I’ve always liked edgelands. The scrub of empty space where a factory used to be. A murky dawn canal, brambles lilting in the pass of ghost barges. An abandoned quarry in late winter, just a mysterious tower, every window broken, watery sun.

Or an abandoned crazy golf course, this being a setting for ‘A Private Haunting’ and now the final cover image.

A friend had mentioned it (thanks Fiona!) one long whisky night and who knows how it came up. An overgrown crazy golf course on the edge of a small town? What could be more melancholy. All those echoes. Mums and dads and excited children, sullen teenagers. Lost childhoods…

So what about a story that used the setting? Take a stranger, have him camp in that monochrome sadness. Inside a giant papier-mâché Skull. Hole 13, a difficult one, tricky hazards. What’s he doing there and what if even he isn’t sure?

And on from there…