Chapter 2
The Pathway Widens
1940s
“Because of a misunderstanding
(which he never accepted)
Bernard Ellis gave me notice to leave
after I had been there about three years…”
“I still have the note,
in the familiar green ink.”
‘For a number of reasons, but mainly in your own interests, it has been decided to dispense with your services.’
“I went to see Ernest Bozman,
one of the chief directors.”
E. F. Bozman was an editor of the Everyman Encyclopedia.
“He immediately found me a position in the publishing office.”
Underwood later publishes with Dents;
a selection of his favourite ghost stories.
Thirteen Famous Ghost Stories (1977), edited by Underwood
An early favourite of his is The Signal-Man (1866),
by Charles Dickens - one of the earliest members
of the Ghost Club.
In the story,
the railway man of the title tells of a ghost
that has been haunting him.
Each spectral appearance
precedes a tragic event
on the railway where he works.
The first accident
involves a terrible collision
between two trains
.
Dickens was influenced by real events
- the Clayton Tunnel Crash of 1861,
which occured due to a signal failure.
Clayton Tunnel
In 1865
Dickens had been on a train that derailed
at Staplehurst in Kent.
Five years to the day after the accident,
Dickens dies.
While working at the publishing office, Underwood meets his future wife Joyce. Their relationship is soon interrupted,
when there is an urgent telephone call early the following year.
