Clare Frances Elliott (Foreword) is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, and she has published widely on transatlantic connections in literature of the long nineteenth century. Clare has taught gothic literature at several institutions, including ghost stories that range from nineteenth-century gothic writing by Sheridan Le Fanu, through to Toni Morrison's magic-realist novel Beloved (1987) in which a ghost is the titular character. Clare's favourite ghost story to date is Sarah Waters's spooky novel, The Little Stranger (2009).