Walter John de la Mare, OM CH (1873-1956), was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and The Listeners (1912), and for a highly acclaimed selection of subtle psychological horror stories, amongst them Seaton’s Aunt and All Hallows . In 1921, his novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children’s books. His first book, Songs of Childhood (1902), was published under the name Walter Ramal. He worked in the statistics department of the London office of Standard Oil for eighteen years while struggling to bring up a family, but nevertheless found enough time to write.