From here earliest days, Violet Hunt lived a life steeped in art and literature. Her father was an artist who was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, while her mother was a novelist. Although the young Violet was groomed for a career as an artist, she soon switched to the world of letters, where she associated with, and was a friend of, such luminaries as Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, W Somerset Maugham, H G Wells, May Sinclair, and Ford Madox Ford, with whom she lived for several years. Perhaps the greatest literary influence on Hunt was Henry James; and when Hunt began writing her 'tales of the uneasy' it was James's elegant excursions into the genre upon which she drew. Her tales explore issues of sin, guilt, and personal relationships which do not conform to the standard pattern of their time. The supernatural, when it intrudes, does so subtly, yet with chilling style.