Love books? Want to support small presses AND see fresh titles? Join us in York at St Crux on Saturday 6 Dec. Peek inside many titles via Look Inside: www.stairwellbooks.co.uk/books/ #FantasticBooksPublishing #YorkBookFair2025 #SFFH #Childrens #YA #Crime #Poetry #NonFic #York #Books

A near constant listen since it dropped in 2018, ‘Avantdale Bowling Club’ only gets better with each year. Incredible.

Perfect day for a wander. …beneath Autumn clothes, the gnarled old bones.

"[An] oppressive, dread-inducing tale full of eerie imagery and tension." Big thanks to @booksbonesbuffy.bsky.social for this terrific review. #horrorfiction #horrorbooks #thesoundofthedark #thehollows #theravening @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social booksbonesbuffy.com/2025/11/06/t...

This time last week i was just arriving in Brighton for World Fantasy Con. Made a beeline to The Hole in the Wall to sup a porter before registering at The Metropole. Man, weeks move by like moths on the wind.

VERY last minute reminder! TONIGHT! Join Stairwell Books for the York launch of poetry collection, Village Fox, by Richard Cave. Richard will read w support from Fiona Timothy, Laurence Tilley, Tanya Parker. Music! Books! Possibly baked goods for purchase! Bluebird Bakery 201 Acomb Road YO24 4HD

Gareth was amaaaaazing. Stairwell gushed like a fangrrrl at meeting Joe Hill. Ali Sparkes seemed to be everywhere at once. 4 other Stairwell authors helped run stall. Exhausting, exhilarating, fun. Join us at EasterCon '26 in Brum! @susiewilliamson.bsky.social @ruthaylett.bsky.social

Hey @hildur.bsky.social I just had a delivery. Some cool characters I met at World Fantasy Con told me it was awesome, so…

I'm back home from @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social, where I had such a great time. I slept 12 hours tonight and I have a week to charge my completely depleted social batteries, because Iceland Noir is almost upon us! Then I just might not speak to anyone for a couple of months...

Little man’s been ill over the weekend, on a drip at the vets, hence the shaved patches. He seems to be brightening up a bit, and has found his familiar position. Now i’m back from WFC, i can nurse as and when required.

Ichiban

Home.

My first @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social was a genuinely fantastic experience. From the honour of being on a panel and being able to read horror to an audience on Halloween, to meeting some wonderful people, with a special nod to @losbennett.bsky.social @hildur.bsky.social Fyóla, Gunnar and Ramsey.

Next up, The World Fantasy Awards. Hope to see my new pal @hildur.bsky.social win in her category. Final day of the con. Have just about avoided alcohol poisoning so far, but the day’s young and these literary perverts love their booze.

Final day at #worldfantasyconvention Yesterday’s fantasy ecology panel was a blast. Looking forward to bringing the fantasy to reading from #bloodgiftchronicles at 12 noon. #fantasy #returnofthemantra #thewarder

The con rolls on. Another day of fantastic action, legendary characters and free-flowing liquor.

World Fantasy Con’s been cool so far. Reading from this at 4pm, so oiling the neck engine and tweaking brain HQ.

Brighton has been fantastic so far. Met with some literary masters last night, hung out with great folks, supped a few tidy beers and i’m reading from ‘At Night, White Bracken’ later today. Good times in high winds.

Last night’s watch… a certified classic for Devils Night. Sleaze dial cranked to 10, oozier than a Tory Party conference, flush with iconic moments, written and directed with horrific aplomb by one of the finest to doodle nightmares. Please shower afterwards.

Arrived in Brighton, after the perverts in charge of the trains tried to make it as hard as possible. They failed. I made it through their minefields, and instantly found The Hole in The Wall. A porter to kick off the trip. That’ll do nicely.

I'll be cheering on old friend and agency client @ramseycampbell.bsky.social , Horror Laureate, at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton this weekend! worldfantasy2025.co.uk/horror-laure...

The Churchman Chattereth... Here I'm interviewed by the excellent Karen Docter at Karen's Killer Book Bench - talking horror fiction, Pepsi Max, killer slugs and more... www.karendocter.com/karens-kille...

Here we fucking go… early start, making towns on the way to World Fantasy Con in Brighton. Feeling more legitimate than ever, at least to those looking in. Never been a doubt looking out. ‘I’m not a traitor to my class, i’m just an extreme example of what a working man can achieve.’

Tonight’s film… quite simply, fucking hell. Outstanding, heart-wrenching and genuinely horrific. Beat for beat, it lurches from uncomfortable to brutal, touching to hideous. A triumph of legitimate horror. The Philippous’ output goes from strength to strength. Wow.

Tonight’s film… precocious, possessed and preternaturally weird siblings fuck over Kerr’s dream job and force her into days of agonised faces. Haunting, lusciously set, baroque and romantic, there’s very little like it. Lingers long after the final unsettling frame.

Tonight’s film… VHS era banger, supernatural Richard Ramirez body hops for slayings, shits and giggles. Always good to see Lou Diamond Philips in the lead. Adequate LA sleaze to furnish the satanic action set pieces, and more pentagrams than a goth geometry class. Great fun.

1 MORE DAY TO GO! The Sound of the Dark is published tomorrow, with a launch at @writeblendbookshop.bsky.social! What's the book like? Let's ask bestselling novelist @samanthaleehowe.bsky.social... #thesoundofthedark #thehollows #theravening #horrorfiction #horrorbooks @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social

Tonight’s second film… engrossing and unsettling, a superb two-hander. Eerily emotive, atmosphere to burn, brilliantly building to a unique finale which delivers on the premise. Both leads were fantastic.

The first of tonight’s double-bill… it really had to be. A stone-cold and probably reanimated classic. Everything you could want from a Hammer film. Sumptuously shot, beautifully acted, leeringly horrific, with Cushing on flawless form as the bastard Baron. What a privilege to watch this.

The second of tonight’s double bill… The last of Carpenter’s end-times trio, Lovecraft with some sweet rubber freaks, Sam Neil running the gauntlet from smarmy to puzzled to shitting himself to nuts. We all read Sutter Cane, one way or the other. (Elder) God-tier flick from the best to ever do it.

The first of tonight’s films… they’re only noodles, Michael, pray you never need to call the Frog Brothers, oiled-up saxophonist AKA the peak human sexuality, all in the name of peak 80s comfort movie cinema. One more classic for the most wonderful month of the year.

6 days and counting! Less than a week to go now before the release of The Sound of the Dark. Is it any good? Well @angelaslatter.bsky.social thought so... @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social #thesoundofthedark #thehollows #theravening #horrorbooks #horrorfiction angryrobotbooks.com/books/the-so...

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social begins a week today. My first WFC as a published horror/fantasy writer and i cannot wait. There for the duration and very privileged to be both reading and included on this panel. New novel dropping in April 2026. ‘To Those from Below’ @stairwellbooks.bsky.social

Last night’s watch… far from a bag for life. Threatens to grow from moments of eerie intrigue, but bins itself too often with over/under acting, Stewart more bored than bereaved. Overt try-hard for ambiguity and has almost zilch emotional pull. Best to buy vintage.

Horror fans! Book Launch! Daniel Church, is at Write Blend, 124, South Road, Waterloo, Liverpool L22 OND TUES, OCT. 28, 7.30pm #folkhorror #amreading #supernatural #horror @dannythechurch.bsky.social @writeblendbookshop.bsky.social @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social www.facebook.com/events/18593...

First of tonight’s films… Craven’s masterpiece. From the janky dream-logic shenanigans, to the truly memorable unsettling nastiness. The birth of an icon, a fiend for the ages, and John Saxon to boot.

Tonight’s film… like a sister piece to ‘Spookies’, it’s all about the creature FX and man, from horny sentient chairs to marauding demons, with some undead freaks thrown in for good measure, it delivers on the old rubber muckers. Band’s Empire Pictures knew how to beast and sleaze. Hollywood lines.

One of last night’s flick… AKA ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Lie.’ Antsy Ray Lovelock ADR moans his way through an ever intriguing Nigel Kneale-like crack at the roaming undead. Nastier than you’d think, some genuine horror as Windermere becomes a pastoral ground zero for the end times.

Currently out hiking, listening to this. A heady combination.

Last night’s film… what else can be said about ‘The Thing’? The best practical FX of all time, atmosphere like nothing else, a setting to inspire the willies, tense, flush with unforgettable characters, that score, and an ending that lingers in the head long after the final synth note. Top tier.

Tonight’s film… Fulci’s most luridly Lovecraftian outing. Don’t mess with The Book of Enoch, don’t let the preacher swing and don’t watch with dinner if you have a grue-triggered gut. As she says, these are things that will ‘shatter your imagination.’

Tonight’s film…. Disco hypnosis and gnarl-toothed fingers fiddling fiercely with freaked-out Brewster. Top-drawer FX and deadpan laughs. Roddy McDowall on the most charming form possible. A total favourite, rewatchable in the extreme. October isn’t October without ‘Fright Night.’

This morning’s film…’Return of the Living Dead.’ Well and truly back into classic territory. Nothing not to love. Good old Muckman, the tragic torso and her post-death agonies, trap-laying zombies and the worst first day any job’s ever seen. Love every single second of this.

Last night’s film… esoteric lonely hearts, schnapps-addled wizard mutates forlorn hidden witch into cutest four-legged murderer around. Bloody sleighs, acute face acting, snow-covered merriment and wonderful photography of the heartsick doomed and the incredible landscape.

Hoping to see some of you there! www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

Last night’s film… ‘The Ambulance’, 1990. Once more into the Cohen-verse, gloriously tilted dialogue in non-stop sinister urban paranoia territory, James Earl Jones chewing gum with a dagger in his chest, Eric Roberts mullet jitterbug, Megan Gallagher holding it all together. Diabetics beware.

I’m very proud to be taking part in this panel at the upcoming World Fantasy Con in Brighton. I’ll also be reading live on the Friday evening. It’s a stacked weekend programme with some unreal guests, including Ramsey Campbell, Joe Hill and Suniti Namjoshi. A massive privilege to be part of this.

This morning’s film… Brilliant collision of ‘Elm Street’ and ‘Candyman’ with a Fritz Lang undead noir dream freak monster. Has the feel of a film which deserves to be bigger. Jittery somnolent fun, wonderfully shot, some fantastic moments, overall blast.

Tonight’s film… less ‘Blade’ more silver spoon, the foppy horror show, stylised enough to be flash, restrained enough to be somewhat charming, with some deadpan hits and likeable supporting characters treading the gory boards. Not for me overall, but far from shite.

Last night’s film… game of two halves, started out as creepy question time in occult property, but dropped off like a guillotined bonce at the midpoint, becoming a meandering, tension-free scrape through pointless rooms and stabby jumps. The three leads were great throughout.