"John Silence: Physician Extraordinary" is a collection of stories written by Algernon Blackwood. The book revolves around a character named John Silence, who is a doctor with extraordinary psychic abilities. He is known for his ability to investigate and solve paranormal mysteries that cannot be explained by conventional science. The book comprises six stories that feature John Silence as the main character. In the first story, "A Psychical Invasion," John Silence investigates a case of a woman who is being haunted by an evil spirit. In the second story, "Ancient Sorceries," he travels to a remote French village to investigate the strange behavior of its inhabitants. In the third story, "The Nemesis of Fire," John Silence investigates a case of spontaneous human combustion. In the fourth story, "Secret Worship," he travels to a remote English village to investigate a cult that is performing human sacrifices. In the fifth story, "The Camp of the Dog," John Silence investigates a case of a haunted tent in the Scottish Highlands. Overall, "John Silence: Physician Extraordinary" is a collection of eerie and supernatural stories that showcase the extraordinary abilities of the titular character.
Algernon Blackwood, one of the most prolific ghost story authors in the genre's history, was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist, and short story writer (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951). According to the literary critic S. T. Joshi, Incredible Adventures (1914), a collection of short stories, "may be the finest weird book of this or any other century," and "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's." A few weeks after his passing, his nephew carried his ashes to the Swiss Alps' Saanenmöser Pass and spread them among the peaks he had cherished for more than 40 years. Shooter's Hill is where Blackwood was born (now part of south-east London, then part of north-west Kent). He attended Wellington College and resided at Crayford Manor House in Crayford from 1871 and 1880. His mother, Harriet Dobbs, was the widow of the 6th Duke of Manchester; his father, Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, was a Post Office official. Following many strokes, Blackwood passed away. Officially, cerebral thrombosis was the cause of his death on December 10, 1951; arteriosclerosis was a contributory factor. At the Golders Green Crematorium, he was cremated.
