A. M. Burrage (1889-1956) was born on this date, July 1. Burrage was a prolific author of ghost stories, including tales of the occult detective Francis Chard.

Ash-Tree Press published Burrage’s complete (I think) ghost stories in the late 1990’s. Getting  your hands on any of them today will cost you a pretty farthing. Much of Ash-Tree’s catalogue was reissued in electronic format. Sadly the Burrage volumes weren’t.  Or rather they were, but Ash-Tree appears to have lost the rights. Burrage’s work is available in electronic, print, and audio editions from another publisher, but I not sure all of his stories are. One of the ones I read for this post, “The Oak Saplings”, doesn’t appear to be, although there are some listed in the ISFDB but the contents are listed. A tale of two murdered lovers, it’s a chilling story. I read it and “Someone in the Room” in the Ash-Tree ebook Someone in the Room and Other Stories.

“Someone in the Room” is in print and is the story of a professional poor relation, meaning the central character is a woman who takes advantage of wealthier relatives and makes the most of their hospitality. Where I come from we call these people bums. 

The story is a good ghost story with a frightening climax, but it’s told in a dry, cheeky style that I absolutely loved. The woman, a Mrs. Fairchild, misses her train. The relative she is staying with manages to get the chauffeur to agree to take her across some country roads to get the woman where she needs to be.

They have have a car wreck and are forced to spend the night with a couple in a isolated country house. Our heroine is given the room where a suicide occurred six months earlier.

Burrage was an excellent writer of ghost stories, although he is not was well-known as M. R. James, H. Russell Wakefield, or E. F. Benson. He was nearly as good, though. “Someone in the Room” is currently available in Smee in ebook, print, and audiobook.