Customer Reviews

The very best of English supernatural fiction! - By: J. D. Wood, 16 Aug 2006
For anyone who can think of no better way to spend a dark winters' evening than to curl up by the fire & read a good ghost story, then this book is for you. M.R. James, perhaps the most famous of all English supernaturalists, delivers stories of such consistent quality & style that it is difficult to think of anyone, except perhaps Algernon Blackwood, that ever has or ever will match him. James' stories reflect an England that has long since faded into memory. He himself was a lifelong academic & a highlight of the Christmas term for his students would be an invite to his study where they would hear his latest tale of terror. These stories are beautifully crafted with an elegant prose that conjours up an age long since past. Despite being written over eighty years ago these stories have not lost their ability to send shivers down the spine & indeed on occasion, even shock. With James' work, it is often the unexpected that leaves a lingering shadowin the readers mind long after the book has been put down. Highlights & true classics of supernatural fiction, include his most famous tale 'Oh Whistle, & I'll Come To You My Lad' & other genre classics such as ' Lost Hearts,' 'The Mezzotint,' & 'The Ash Tree.' So imagine , if you will, it is night, you are sittingin an old leather arm chair alonein a dark room, you are drifting off to sleep. Your arm falls from your side & your hand brushes something that is crouchingin the dark on the floor beside you. It is large, the size of a man, but it is coveredin thick coarse hair & it has started to rise!