“This book represents my own kicking back at the poor excuse for horror we have had to endure for so long. But my second reason for writing it was to showcase some odd and overlooked pieces of British folklore. Too often horror is stuck in the rut of using the same subjects and monsters, when in folklore there is a wealth of concepts and creatures that are rarely tapped into. My favourite era of Dr Who was that of the third doctor, played by Jon Pertwee, and I think that one of the reasons I liked it so much was that for much of Pertwee’s tenure in the title role, The Doctor was confined to earth, mostly Britain. So that is what I have done here: these eighteen stories are all set in Britain, either in the present day, or within living memory. Herein you will find dragons and hellhounds, goblins and killer rodents, unicorns and basilisks. There is a vampire story, but the creature in it bears scant resemblance to the popular, and totally wrong, public perception of them. I hope this book will open your eyes to the potential of horror. It is more than just teenaged vampires hanging around schools.”