William Thomas Linskill

William Thomas Linskill was an English-born writer closely associated with St Andrews, Scotland. Sources available online place his life from 1855 to 1929, and they link him strongly with the town’s literary and local-history life.

He is best known for St. Andrews Ghost Stories, a collection of supernatural tales centered on the streets, ruins, and legends of St Andrews. Contemporary library and archive records also show that he wrote on other local subjects, including history and golf, which helps explain the strong sense of place in his work.

Archive material from the University of St Andrews suggests he was more than a visiting storyteller: he was active in the town’s antiquarian circles, and records describe scrapbooks of his writings on history, ghosts, and related subjects. That mix of civic involvement, local memory, and storytelling gives his work its lasting charm.