Sheridan Le Fanu – A Glass Darkly
I think he is the greatest ghost story writer. MR James I think is the greatest technically, but what I really love about Le Fanu is that all his stories can be read one way or another. They're psychological ghost stories and as much about madness and phobias and how the mind can turn in on itself. That particular collection has some of the finest stories ever. 'Carmilla' is in it and 'Green Tea', which is another one of my favourite ghost stories. There doesn't seem to ever be a word out of place in his ghost stories. He wrote a lot of novels as well, and some of those do veer off and aren't quite as good. But at his best I don't think anyone can touch him.
Carmilla is one of the great vampire stories. If you could tackle one of the classic monsters which would you like to take on?
I'd really like to tackle Jekyll and Hyde. Also – it's not really a classic monster – but The Island of Dr Moreau. That could be really good.