Whitstable - 1971 Peter Cushing, grief-stricken over the loss of his wife and soul-mate, is walking along a beach near his home. A little boy approaches him, taking him to be the famous vampire-hunter Van Helsing from the Hammer films, begs for his expert help . . . "A beautiful piece of work . . . heartfelt, respectful, elegant, brave"—Dread Central Leytonstone - 1906 Young Alfred Hitchcock is taken by his father to visit the local police station. There he suddenly finds himself, inexplicably, locked up for a crime he knows nothing about—the catalyst for a series of events that will scar, and create, the world's leading Master of Terror . . . "Volk possesses a questing mind and an expansive heart and paints dark and light sides of the human equation like few others"—Mick Garris, producer/director, Masters of Horror Netherwood - 1947 Best-selling black magic novelist Dennis Wheatley finds himself summoned...

1971. A middle-aged man, wracked with grief, walks along the beach at Whitstable in Kent… A boy approaches him and, taking him for the famous vampire-hunter Doctor Van Helsing from the Hammer movies, asks for his help. Because he believes his stepfather really is a vampire… So begins the moving and evocative new novella by Stephen Volk, published by the British Fantasy Award-nominated Spectral Press in May 2013 to coincide with the centenary of the most celebrated and beloved of Hammer’s stars, Peter Cushing.