Bernard Capes

Born in London on 30 August 1854, Bernard Capes was an English novelist and short-story writer who published widely from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth. He was educated at Beaumont College and is often remembered now for his supernatural tales, though his range was much broader.

Capes wrote more than forty books, including romances, mysteries, poetry, and historical fiction, along with many magazine pieces. Some of his early work appeared under the name Bevis Cane, and his fiction earned him a reputation as a lively, versatile storyteller with a particular gift for mood and tension.

He died on 2 November 1918 in Winchester during the influenza pandemic. Although he was highly productive in his own lifetime, modern readers are especially drawn to the ghost stories and strange tales that show his flair for the unsettling and memorable.