There is a long tradition of playing with the gap between fiction and reality, and the short story form has proved very adept at summoning ghosts and creating weird narratives. In this more light-hearted story, Francis Wyndham takes an existing strand and provides an original and satisfying twist on it. What makes it remarkable though, beyond the narrative, is the perfectly judged, perfectly characterised style.
First published in the London Review of Books, 1 April 1983; reprinted in Mrs Henderson and other stories, Jonathan Cape 1985
A Personal Anthology 