One of the most respected living horror writers in the world, Ramsey Campbell is also one of the least known, with names like Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Stephen King, and Jonathon Carroll leading in international sales. Yet Campbell has more awards for his horror tales than any other author, and "is likely to be remembered as the leading horror writer of his generation," according to a contributor to the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers. One of the heirs apparent to early-twentieth-century American author H. P. Lovecraft, Campbell's horror stories are often set in contemporary Merseyside, England, his own hometown, and involve quite ordinary characters. His unsettling, dreamlike prose, however, transforms his work into very effective horror fiction.

Fellow horror practitioner Stephen King stated in Danse Macabre that Campbell "writes a cool, almost icy prose line, and his perspective on his native Liverpool is always...