During the mid @-@ twenties Walpole produced two of his best @-@ known novels in the macabre vein that he drew on from time to time , exploring the fascination of fear and cruelty . The Old Ladies ( 1924 ) is a study of a timid elderly spinster exploited and eventually frightened to death by a predatory widow . Portrait of a Man with Red Hair ( 1925 ) depict the malign influence of a manipulative , insane father on his family and others . Walpole described it to his fellow author Frank Swinnerton as " a simple shocker which it have amused me like anything to write , and won 't bore you to read . " In contrast he continued a series of stories for children , begun in 1919 with Jeremy , taking the young hero 's story forward with Jeremy and Hamlet ( the latter being the boy 's dog ) in 1923 , and Jeremy at Crale in 1927 . Sadleir , writing in the 1950s , suggest that " the most real Walpole of all – because the most unselfconscious , kindly , and understanding friend – is the Walpole of the Jeremy trilogy . " Of his other novels of the 1920s Wintersmoon ( 1928 ) , his first attempt at a full @-@ length love story , portray a clash between traditionalism and modernism : his own sympathies , though not spelled out , was clearly with the traditionalists .