Richard Middleton was a British poet and short story writer. The Ghost Ship is his best-known work. Stories in this collection include The Ghost Ship, A Drama of Youth, The New Boy, On the Birghton Road, A Tragedy in Little, Shepherd's Boy, The Story of a Book, The Bird in the Garden, Children of the Moon, The Coffin Merchant, The Soul of a Policeman, The Conjurer, The Poet's Allegory, And Who Shall say, The Biography of a Superman, Blue Blood, Fate and the Artist, The Great Man, and A Wet day