Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his evocative and beautifully narrated ghost and horror stories.

At the Farmhouse tells the story of a landscape painter, who after twenty years of hideous marriage to an abusive and drunken local woman who is rumoured to be a witch, sets off to murder her. In his pocket is a ball of strong twine with which he will strangle her, and a box of matches with which he will set light to the farmhouse to destroy the evidence of his crime. After that he will be free...What happens when he reaches the farmhouse is gruesome, uncanny and totally unexpected.