Midnight Express by Alfred Noyes

From Classic Ghost Stories by Tony Walker

April 8, 2026 · 47 min · Season 7

About this episode

This episode explores Alfred Noyes' haunting tale 'Midnight Express', delving into themes of memory and the supernatural.

On a forgotten platform at a junction no map records, a man waits for a train he half-remembers from childhood nightmares. In his hands, a battered red book falls open, again and again, to the same impossible picture: a tunnel mouth, a lamp, a solitary figure who will not quite turn his face to the light. As the night thickens and the pages repeat themselves, memory and prediction begin to trade places, and the question of who is watching whom will not stay safely inside the story. First published in The London Mercury in November 1935; later collected in the volume The Sun Cure (1936). Now widely reprinted in anthologies of supernatural and psychological horror, where it has earned a reputation as a minor classic. Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) was a British poet and prose writer, best known for poems such as “The Highwayman”. Alongside his popular verse, he wrote a small but influential body of uncanny fiction, of which “Midnight Express” is the most celebrated. Join the mailing list for an occasional newsletter https://www.classicghost.com/#/portal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast…

People in this episode

Host: Tony Walker

Topics covered

supernatural horror
psychological horror
memory
nightmares
literary analysis

Keywords

Alfred Noyes
Midnight Express
supernatural
psychological horror
nightmares
literary analysis
The London Mercury
The Sun Cure

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Midnight Express, The London Mercury, The Sun Cure