An academic is haunted by his dead colleague's certainty; a tutor is confronted with an eight year old's mortal secret and Aunt Selena's dancing bear appears from beyond the grave. In this collection of ghost stories A. L. Barker brings her storytelling powers to cast more than an element of doubt on the differences dividing life and death, good and evil, animate and inanimate as the uncanny enters the everyday world.'There is no better living woman writer in the English language.' Martin Seymour-Smith, Financial Times'She writes with a precision and economy of words which had me gasping with admiration.' Auberon Waugh, Independent'A. L. Barker has a well-deserved reputation among the cognoscenti for beautifully made short stories.' Robert Nye