Black Merlin's Ring is the story of Myrddin-ddu, a sinister old house lost in the depths of the Welsh mountains; it is also an affectionate satire upon the milieu of Gothic novels and classic horror films.  Its basic premise is that the illicit appeal of these is a strong undercurrent of disturbing sexuality, whether the subtle sensual eroticism of the Gothic Romance, the saucy salaciousness of a Halloween romp, or the dark sadomasochism of the horror story.  This premise is explored in three 'novellas', each parodying a different genre and featuring one of the three main characters.  Extracts from the diary of one of the characters link the individual tales into a coherent narrative and round it off - as one might expect - with a twist in the tail.

Humour is generated mainly by the 'what-if' device of assuming that the darkly melodramatic worlds of Gothic literature could really exist, and the resulting culture clash when this is encountered by young people from today's world.  How would a computer literate, feminist personal assistant cope with the macabre sentimentality of a Gothic romance?  How would her crime thriller obsessed fiancé react when confronted by a genuinely hair-raising mystery?  And how would the nerdy young man with a fascination for the occult respond when his supernatural fantasies - and their terrors - prove to be horrifically real?

The fates of these three central characters - together with those of the suavely malevolent master of Myrddin-ddu and his pathologically erotic niece - are gradually interwoven into a ring of sensuality and evil: Black Merlin's Ring!