Ten acclaimed authors, experts in the art of making flesh creep and spines tingle, are gathering here at Midsummer.

  • Johnny Mains – Master of Ceremonies
  • Andrew Michael Hurley
  • Lucie McKnight Hardy
  • Mark Morris
  • Jonny Davidson
  • Robin Ince
  • Clare Ferguson Walker
  • Priya Sharma
  • Samantha Lee Howe
  • Ray Russell

Andrew Michael Hurley

Beginning with his acclaimed 2018 debut novel The Loney, the English writer Andrew Michael has spooked readers with his tales of strange rural communities! (Hopefully Andrew is not researching in Sedbergh). His publisher bills him as ‘the master of menace’, Stephen King is a big fan, and the film version of his third novel, Starve Acre, starring Morfydd Clark from The Rings of Power and ex-Doctor Who Matt Smith, has been shocking audiences across the US and the UK this year.

 Lucie McKnight Hardy

Following on from her impressive debut novel Water Shall Refuse Them  (2019), The Dead Relatives short-story collection confirms the author’s reputation in the field of literary horror. The title story is a miniature gothic novel with a sensibility reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor, yet set in rural Wales in the early 1960s. Most of the shorter stories might be described as domestic horror, painful, sometimes searingly memorable, they make for uncomfortable reading.

Mark Morris

‘Mark Morris is one of the finest horror writers at work today.’ Mark has written and edited almost forty novels, novellas, short story collections and anthologies. His recent work includes three official movie tie-in novelizations and the anthologies New Fears (winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology) and New Fears 2 and many more. That Which Stands Outside is his horror novel inspired by Nordic folklore. After Todd Kingston rescues Yrsa Helgerson from muggers, their resulting friendship quickly develops into a romance. Todd accompanies her back to her childhood home, where an isolated Todd finds himself caught up in a terrifying battle, one which possibly threatens the future of the world itself.

Jonny Davidson

Production editor for the British Library and horror aficionado.

Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club

One man’s quest to uncover the books that taste forgot. Sedbergh welcomes Robin again to celebrate the world’s worst books. Is hideous prose and ghastly poetry more fabulous than great literature? Robin’s book is training you up for the Grand Order of Cxurators of Books that should never have been!

Clare Ferguson Walker

Clare is a unique award winning poet, comedienne, sculptor and singer.

Clare’s explosive second collection “Chrysalis” Published by Clockwork Moth, lays bare the poet’s soul and takes the reader on an intimate journey laced with humour and intelligent humane observation.

Hilarious, touching and incredibly clever” – Metro

Don’t know how Clare can get up on stage and be so effortlessly funny and engaging, I love her stuff” – Brian Bilson

Priya Sharma

Photo of Priya SharmaPriya Sharma, a doctor from the UK, has been writing and publishing short stories for over a decade. She’s extremely skillful in creating characters with whom we can empathize – no matter their deeds – leading her readers down roads of beauty and horror. I especially love her award-winning novelette ‘Fabulous Beasts,’ a perfect piece of storytelling.” – Ellen Datlow, Best Horror of the Year series

Priya Sharma is a consummate storyteller. She writes from the heart, with passion, warmth and authority. Her stories, focusing largely on familial relationships and traditions, brim not only with ideas but with humanity, and her characters are so vividly and exquisitely wrought that they seem to live and breathe beyond the confines of the page. Like Stephen King and Alice Munro, she has the ability to convey so much in prose that is concise, elegant and unfussy, and as a result her stories offer you the best of both worlds: they are both instantly accessible and exhilaratingly profound.” – Mark Morris, Author of The Obsidian Heart Trilogy and Editor of New Fears

Samantha Lee Howe – USA today best selling author

The cover of Sam Lee Howe's book "Kill or Die"Samantha Lee Howe began her professional writing career in 2007 and has been working as a freelance writer for small, medium and large publishers ever since. She is a multi-award winning screenwriter and a USA Today Bestselling author. In June 2020, Samantha signed a three-book deal with One More Chapter for her explosive spy thriller trilogy, The House of Killers (Book 1 The House of Killers), Kill Or Die (Book 2) and Kill A Spy (Book 3) were all released in 2021. Pitched as Killing Eve meets Jason Bourne this is a nerve shredding, enemies to lovers tale that is simmering with obsession and espionage.

Samantha lives in South Yorkshire with her husband, Historian, Writer and publisher, David J Howe and their cat Skye. She is the proud mother of a lovely daughter called Linzi.

Samantha is currently working on a new book which will be out in 2024.

Ray Russell

Photo of Ray RusselRussell runs the award-winning Tartarus Press with Rosalie Parker and is an editor, author, illustrator, songwriter, and film maker besides!

About Ray  Russell’s new novel, The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ :
The biographer of Robert Aickman and founding member of the Friends of Arthur Machen society has produced a modern, wonderfully strange story that admirers of both those earlier authors should love.”   Lisa Tuttle, The Guardian

Deftly blends mystery with contemporary bibliophilia, snarky online discussion groups, hallucinatory time-slips and a pervasive sense of the uncanny.” Washington Post

Mastermains

Johnny Mains tests authors on their knowledge of all things horror!

Folk Horror Story Competition

The local winner gets their story read in front of an audience!

Further details of the individual events and the competition will be posted here later

Come along and join the fun, panels, author talks, public Q&A sessions, a film, loads of food and drink and most importantly your favourite authors will be around all weekend so you will have a chance for that selfie or burning question. See you there?