Illusions of Presence

'Oh! Grandmamma, do tell us a story - a nice, horrible ghost story.'

A trip to the dentist becomes a ghoulish ordeal on Christmas Eve. Blood spilt over a Christmas wedding begets a ghostly vengeance. In the dark of a mine, an elemental spirit claims its Yuletide sacrifice.

The Christmas ghost story is a cornerstone of supernatural writing, with a legacy stretching back centuries, and scores of classic tales awaiting rediscovery. Returning from a hunt through the murk of newspaper and journal archives, eminent anthologist Johnny Mains brings you the gift of fifteen long-lost yarns spun for weird Christmas days and nights.

With tales penned by Victorian novelists, anonymous enigmas and 1920s pulp writers, this sparkling selection of rarities is a festive riot of the spectral and macabre.