Not since M R James, I think, has there been a writer who has made
the ghost story his own in quite the same way T M Wright has done.
He has taken all the elements of the traditional ghost story and
brought them up to date in spectacular fashion. AMGS is a prime
example, a towering achievement by a master craftsman in complete
control of his subject and command of the English language. Wright's
ghosts are not the chain-dragging, sheet-drapped shades; his ghosts
are very much "alive", if one may use such a term, in that they are
active participants in moving the story along, not mere cyphers used
for plot-purposes. AMGS is more than just a superb ghost story with
a terrifying mystery at its heart. It is also a story of the
contemporary world, not the Victorian one of hansome cabs and gaslit
streets - of modern relationships, isolation and breakdown, friendship,
trust and betrayal, and an achingly sad and tragic love story. And,
of course, children. Children figure VERY large in Wright's books,
whether as ghosts (LITTLE BOY LOST) or as other-wordly, almost
malevolent forces of (seeming) evil (STRANGE SEED, NURSERY TALE,
ERTHMUN). What sets Wright apart from others working in this field is
his seeming compassion, his humanity, his understanding of people's
psychology and the dark forces that jerk us about like marionettes.
The only reason I can think of why he is not a household name and on
the best-seller lists (when so many talent-free "authors", who could
not write themselves out of a shopping bag, are) is because he does
not write for the MTV generation that has grown up on a staple diet
of slasher movies and has the attention span of a... goldfish. If you
enjoy the tales of someone like, say, Richard Laymon, you would be
utterly baffled by Wright's work. But if you like the stories of people
like Thomas Ligotti, T.E.D. Kline or Russell Kirk, and want to read
quality fiction that does more than merely entertain you for a few
hours (not necessarily a bad thing, of course), you could do infinitely
worse than pick up one of Wright's books such as AMGS or its equally
fabulous sequel THE WAITING ROOM. Wright is, after all, one of Stephen
King's favourite authors. Need I say more? My one regret is that he is
not very prolific!

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