"As night draws through country lanes, and darkness sweeps nacross hills and hedgerows,shadows appear where figures are not", so says the blurb on the back and boy does it sell this collection. How can one resist so signposted an anthology? certainly not me. And it did not mislead as this is a sweetly unsettling clever collection of wittily spooky vignnettes, country tales from the October territories, in landscapes that would have been familiar to writers such as EF Benson and MR James. Although these stories possess (in every sense of the word) a modernity that would have sounded anachronistic coming from either of those fine writers. There are genuinely unsettling momments throughout this collection, with hooks that snagthe imagination, tugging in ethereal rustic directions, down into the earthy soil of a countryside that conceals much that waits patiently for the wary and unwary alike. None of these stories outstay their welcome although some might struggle with its otherworldly humours.
Sunsets over the darling buds of May as a witches moon rises.
