Among the popular husband-and-wife writing teams in the years before the First World War were Alice and Claude Askew. Like A.M. Burrage, another prolific contributor to the many newspapers and magazines which flourished in the first three decades of the century, the Askews turned their hands to many different types of tale, concentrating on novels and series of linked stories. Only once did they turn their talents to a purely supernatural theme; and the result was the creation of Aylmer Vance: Ghost-Seer.

Vance, like such predecessors as Hodgson’s Carnacki and Blackwood’s John Silence, is able to delve deeply into mysteries which remain impenetrable to most. In these eight stories, we see Vance and his companion Dexter probing such mysteries as the origin of ‘The Vampire’, the truth behind the legend of ‘The Boy of Blackstock’, and the horrifying basis of ‘The Fear’ which infects all those who live in Camplin Castle. Although the stories bear comparison with Burrage’s supernatural tales, only one has appeared in book form; the rest have remained hidden since their original publication in 1914.

Aylmer Vance: Ghost Seer is the first in Ash-Tree Press’s Occult Detectives Library, a sequence of rare and previously unpublished in book form series culled from the classic fiction magazines of seventy or more years ago. Each volume is complete in itself and is edited and introduced by Jack Adrian.