In M.R. James' stories, the ordinary tips over into an alternative existence that is just as believable

An original and powerful storyteller.... A gnawing sense of unease, a steady accumulation of sounds, shadows and images finally meet in a single moment of sensational physical horror

M R James, who ushered the ghost story into our century, is still quite simply the craftiest

M R James is quite simply the finest writer of ghost stories ever. They're always set in an academic context, about university chaps who find out very nasty things while they're researching. They uncork the wrong bottle, unearth the wrong papers, dig up the wrong place. . . James was provost of Eton and a fellow of Kings College, and the stories have this wonderful candlelit, academic atmosphere, surrounded by incredible nastiness. Tweedy, but unpleasant

A master class in creepiness from the Edwardian-era Provost of King's College, Cambridge. James delivers brilliant atmospherics, gnawing disquiet and (above all) horrific denouements created by suggestion rather than ghoulish spectacle

'Whistle And I'll Come To You' is one of the best ghost stories that has ever been written... will haunt you to the marrow

India's finest writer in English

She is one of the best English language novelists of modern times

One of the greatest short story writers alive

One of the most important writers alive... enchantingly witty

Etgar Keret's extraordinary imagination sets the reader free from slogans and headlines

One of the greatest short story writers alive