Ramsey Campbell – Waking Nightmares
He's just brilliant and I don't think that he gets the credit he deserves, in that he's a hugely influential writer. I love that collection more than any other simply because so many of those stories are about what we've been discussing, in that they're about childhood fears. There's a really brilliant story in it called 'The Trick', which I think is maybe one of his finest, about a couple of girls that meet a witch on a park bench. I think it's one of the creepiest stories I've ever read.

He's also got this obsession with that slightly curdled fag end of British entertainment. Was that an influence on Possum at all?

I think that was more Ligotti, actually. I think Ramsey has always been a huge influence on me, simply because I think he's one of the greatest horror writers ever. His short stories are just brilliant. His writing captures that kind of fading Britain, through the 60s and into the really grim 70s. All his books are fantastic time-pieces of a Britain in decline. They're really wonderful.