By L. P. Hartley

Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972), the son of a solicitor, was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford and for more than twenty years from 1932 was a fiction reviewer for such periodicals as the Spectator, Sketch, Observer and Time and Tide. He published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled "Night Fears" in 1924. His novel "Eustace and Hilda" (1947) was recognized immediately as a major contribution to English fiction; "The Go-Between" (1953) and "The Hireling" (1957) were later made into internationally successful films. In 1967 he published "The Novelist's Responsibility", a collection of critical essays.

Henry James was a master he always revered; and, like James, he was frequently possessed by ideas of guilt and solitude and evil. As a contemporary reviewer remarked, "not only does he portray the exterior of social life with a novelist's sharp eye for detail, but he also explores the underworld of fears and fantasies through which we wander in our ugliest dreams."

L.P.Hartley was a highly skilled narrator and all his tales are admirably told. "W.S." comes from "The Complete Short Stories of L.P.Hartley" published posthumously in 1973.