The Times reviewed the published book favourably, calling the tales "funny, sinister, wise and captivating" and likening them to the Brothers Grimm.

But as this sinister tale of rigid, rational civilization and the dark, primal forces that undermine it unfolds, its hypnotic power takes hold.

A dark sinister tale befalls ten-year-old Negi Springfield and class 3-A.

Not its heart; it was so old, so labyrinthine, the forest-who could enter the heart of it, save some lost traveler in one of the sinister tales?

In his "Hyde and Jekyll" (1984), the closing work, Mr. Deak stands Robert Louis Stevenson's sinister tale, and not just its title, on its head.

But the rooms have been renumbered and Sam's hunt soon leads him into the world of a mysterious young woman in what is ultimately "a sinister tale of a very unmerry Christmas."

The runner-up was "En Douceur," a sinister tale by Jean-Marie Laclavetine about a man who tries to understand why he murdered his wife.

Using plenty of knockabout humour and a vigorous comedia dell'arte energy, they unfold this sinister tale of wood brought to life!

Walter de la Poer must have known for years the sinister tales about his family, so that this material could have given him no fresh impulse.

McGrath stuffed the cast of his sinister tale with names like Silas Rind, Sal Goat and Lord Drogo.