
It's been touch and go, but it looks like I may not end up dying after all. Not urgently, at least. And if I'm to continue existing (if only intermittently) I may as well make the best of it. Time to rejoin the land of the living. Though he may be a prisoner of health and circumstance, the world has not yet heard the last of Adrian Ward.
So, what's the plan?
Still under construction. Reconstruction, really, like the planner himself. I've lost so very, very much that at this point I'm not even entirely certain what's missing. It's coming back, however - slowly, and by no means painlessly, but it is coming back. Distressing? At times. But, as the bishop said to the actress: "I push it until it hurts, and when it stops hurting I push harder."
Reading helps. That's fortunate, because it's about all I've been able to manage lo these many months. Reading aloud, too; I find it therapeutic. Anyhow, if one's going to talk to oneself it's just as well to have something interesting to say, what? And it's not as if I've anybody else to talk to.
Alright, that sounds dreadful. I'm not quite so pathetic as that. However, while my hosts and I have reached quite an amicable modus vivendi, J. is always working and A. is hardly what you could call company. Tally-ho, then, for the world beyond these walls! Nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I have been, and am. But that's not reason enough to hide away any longer.
I won't pretend that I deserve this second chance. Quite clearly I do not. But I'm taking it all the same.
-AW
So, what's the plan?
Still under construction. Reconstruction, really, like the planner himself. I've lost so very, very much that at this point I'm not even entirely certain what's missing. It's coming back, however - slowly, and by no means painlessly, but it is coming back. Distressing? At times. But, as the bishop said to the actress: "I push it until it hurts, and when it stops hurting I push harder."
Reading helps. That's fortunate, because it's about all I've been able to manage lo these many months. Reading aloud, too; I find it therapeutic. Anyhow, if one's going to talk to oneself it's just as well to have something interesting to say, what? And it's not as if I've anybody else to talk to.
Alright, that sounds dreadful. I'm not quite so pathetic as that. However, while my hosts and I have reached quite an amicable modus vivendi, J. is always working and A. is hardly what you could call company. Tally-ho, then, for the world beyond these walls! Nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I have been, and am. But that's not reason enough to hide away any longer.
I won't pretend that I deserve this second chance. Quite clearly I do not. But I'm taking it all the same.
-AW