A major theme is the way in which political violence in Ireland lives on beyond the grave, re-incarnating itself in successive generations. The chief villain, 'the Nabob', also called Galloper Starkie, is a repellent but fascinating figure. The first set of tales is told in convincing Lowland Scots, the second in English. Andrew James was the pseudonym of J.A. Strahan, professor of jurisprudence in QUB and author of legal textbooks.

John Wilson Foster, who has annotated the tales and supplied an introduction, is the author of The achievement of Seamus Heaney (1995), The age of Titanic (2002) and senior editor of Nature in Ireland (1997).