That's the premise of John Whitbourn's 1987 tales of a sleepy English town with far more than the dark and sinister going on beneath the surface. Recently published in eBook format by Spark Furnace, this new collection of The Binscombe Tales collects all 26 original stories, with the explanatory epilogue/prologue at the end.

The reader sees the oddities in Binscombe through the eyes of Mr. Oakley, a new resident of the village who is begrudgingly accepted into the strangeness of the town only because his family lived there in generations past. He seems to have taken the interest of Mr. Disvan, a mysterious old man who knows more of the history of the town than anyone alive probably should know.

From the Duke of Argyle, the local bar in town, Mr. Oakley tries his best to be a skeptic to the strange goings on, even with the amazing amount of evidence presented to him every tale. However, there is a profound malicious element to most stories, so don't expect happy endings for all the characters involved.

Through the course of the stories, Mr. Oakley confronts evil spirits in televisions, the lost souls who prowl the countryside around the motorway, faeries, alternate universes, holes in reality, and the soul of Oliver Cromwell. Everything is told with a very understated British feel, as if being trapped in the eternal, repetitious world of a photograph were akin to being out of Earl Grey Tea.

The stories are fun and rather compact, allowing for a quick diversion read, or, if you're up to the challenge, a marathon immersion of all 26 at once. Unfortunately missing is the story 'Up from the Cellar' which actually delves into the origin of the enigmatic Mr. Disvan. It's surprising the stories haven't been licensed as a television series in this day and age as they have the feel of some of the better Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episodes.

Overall, The Complete Binscombe Tales presents the reader with peculiar journeys into a world right next door to our own. For fans of dark humor fiction and the occasional warning tale, be sure to pay this sleepy English town a visit.