M.R.James is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre. His plots and protagonists tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Hence the narrator in this story could be M.R.James himself. Imagine yotself back in childhood sitting round the fire amongst family and friends, taking it in turns to read or listen to an atmospheric, terrifying tale. It is Jame's eerie use of landscape that puts the shiver into the stories. He grew up on the bleak North Sea coast of Suffolk and it is the brooding mood of this lonley landscape that haunts his writting.