A three-time winner of the World Fantasy Award and an eight-time winner of the British Fantasy Award, Campbell may be the genre's most decorated writer. The Washington Post Book World says, "Ramsey Campbell continues to break new ground, advancing the style and thematic content of horror fiction far beyond the works of his contemporaries". The Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, "Campbell produces serious horror fiction of consistently high quality". The San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle calls Campbell "one of the world's foremost horror writers", and Publishers Weekly hails him as "a master of the horror genre", adding, "He does more than jar the nerves and chill the spine; he assails one's very grip on reality".

Ghosts and Grisly Things is a chilling collection of the best of Campbell's recent short fiction, most of it never before available in the United States in any form.