Macbeth has murdered sleep. Haunted by the ghost of his victim the murderer is denied sleep; the ghost or the spirit seeks revenge; but also the ghost, imprisoned on Time's wheel, can be the spirit of the perpetrator endlessly waiting to be released from the perpetual punishment of forever re-enacting the crime.

  At the eleventh hour of the thirteenth day of the second month" the spirit of the wicked Sir Ranulph appears in the great hall and the flagstone marking the place where he struck down his brother grows dark again with his brother's blood.……

This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter"s night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked.

The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as "real" apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting new selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings. Some of these stories are classics while others are lesser-known gems unearthed from this vintage era of tales of the supernatural.There are stories from distant lands - Fisher"s Ghost by lohn Lang is set in Australia and A Ghostly Manifestaion by A Clergyrnan" is set in Calcutta.

In this selection, Sir Walter Scott (a Victorian in spirit if not in fact), keeps company with Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu and other illustrious masters of the genre.

SIR WALTER SCOTT

The Tapestried Chamber

RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM

The Spectre of Tappington

R.S.HAWKER

The Botathen Ghost

EDGAR ALLAN POE

The Tell-Tale Heart

ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL

The Squire"s Story

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

The Story of Mary Ancel

CHARLES DICKENS

The Story of the Bagman"s Uncle

To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt

JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU

An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street

Narrative of a Ghost of a Hand

  JOHN LANG

Fisher" s Ghost

  WILKIE COLLINS

The Traveller"s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed

  AMELIA B.EDWARDS

The Phantom Coach

  MISS BRADDON

Eveline"s Visitant

  ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Markheim

  EDITH NESBIT

Man-Size in Marble

  OSCAR WILDE

The Canterville Ghost

  MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES

The Haunted Doll"s House

A School Story

PERCEVAL LANDON

Thurnley Abbey

HOWARD PEASE

In the Cliff Land of the Dane

SAKI (H.H.MUNRO)

Laura

AN APPENDIX OF THREE Taw GHOST STORIES

JAMES HOGG

The Story of Euphemia Howit

A CLERGYMAN

A Ghostly ManoCestation

Correspondence on "A Ghostly Manifestation"

EDMUND LENTHAL SWIFTE

Ghost in the Tower