As an unashamed admirer of Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and Roald Dahl's quirky tales I have added a touch of my own black humour to this collection of short stories. My earliest childhood memories of blood curdling yarns on the radio, spoken by a man with a dark sepulchral voice, have left me with a lifetime's passion for what were once known (long before my time I might add) as 'Penny Dreadfuls' or American Dime Novels: lurid tales of mysterious mayhem designed to deliciously shock and horrify our impressionable young minds. Science can explain away so many mysteries but it is often the creepy-unexpected that trips you up and opens the door to superstitious dread. However where my tales have a ghostly theme running through them they will often have a perfectly rational explanation. Occasionally they may even raise a smile or two. Modern lives are driven at such a fast pace with all the demands on our time and leisure that we often try and fit twenty-five hours into every working day, thus leaving very little space to absorb and do justice to the full length novel. This is why I believe the 'Ten-Minute-Tale' has a place to lift us out of the mundane. I hope you enjoy these offerings as you 'cherry-pick' your path along life's crooked highway.