Brian Atherton is from Bolton and has taught English Literature and English Language for the last 25 years in sixth form colleges in Bolton, Manchester and Blackburn. He is an avid reader of fiction, especially the supernatural and horror and is a fan of M.R. James , Algernon Blackwood, Edgar Allan Poe and Susan Hill. He believes the best stories need not be too explicit but should aim to create the suggestion of danger to convey unease and anxiety in the reader. His favourite horror story is "The Willows", by Algernon Blackwood; a tale of two friends who take a canoeing holiday down the River Danube in central Europe. He has only recently started to submit his own original fiction, because the prolonged lockdown in the UK gave him the opportunity to devote more time to writing. This is the second story he has published. This tale of the supernatural is called, "Dedley Cove" and was inspired after visiting an isolated coastal village on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales, called Aberdaron. Brian stayed in an old pub and his bedroom window overlooked the beach and sea at the back. It was October and his stay was memorable because of the atmosphere created by the constant roar of waves crashing onto the sand and the walks along the desolate beach and windswept coastal cliff paths under dark skies.