As the smoky dark sweeps across the capital, strange stories emerge from the night. A seance reveals a ghastly secret in the murk of Regent's Canal. From south of the Thames come chilling reports of a spring-heeled spectre, and in Stoke Newington rumours abound of an opening to another world among the quiet alleys. Join Elizabeth Dearnley on this atmospheric tour through a shadowy London, a city which has long inspired writers of the weird and uncanny. Waiting in the hazy streets are eerie tales from Charlotte Riddell, Lettice Galbraith and Violet Hunt, along with haunting pieces by Virginia Woolf, Arthur Machen, Sam Selvon and many more.

This early work by Violet Hunt was originally published in 1904 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Celebrity at Home' is a novel by the author of 'A Hard Woman'. Isobel Violet Hunt was born on 28th September 1862 in Durham, England. Hunt covered several literary forms, including short stories, novels, memoirs, and biographies. Her first published work was her novel 'The Maiden's Progress' (1894) which fell into the New Woman genre and represented her ideals as an active feminist. These political views led to her founding the Women Writer's Suffrage League in 1908. Feminism however, was by no means her only subject matter, with works like 'Tales of the Uneasy' (1911) being a collection of supernatural fiction short stories. Although Hunt produced many works, her reputation is as much for the literary salons she held at her home in Campden Hill as it is for her writing. She would entertain guests such as Rebecca West, Ezra Pound, Joseph Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, and other important writers of the time.