A story doesn't have to be nasty or contain ghosts or witches or other horrors for it to be scary. Some of the tales in this collection are about quite ordinary things - a visit to the supermarket, for instance - but they are still very scary. In others, what starts by being ordinary turns into something quite different. There are, though, plenty of stories about ghosts and monsters and strange happenings.

This is the key to the castle /Dave Calder : Dear Jane... / Sheila Lavelle -- Slam and the ghosts / Kevin Crossley-Holland -- Crossing over / Catherine Storr -- Miller's End / CHarles Causley : A change of aunts / Vivien Alcock -- Tiger in the snow / Daniel Wynn Barber -- Camilla Adèle Geras -- Emperors of the Island / Dannie Abse : The Shiner / Grace Hallworth -- Prince Kano / Edward Lowbury -- Wiley and the hairy man / Virginia Haviland -- The start of a memorable holiday / Roy Fuller : The great swallowing monster / Geraldine McCaughrean -- The Slitherydee / Robert Scott -- Who's that? / James Kirkup : Bush lion / Robert Scott -- Eyes of the cat / Ruskin Bond -- Timmy / Alison Prince -- The visitor / Ian Serraillier : The big black umbrella / Maria Leach -- Dare you / Robert Scott -- My great-grandfather's grave-digging / Susan Price -- Poem / Hugh Sykes Davies : Bronwen and the crows / Alison Leonard -- Supermarket / Dennis Hamley -- The cave / Gregory Harrison : The Hawk / John Gordon -- No-good Claus / Jan Mark -- Pteranodon / Douglas Livingstone -- The leopard in the rafters / Marilyn Watts -- The friendly ghost / A.C. Bolton -- Kiitos! Kiitos! / Racahel Hands -- Empty fears / Brian Lee -- Exit / Patricia Miles.