The Purple Sapphire and other Posthumous Papers

This collection, by turns unsettling and darkly comic, was written by Edward Heron-Allen and published in 1921, under the pseudonym 'Christopher Blayre'. The collection consists of fictional papers deposited by members of the University of Cosmopoli, in which are recorded strange and weird phenomena. The title story concerns a cursed diamond, while 'The Thing That Smelt' and 'The Demon' deal with terrifying cases of haunting and possession. 'The Book' is an antiquarian ghost story in the M.R. James tradition. The other stories, 'Aalila', 'The Cosmic Dust', 'Papula Lapillus' and 'The Blue Cockroach' are speculative science fiction tales dealing with visitors from other worlds, as well as with equally strange fauna on our own planet.

Long out of print, this rewarding collection (at once thrilling, scary, funny and fascinating) is finally once more available to enjoy in this new edition.