Mister Kreasey's Demon
Publisher: Haunted Books
Published: May 1, 2004
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 240
Subjects: Horror & ghost stories; Modern fiction; Horror
First sentence: A breeze carrying a hint of damp earth, newly mown grass and a faint beery odour from the Hare and Billet lightly brushed Matthew Kreasey's face.
Description: Having once served as a classroom teacher in a peaceful village school and then experiencing the contrast with a post as a college teacher in an Inner London college where a much thicker skin was needed to adjust to the needs of a much tougher breed of students, I drew on this experience to inform the fiction, Mister Kreasey's Demon; the demon partly the product of a classroom-broken paranoid mind and partly a real, sharp, metal threat to Kreasey's 'well-being', courtesy of his disenchanted students, who didn't want to chew on, still less digest, the metaphysical poets. 

I can say that my research was done truly, if not painfully, on the job; survival teaching me a lesson but giving me both an insight and even an empathy with those from deprived backgrounds whose anger against society, though difficult to cope with, was still deserving of my spending 2 years exploring through fiction the motivations of London's street-toughened students. 

Also available as an Ebook edition :

https://raymondnickford-psychologicalsuspense.weebly.com 

Mister Kreasey's Demon is a psychological suspense with an underlying romance. Tormented by his students there is one exception, Amy, who tries to be his 'passport' to her teacher-bashing classmates who dares to teach them poetry. 

The book cover was designed to suggest that the trust which Kreasey places in Amy and her growing tenderness of feeling for him ( in the foreground on the steps) is threatened – at least in Kreasey's paranoid mind if not imminently about to happen – by the gathering of those amongst his students ( distorted faces at top of book cover ), Kreasey's 'demon', who want to finish the job of breaking him. 

Reviews: 

"As a former London teacher, Raymond Nickford has nailed the teacher's fear of the 'Lord of the Flies' pack mentality perfectly. And what a cliffhanger!"
Marsha Moore - author of The Hating Game. 

"Raymond Nickford does anxiety and paranoia so chillingly well."
Jane Alexander - author of Walker 

"Beautifully observed characters, atmospheric and intriguing."
Barbara Erskine - Sunday Times best selling author of "The Darkest Hour"
Notes: Also available as an Ebook.