Irwin, Margaret. Bloodstock And Other Stories.

Hornchurch: Ian Henry Publications, 1978.
First edition thus, a less comprehensive edition was originally published in the 1950’s, and the supernatural material hails from the spically scarce and utterly beautiful “Madame Fears The Dark”. 8vo. Publisher’s red cloth, lightly faded to extremities, in a very good example of the blue and red dustwrapper, with some light edgewear and a spot of creasing here and there. Internally clean. A collection of Irwin’s truly excellent stories, including several weird ones (”Monsieur Seeks a Wife” being particularly cracking, where a chap meets two fascinating sisters who turn out not to be women...but cats. I mean, we’ve all been there), also present is The Collar, and a number of other less openly weird stories, although “Mrs. Oliver Cromwell” is rather a beauty, showing Irwin’s hallmark historical accuracy and ability to breathe life into historical personalities. She’s a truly wonderful writer, and frankly is well worth a restoration. This copy is from the library of the late Richard Dalby and contains a sheaf of his paperwork, all the clues in this one point to him planning an article, possibly about supernatural cats. Scarce.