1969 Book Club

From the celebrated author of Lucky Jim comes The Green Man, a ghost story and pitch-black comedy that relies on a finely-calibrated balance between laughter and fear. Amis was an admirer of the great M.R.James, who wrote spectacularly atmospheric chillers in the late Victorian and Edwardian era, and some of that influence shows in The Green Man, in which a series of supernatural entities haunt the 14th century inn of protagonist Maurice Allingham. But are the noises alcohol-induced hallucinations or something more terrifying?