This selection of short stories from M.R. James, the master of horror stories, includes the following ghostly tales:

• Canon Alberic's Scrap-book
• Lost Hearts
• The Mezzotint
• The Ash-tree
• Number13
• Count Magnus
• 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, MyLad'
• The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

The publisher has also included footnotes to explain unfamiliar terms and foreign-language phrases. M.R. James was the pen name of Montague Rhodes James, an academic and a novelist. James is best remembered for his ghost stories. It is said that he redefined the genre, breaking away from the earlier Gothic influences. James was provost at King's College, part of the University of Cambridge and later provost of Eton College."