The author Edmund Gill Swain Edmund Gill Swain (1861-1938) was born on 19th February 1861 in Stockport near Manchester, where his father was a church organist. Swain was educated at Manchester Grammar School and then went on to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He became a Deacon1 in 1885 and was ordained by the Bishop of Rochester the following year. He was made the Curate of Camberwell until 1892. It was in that year that he was appointed as the Chaplain of King s College, Cambridge. It was this that brought him into contact with M.R. James, creating a lifelong friendship. In the mid-1890 s James wrote some pantomimes to amuse the choristers2 and Swain wrote the lyrics. It is believed that the 1902 play The First Day of the Holidays attributed to C.A. Pellanus, was actually by Swain. In 1905 Swain became the vicar of Stanground near Peterborough in East Anglia. This was to provide him with inspiration for his own ghost stories which were published in 1912 as The Stoneground Ghost Tales. Many local features and locations became sites for his elegant and restrained stories. Their main character is the Reverend Mr Batchel, a mild-mannered clergyman who is constantly running across supernatural happenings in his parish. These charming ghost stories, written by Swain as a tribute to his friend Monty James, have been favourites of ghost story fans for many years. Besides Bone to his Bone the collection contains such stories as The Man With the Roller, The Richpins, The Eastern Window, Lubrietta, The Rockery, The Indian Lamp-Shade, The Place of Safety and The Kirk Spook. In 1916 Swain was made Rector of Greenford in Middlesex, even though in 1923 he returned to the local area as a Minor Canon of Peterborough Cathedral. Here his jobs included Librarian, which suited his antiquarian nature. Swain wrote a 36 page Handbook of Peterborough Cathedral in 1931 which the following year was expanded into The Story of Peterborough Cathedral. When he died on 29 January, 1938, Swain ordered that his papers be destroyed, denying us the pleasure of further stories. His single collection has been reprinted a couple of times, most recently with a biographical introduction by Peterborough SF Club s Chair, Cardinal Cox. 1. Deacon: diacono. 2. chorister: corista, cantante di coro. 98