NIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE is one of the last remaining completely forgotten ghost story collections of the 1920s, possibly because copies of the original book publication have, over the years, been virtually impossible to find. However, the twelve stories in this collection well justify a place alongside those written by E. F. Benson, A. M. Burrage, H. R. Wakefield, and Eleanor Scott, and their author, Margery Lawrence, possessed a story-telling skill comparable to each of those more famous writers.The collection is formed by the narrations of members of a dining club, hosted by Saunderson, a man who undoubtedly had a liking for congenial, interesting company. Lawrence writes that 'the one unspoken rule, the Open Sesame to dine at Fat Frank Saunderson's, was to come armed with a story worth hearing . . . The rarer and more curious the better.' Prior to the Ash-Tree Press edition in 1998, these 'rare and curious' tales last appeared in print in 1947, and readers can now once more share and enjoy the stories of Hellier, Vesey, Lutyens, Otway, Ponting, Denison, and all the others who shared the hospitality of Saunderson.Margery Lawrence's narrative style will transport the reader to the comfortable, club-style atmosphere of a dining club of the 1920s. Her stories entertain, chill, even horrify—for here are twelve strange tales, undeservedly neglected tales, that deserve their place alongside the very best that the genre has to offer.
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