Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city. But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer. As events escalate and […]
When fiction is fatal – Byron and vampires
Vampires in Venice? In her new Gothic thriller, Dangerous, Essie Fox imagines what could happen if fiction appears to become fatal fact when Lord Byron is living in the water-bound city. Here she writes about the two incidents from Byron’s life that inspired her novel. Most of us know of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, published in […]
Fyneshade by Kate Griffin
On the day of her beloved grandmother’s funeral, Marta discovers that she is to become governess to the young daughter of Sir William Pritchard. Separated from her lover and discarded by her family, Marta has no choice but to journey to Pritchard’s ancient and crumbling house, Fyneshade, in the wilds of Derbyshire. All is not […]
The Legacy of Foulstone Manor by JC Briggs
Westmorland, 1970. Dark and imposing in a bleak landscape, Foulstone Manor stands abandoned on the edges of the Lake District. Reclusive Joan Goss inherited Foulstone, but her fragmented memories of her childhood there still disturb her and she keeps her distance in a cottage on the outskirts of the land. Joan was brought up by […]
The Fascination by Essie Fox
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Then at the age of 15 the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’. Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather. Resenting his grandson for his daughter’s death […]
Top six Turns of the Screw
Kate Griffin’s new novel, Fyneshade, takes her love of Victorian Gothic to a new level. Who could be better to select the top six film and TV adaptations of the ultimate governess in a strange house story, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, for its 125th anniversary? The year 1898 saw the publication of […]
Fyneshade by Kate Griffin
On the day of her beloved grandmother’s funeral, Marta discovers that she is to become governess to the young daughter of Sir William Pritchard. Separated from her lover and discarded by her family, Marta has no choice but to journey to Pritchard’s ancient and crumbling house, Fyneshade, in the wilds of Derbyshire. All is not […]
Gothic writers choose their favourite chilling books
As the nights draw in and the ghosts seep from the walls, it’s time to huddle beneath your counterpane with a suitably creepy book. I asked seven of our most brilliantly chilling writers to name their favourite Gothic reads, both a classic and a modern Gothic novel. Prepare to be frightened, repulsed, entranced… Ruth Ware […]