Each holiday season, I look forward to the new batch of Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories series from Biblioasis. This year marks the 10th anniversary of these beautifully designed pocket-sized books that revive the Victorian tradition of sharing spooky tales on Christmas Eve.
The 2024 collection features three new titles: "The Amethyst Cross" by Mary Fitt, "Podolo" by L.P. Hartley, and "Captain Dalgety Returns" by Laurence Whistler.
In an interview published at Biblioasis, Seth reveals that his love for Victorian ghost stories began with Edward Gorey's The Haunted Looking Glass — a collection that genuinely frightened him as a young cartoonist.
"I like a ghost story to be both eerie and cozy," Seth explains, describing his selection criteria. "I like the kind of story that merely sends a chill up the neck or even just elicits a feeling of immortal melancholy."
His distinctive illustrations are deliberately restrained. "I try never to draw any of the characters from the stories and, if possible, I only hint at the ghost itself," he says. "I think these elements should be supplied by the reader's imagination."
As someone who has collected these books for years, it's exciting to get three more of these pocket-sized treasures, which, as The Washington Post notes, are "even smaller than a Christmas card" and make perfect literary stocking stuffers.
Previously:
• Exclusive excerpt of three new Christmas Ghost Stories by Seth
