You’d *think* I'd have wanted to rush this review to get it posted during spooky season, but much to my surprise, there’s more of Dickens than of Devils about it, being a series of stories about Christmas hauntings, so I’ll consider this perfect timing.

Davies was the Master of Massey College in Toronto from 1963 to 1981, during which time he gave a ghost story at each year’s “Gaudy night” (Christmas party). This book is the collection of each ghost story as told. Being told on a high-spirited night, these are not scary ghosts, but humorous tales that poke a lot of fun at academia, Massey College personalities, and Canadian celebrities (both of the time and in history). In each story, Davies himself is the main character, and he maintains that they were all really true stories.

Towards the latter half of the book, he is rather self-aware about this pledge for only true stories, being rather concerned about the probability of coming across another ghost before the annual Gaudy Night -- and the reputation of the college for having so many ghosts. But this is all tongue-in-cheek. Each year, sometimes at the 12th hour, he stumbles across one ghost, (or a few, or many), and helps them on their way. Sometimes these ghosts are graduate students, who hadn’t quite defended their thesis before it was their time, and other times of Queen Victoria. In one case, it was a Frankenstines-monster-cat, and another, an antique table possessed by the ghost of former prime minister Mackenzie King.

If you don’t know your Canadians, this probably isn’t the book for you. But not having ever gone to a university, let alone U of T, I’m happy to say I still found the stories hilarious (in one scene, ghosts of Canadian authors are clamoring to be reborn. When asked why, Davies speculates “perhaps they hope that this time they might be born American authors”). These aren’t your regular ghost tales, but worth a read if you like your rather obscure canadian lit.