INTRODUCTION Everyone who has had the pleasure of Mr. Poskitt's acquaintance knows that that estimable Yorkshireman is not only the cheeriest of hosts, but the best of companions. Those of us who have known the Poskitt High Tea (a much more enjoyable meal than a late dinner) know what follows the consumption of Mrs. Poskitt's tender chickens and her home-fed hams. The parlour fire is stirred into a blaze; the hearth is swept clean; the curtains are drawn; the decanters, the cigars, and the quaint old leaden tobacco-box appear beneath the shaded lamp, and Mr. Poskitt bids his guests to cheer up, to help themselves, and to feel heartily welcome. And when those guests have their glasses at their elbows, their cigars and pipes between their lips, and their legs stretched in comfort, Mr. Poskitt has his story to tell. Few men know the countryside and its people, with their joys, their sorrows, their humours better than he; few people there can surely be who would not enjoy hearing him tell of the big and little dramas of life which he has watched, with a shrewd and sympathetic eye, during his seventy years of work and play, of cloud and sunshine. In some of these Nightcap stories (so termed by their hearers because Mr. Poskitt insists on telling them as preparatory to his own early retirement, which is never later than ten o'clock) he is sometimes humorous and sometimes tragic. I trust the re-telling of them may give some pleasure to folk who must imagine for themselves the cheery glow of Mr. Poskitt's hearth. J. S. FLETCHER. London, May 1910.
About the Author: Joseph Smith Fletcher (Halifax, Yorkshire de l'Ouest, 7 fevrier 1863 - Dorking, Surrey, 30 janvier 1935), mieux connu sous le signature J.S. Fletcher, est un journaliste, un poete et un ecrivain britannique de roman policier. Fils d'un ecclesiastique, il frequente une ecole de Wakefield avant de se rendre a Londres ou il se destine a l'etude du Droit. Des l'age de 18 ans, il embrasse la double carriere d'ecrivain et de journaliste. Pour des magazines londoniens, il redige une serie d'articles sous le pseudonyme de Son of the Soil, concernant l'histoire et les coutumes de regions rurales d'Angleterre, notamment de son Yorkshire natal. Il aborde la litterature par la poesie, s'interesse ensuite a la publication d'essais, d'ouvrages religieux et surtout de romans historiques, dont plusieurs monographies romancees de grands personnages, avant de publier un premier roman, Frank Carisbroke's Stratagem; or, Lost and Won, en 1888. Avec Andrewlina, il signe en 1889 son premier roman policier, un genre auquel il reserve presque exclusivement sa plume a partir de 1914, produisant plus d'une centaine de romans et de recueils de nouvelles jusqu'en 1935. Ses recits policiers hesitent d'abord entre le roman d'aventures, le thriller anglais et le roman d'enigme, ou l'enquete est parfois menee par l'inspecteur Skarratt de Scotland Yard ou par le sergent Charlesworth, detective de la police anglaise. A la fin de sa carriere, Fletcher penche resolument en faveur du roman d'enigme dans plusieurs textes ou apparait son heros recurrent le plus consequent, le detective prive Ronald Camberwell.