The Dead Hand: A man is offered a bargain for a hotel room, but is it too good to be true

The family moved several times in his early years before, at 12, they travelled to France and Italy for 2 years where the sights and atmosphere made a deep and lasting impression on him.

He resumed his education at Mr Cole's private boarding school in Highbury, Islington. Here, he began his literary career under unusual circumstances: the school bully would give him no peace until he had been told a bedtime story. This `littl...