A. M. Burrage

Alfred McLelland Burrage (1889–1956) was a British writer. He was noted in his time as an author of fiction for boys which he published under the pseudonym Frank Lelland, including a popular series called "Tufty". After his death, however, Burrage became best known for his ghost stories. Burrage's main market for his fiction were British pulp magazines, such as The Grand Magazine, The Novel Magazine, Cassell's Magazine and The Weekly Tale-Teller.

Burrage is now remembered mainly for his horror fiction, some of which was originally collected in the books Some Ghost Stories (1927) and Someone in the Room (1931, as by "Ex-Private X"), and much of which has been reprinted by Ash-Tree Press. He died at Edgware General Hospital at the age of sixty-seven on 18 December 1956.

Critical reception M. R. James praised Burrage's book Some Ghost Stories, saying that the book "keeps on the right side of the line and, if about half his ghosts are amiable, the rest have their terrors, and no mean ones". James later included Burrage among a list of contemporary writers who had "best realized" the possibilities of the ghost story.

E. F. Bleiler has described Burrage's work thus: "The best stories in Some Ghost Stories and Someone in the Room are intelligent, well crafted and imaginative." Neil Barron has stated, "Burrage's underrated short stories are deft and subtle, and include a number of poignant posthumous fantasies."

Selected works Memoir War Is War (1930)

Novels The St. Austin's Mystery: A Rattling School Story (1908) The Cad of the College (1921) The Golden Barrier (1925) Poor Dear Esme (1925)

Collections Some Ghost Stories (1927) Someone in the Room (1931) Seeker to the Dead (1942) Don't Break the Seal (1946) Between the Minute and the Hour (1967) Intruders: New Weird Tales (1995): "Wine of Summer", "The Bargain", "Portrait of an Unknown Lady", "Top Floor Back", "Orders from Brigade", "The Intruder", "By the Looe River", "The Man on the Corner", "The Pace Maker", "Footprints", "The Spanish Captain", "Passenger on the Eleven-Ten", "In the Waters Under the Earth", "The Lady of Graeme", "The Box in the Attic", "The Caricature", "The Sisters of Changton Margery", "The Breaking of the Spell", "The Lovers", "House o' Dreams", "The Chalk Pit", "The Lady of the Chateau", "Miss Jessica", "The Last of the Kerstons", "Corner Cottage", "Fellow Mortals" Warning Whispers (expanded edition, 1999): "The Acquittal", "The Frontier of Dreams", "Warning Whispers", "Crookback", "For the Local Rag", "The Wind in the Attic", "The Little Blue Flames", "In the Courtyard", "The Recurring Tragedy", "The Case of Thissler and Baxter", "The Green Bungalow", "The Attic", "The Witch of Oxshott", "Fellow Travellers", "The Ticking of the Clock", "The Imperturbable Tucker", "The Boy with Red Hair", "The Garden of Fancy", "The Mystery of the Sealed Garret", "At the Toy Menders", "The Kiss of Hesper", "For One Night Only", "Father of the Man", "The Fourth Wall", "I'm Sure It Was No. 31"