M.R. James is probably the finest ghost-story writer England has ever produced. These tales are not only classics of their genre, but are also superb examples of beautifully-paced understatement, convincing background and chilling terror.

As well as the preface, there is a fascinating tail-piece by M.R. James, ‘Stories I Have Tried To Write’, which accompanies these thirty tales. Among them are ‘Casting the Runes’, ‘Oh, Whistle and I’ll come to you, My Lad’, ‘The Tractate Middoth’, ‘The Ash Tree’ and ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’

‘There are some authors one wishes one had never read in order to have the joy of reading them for the first time. For me, M.R. James is one of these’. Ruth Rendell

Stories include:

Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook

Lost Hearts

The Mezzotint

The Ash Tree

Number 13

Count Magnus

‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

A School Story

The Rose Garden

The Tractate Middoth

Casting the Runes

The Stalls of Barchester

Cathedral

Martin’s Close

Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance

The Residence at Whitminster

The Diary of Mr Poynter

An Episode of Cathedral History

The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance

Two Doctors

The Haunted Dolls’ House

The Uncommon Prayer-Book

A Neighbour’s Landmark

A View from a Hill

A Warning to the Curious

An Evening’s Entertainment

There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard

Rats

After Dark in the Playing Fields

Wailing Well

Stories I Have Tried to Write