The stories in Terry Lamsley's first collection of supernatural tales, Under the Crust, were set in and around his hometown of Buxton in the heart of England's Peak District: Terry's idea was that the stories might appeal to local readers and tourists to the area. It was not long, however, before excitement stirred outside Buxton, as enthusiasts of supernatural fiction came to realise that an exciting new talent had emerged.

Under the Crust reached the hands of the late Karl Edward Wagner, who was instrumental in ensuring that the book was nominated for three 1994 World Fantasy Awards, with the result that Terry won the award for Best Novella for the title story of the collection.

Since then, Terry's reputation has grown on both sides of the Atlantic, and Ash-Tree Press is now proud to present his second collection. Conference With the Dead contains ten stories, six of them published here for the first time; all of them set in and around Terry's Derbyshire hometown.

In Terry Lamsley's fiction, our world, and the world of something else, exist side by side, with only the thinnest of lines dividing them. It is a line that is all-too easily, and often inadvertently, crossed, as his characters frequently discover. 'Why do I have this compulsion to fill an innocent, harmless little town like Buxton with all kinds of horrors?' says Terry. 'Better not to ask, I guess.'

In his Introduction to this volume Ramsey Campbell writes: 'While Under the Crust was a remarkable debut . . . Conference With the Dead is finer still. . . . This is a major book by one of the major living talents in the field.;