'The Mine', which opens the collection, is a good effort in that area. Swain in favour of forays into the world of industrial history and sailing, often with great success. Although he shared their values of understated, concise but fluid writing (often with a charming, deceptively conversational feel) and emphasis on atmosphere rather than gory details, he tended to eschew the stately homes and university college settings beloved of authors like Arthur Gray and E.G. C Rolt's birth by putting out a long-awaited paperback edition of his splendid collection of ghost stories, Sleep No More, available for a fraction of the price of older editions.īut perhaps you are wondering: who is this Rolt fellow? What's so great about him? Which would be quite understandable, since nowadays Rolt is best remembered for writing many works on engineering and canal boats(including a famous book about train disasters, Red For Danger) and founding the Inland Waterways Association (with another ghost story writer, Robert Aickman, weirdly enough.) He only wrote this one collection of ghost stories in his life, but Sleep No More is to me ample evidence that Rolt is the best of all the 'James Gang' (the circle of pre-war writers influenced by M R James, in case you've dodged my previous waffles on the subject.) That said, Rolt also stood a little apart from the 'gang' in many ways. The History Press have just celebrated the centenary of L T.

Word up, impoverished ghost story fans! I have some very good news for you.

Sleep No More by L.T.C. Rolt