The Flint Knife

Written by E. F. Benson

Narrated by John Telfer

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson. ‘The Flint Knife’ is the fictional story that was inspired by E.F. Benson’s own haunting, as described in ‘The Secret Garden’. Harry Pershore knocks down a wall to create a secret garden, despite warnings from his friend who has spotted that the patch of land has been walled off for a reason and is actually an altar of sacrifice. Pershore ignores his friend’s advice and it’s not long before strange things start happening in the garden.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781399121569

E. F. Benson

Edward Frederic Benson (1867–1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer. Benson was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and member of a distinguished and eccentric family. After attending Marlborough and King’s College, Cambridge, where he studied classics and archaeology, he worked at the British School of Archaeology in Athens. A great humorist, he achieved success at an early age with his first novel, Dodo(1893). Benson was a prolific author, writing over one hundred books including serious novels, ghost stories, plays, and biographies. But he is best remembered for his Lucia and Mapp comedies written between 1920 and 1939 and other comic novels such as Paying Guests and Mrs Ames. Benson served as mayor of Rye, the Sussex town that provided the model for his fictional Tilling, from 1934 to 1937.