William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937), a Leeds-born Quaker and World War One hero, is remembered today for a handful of superlative uncanny and enigmatic tales, notably 'August Heat', 'Miss Cornelius', 'The Ankardyne Pew' and 'The Beast with Five Fingers', the latter made into a classic horror film in 1946 starring Peter Lorre. Harvey was acclaimed in the Times Literary Supplement in 1955 as one of the greatest ghost story writers of the twentieth century alongside M.R. James and Walter de la Mare.
A doctor of medicine by profession, Harvey drew heavily on the new psychiatric lore of the irrational subconscious, creating a lingering uncertainty in the reader's mind. Harvey is a master of the inconclusive or psychological ghost story, and his sardonic fantasies often come close to the genius of Saki. He occasionally attempted a more traditional ghost story, the earliest example being 'Across the Moors'.
This volume brings together all thirty of Harvey's uncanny tales, and his curious Introduction to Moods and Tenses. The collection is a feast of thrills, chills and uneasy entertainment for lovers of the supernatural story.