Louisa Baldwin is perhaps best known today for her contribution to British history: her son Stanley became prime minister of England, holding that post during the difficult period of the abdication of Edward VIII. Louisa herself spent much of her adult life as an invalid, subject to a mysterious illness which left her bedridden. Yet she had always possessed an active imagination, and this, combined with a horror of the evils of idleness, led her to express herself artistically in various ways.

It was perhaps inevitable that Louisa would eventually turn to writing as an outlet for her artistic imaginings; and in 1895 she published a collection of nine short supernatural tales entitled The Shadow on the Blind. In such stories as 'The Weird of the Walfords', 'How He Left the Hotel', 'The Empty Picture Frame', and 'Sir Nigel Otterburne's Case', Baldwin exhibits a sure grasp of the supernatural tale, conjuring up chilling scenes and memorable characters against an evocative Victorian backdrop.

This edition features all nine stories from the original collection, as well as a further strange tale, 'The Ticking of the Clock', never before published in book form. Also included are seven of J. Ayton Symington's illustrations from the first edition, and an introduction by John Pelan and Richard Dalby, examining the remarkable life—and legacy—of Louisa Baldwin.