JEROME K. JEROME (1859–1927) is chiefly remembered today for his great comic masterpiece Three Men In A Boat (1889), and it will likely come as a surprise to many to learn of his output of weird, macabre, and supernatural stories. These stories demonstrate Jerome's wide-ranging talent, and whilst some of his 'strange' tales are humorous (in particular the Told After Supper stories), others are mystical, and a few are genuinely horrific.

After struggling to establish a writing career, Jerome's major break came when Robert Barr appointed him as editor of The Idler, the magazine whose circulation Jerome described as 'second only to one other English magazine' [The Strand]. Jerome's association with the magazine made him many friends, not least among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote of Jerome: 'He was one of the best raconteurs I have ever known . . . an old friend . . . an adventurous soul.'

Jerome, despite being a noted humorist, also had, as Conan Doyle noted, a serious side to his character, and both facets are on display in City of the Sea and Other Ghost Stories. Readers not familiar with Jerome's 'strange' stories will delight in discovering such small masterpieces as 'The New Utopia', 'The Soul of Nicholas Snyders', 'The Dancing Partner', 'The Philosopher's Joke', 'The Passing of the Third Floor Back', 'The Woman of the Saeter', and 'Malvina of Brittany'.

This Ash-Tree Press edition marked the first occasion on which all of Jerome K. Jerome's 'ghost' stories have been collected in one volume.