Words like ‘Gothic’, ‘Ghost’, ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Horror’ are sometimes used to describe these tales but not all fit easily into these categories. They are sometimes also loosely be described as ‘dark stories’. Some of the 22 stories, like DOOM WAY and DEFILEMENT are indeed unremittingly dark (the latter as much for attitudes displayed as for what takes place in the story). In others, like SAFETY FIRST and FERTILE GROUND, light filters down more strongly. There is much variety as to time, place and length. There are no Dracula Castles here. Instead the focal points of the stories range from a National Trust managed property in a London suburb to the peaks forming the boundary between modern Poland and Slovakia and from an out-of-season Weymouth to a colonial planet light years distant.
