Tall Tales and short'uns

E.W. Hornung (1866-1921) was one of the most prolific fiction-writers of his day, producing a stream of short stories and novels which were (and are) immensely popular. The brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he was the creator of a world-famous character called A.J. Raffles (the direct opposite of Sherlock Holmes), who played cricket by day and burgled by night. But many of his short stories, dispersed in obscure magazines and newspapers, are completely unknown to modern audiences - and until now, indeed, two of them have existed only in manuscript form. A dozen of them are brought together in the present exciting compilation produced by Peter Rowland, who recently deciphered the texts of two of Willie Hornung's unfinished books, 'His Brother's Blood' and 'The Graven Image' (published by Elt Press). (Rowland is currently at work on a revised edition of his 1999 biography of Hornung - see www.peterrowland.org.uk for more information.)