Edgar Allan Poe – The Black Cat

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Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 and lost both his parents at a very young age; his father ran away and his mother died shortly after. He was brought up by another couple who never adopted him and were often unfriendly with him when he was an adult. Poe went to the University of Virginia, but soon left, saying he could not afford the fees because his ‘father’ did not send him enough money.

The Witch - Anton Chekhov

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Anton Chekhov was born in Russia in 1860 to a religious but violent father and a loving but very unhappy mother. He had a difficult childhood but went on to become a doctor, paying for his studies himself by doing part-time work. All his life, Chekhov, one of the best-known writers of short stories in any language, thought of

Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and spent much of his early life living in great hardship. His father was sent to prison because he owed money and young Dickens had to do a job he hated to support his family. Even when his father got out of prison, he was not allowed to leave the job – something he never forgave his mother for. He later worked as an office boy and a journalist before he began writing novels

The Terrible Old Man - H.P. Lovecraft

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H. P. Lovecraft was born in the USA in 1890 but had a difficult childhood because his father went mad and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital. The young Lovecraft lived with his grandfather who taught him to love reading – especially horror stories. Sadly, his mother became mad soon after his grandfather’s death, and died in the same hospital as her husband

Saki - Laura

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Hector Hugh Monro, an upper-class Englishman, is better-known by his pen name, Saki. He was born in 1870 and, after living for many years with two aunts (that he hated) in England, he returned to the country of his birth, Burma, to be a soldier in the British Army in 1893. Unfortunately, he became seriously ill with malaria and had to return to England after a year

Sheridan le Fanu – Madam Crowl’s Ghost

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Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer, who is still well-known today for mystery novels and short stories about the supernatural. He was the leading ghost-story

The Lottery – Shirley Jackson

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Shirley Jackson was one of the most important American writers of horror stories and novels in the twentieth century and, yet, she was a deeply unhappy and insecure woman. She married an academic and hated her role as a ‘faculty wife’. She never gave interviews and lived almost as a recluse.

The Body Snatcher – Robert Louis Stevenson

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Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850 in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, into a family of serious Christians and famous engineers. His grandfather built lighthouses and this became a family tradition. Although Stevenson went to university to study engineering, when this was unsuccessful, he changed to medicine and then law. However, he decided early in life to become a writer. He wrote some novels when he was in his twenties that made him immediately successful, including ‘Treasure Island’, with the well-known pirate Long John Silver, as well as the famous short story, ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’

Amelia Edwards – Was it an Illusion?

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Even as a child, Amelia Edwards was extraordinary. She published her first poem at the age of seven and a short story at twelve. She was a talented artist, musician and