So speaks the narrator of Muriel Spark's haunting tale, 'The Leaf-sweeper', before going on to recount the disturbing and mercilessly witty story of a certain 'madman' - Johnnie Geddes, hell-bent on outlawing Christmas - who meets the most terrifying of all apparitions: himself.

So speaks the narrator of Muriel Spark's haunting tale, 'The Leaf-sweeper', before going on to recount the disturbing and mercilessly witty story of a certain 'madman' - Johnnie Geddes, hell-bent on outlawing Christmas - who meets the most terrifying of all apparitions: himself.