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A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Ajay Chowdhury

A ritual killing. An ancient curse. What's myth... and what's murder? 
 
After a bruising encounter with a terrorist group, Detective Kamil Rahman has decided to hand in his resignation to the Met and set up a detective agency with his friend Anjoli. But when his boss asks him to go to India to investigate the murder of a British engineer who was found with eighteen arrows stuck in his body, Kamil agrees to take the case, as long as Anjoli can accompany him. 
 
When they arrive in Mumbai, they find someone is on a gruesome killing spree, striking down those connected to the engineer in increasingly macabre ways. Meanwhile, an old friend of Kamil’s gets in touch to beg for his help: he believes his family are cursed, and that he is going to die on his 47th birthday, just like his father and grandfather before him. 
 
As the body count rises, Kamil is torn between solving a very real murder case and protecting his friend from a grisly – if far-fetched – fate. Can he catch a killer and prevent an ancient curse before more people lose their lives?

The Shadow

Victor LaValle

New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one. 
 
When an altercation with the police leads to Pepper being mistakenly admitted to a mental institution in Queens, NYC, he doesn’t expect to stay there long. It will be a matter of days, he believes, until the misunderstanding is ironed out and he is released. 
 
But as those days stretch into weeks, blurring into a cycle of bad food, endless hallways, and an ever-increasing mixture of sedatives, Pepper realises that the system isn’t just broken – it’s forgotten him. He must fight through the chemical haze to hold on to his sanity, but he has worse problems. There are rumours that a devil stalks the wards after dark – a monstrous figure with the body of an old man and the head of a bison. As more patients begin vanishing, and the overworked staff cover up their disappearances, Pepper must unite the other inmates and kill the monster that’s hunting them. But what can destroy the devil? 
 
The Devil in Silver is a terrifying and empathetic exploration of the horrors of institutional neglect, and the courage it takes to slay our demons – both real and imagined.

The Devil in Silver

Caitlin Schneiderhan

Following the events of Stranger Things: Season 4, Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley are hot on the heels of a new mystery – and they won’t stop until they solve it. Hawkins, Indiana, is in recovery. It’s been two months since Vecna’s earthquake tore through the town, and its residents are still reeling from the devastation. Nancy Wheeler has spent every waking minute on the hunt for Vecna, but he’s continued to elude her. How can she head to Emerson for college in the fall if Hawkins is still under the influence of the Upside Down?When fellow classmate Joey Taft starts acting shifty at graduation, Nancy is convinced Vecna’s found his newest victim. Joined by fellow amateur sleuth Robin Buckley, Nancy doesn’t waste any time questioning Joey. What the girls discover leads them down the path of a bigger story than The Hawkins Post could ever have assigned Nancy. Why are people around town suddenly getting sick? Why is there a strange man tailing Nancy as she investigates? And, most important, does this even have anything to do with the Upside Down?Together with Robin, Nancy embarks on a dangerous quest for the truth. The deeper the two dig, the further Nancy finds herself drawn into a web of intrigue that threatens to trap her in Hawkins . . . forever.

Stranger Things: One Way or Another

Matthew Lewis

Jane Austen

Ann Radcliffe

Horace Walpole

Four full-cast dramatisations of classic Gothic novels, plus documentaries exploring the genre’s rise and enduring appeal 
 
Dark deeds, dastardly villains, innocent victims and supernatural happenings – these are the terrifying tropes that make up Gothic fiction, a genre that has captured our imagination for over 250 years. Blending both classic and modern dramatisations, this specially curated anthology couples thrilling masterpieces with insightful documentaries… 
 
We begin with A Gothic Quest, in which Louise Welsh examines what ‘gothic’ really means, and takes a look at its many appearances in poetry, fiction, art, architecture and film. In A Guided Tour of the Castle of Otranto, Rory McGrath explores the origins of gothic horror, first manifested in Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel. It is followed by a dramatisation of The Castle of Otranto itself, a dark supernatural tale of duplicity and dynastic rivalry. Treading warily into the book’s strange world in Kaleidoscope Feature: A Little Gothic Castle, Peggy Reynolds draws parallels between Walpole’s vision for his London villa, Strawberry Hill, and the haunted mansion in the novel. 
 
Next, we unveil the male gothic in a gripping drama featuring disguise, abduction, incest and murder. The Monk, based on the 1796 classic by Matthew Lewis, tells the story of Ambrosio (Michael Pennington), who is tempted into breaking his vows of chastity by a beautiful young nun. The dawn of the female gothic is revealed in The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, centred on a powerless young heroine trapped in an isolated castle and pitted against an evil Italian Count. Showcasing the Gothic satire is Jane Austen’s 1817 novel Northanger Abbey, poking fun at the popular sensation fiction of her day. In this witty drama, Catherine Morland is taken to Bath for the season, and finds that in her fertile imagination, danger and hair-raising horrors lurk around every corner. Georgia Groome, Miriam Margolyes and Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson star in this full-cast dramatisation. 
 
Wrapping up our collection is In Our Time: Gothic, which sees Melvyn Bragg and guest experts considering the origins and significance of the 18th century Gothic movement. 
 
 
First published 1764 (The Castle of Otranto), 1794 (The Mysteries of Udolpho), 1796 (The Monk), 1817 (Northanger Abbey) 
 
 
Content List 
 
Part 1. Gothic Imagination 
 
A Gothic Quest 
Presented by Louise Welsh 
 
Part 2. The First Gothic Novel: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole 
 
A Guided Tour of the Castle of Otranto 
Presented by Rory McGrath 
 
The Castle of Otranto 
cast and credits to be announced 
 
Kaleidoscope Feature: A Little Gothic Castle 
Presented by Peggy Reynolds 
 
Part 3. Unveiling A Male Gothic: The Monk by Matthew Lewis 
 
The Monk 
Starring Michael Pennington, Sorcha Cusack, Emily Morgan, Christopher Douglas, Brian Smith, Jenny Funnell, Tessa Worsley, Mary Wimbush, Simon Hewitt, Anne Jameson, Alan Thompson, Melinda Walker, Mia Soteriou, Allan McClelland, Garard Green, Graham Blockey, Peter Acre, David Learner and Bernard Brown 
 
 
Part 4. The Dawn of a Female Gothic: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe 
 
The Mysteries of Udolpho 
Starring Georgia Groome, Tracy Wiles, John Dougall, Finlay Robertson, Luke Thompson, Natasha Cowley, Stephen Wight, John Bowler, Karen Bartke and Alison Belbin 
 
Part 5. Gothic Satire: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 
 
Northanger Abbey 
Starring Georgia Groome, Luke Thompson, Tracy Wiles, Kim Wall, Ainsley Howard, Alison Belbin, John Bowler, Karen Bartke, Miriam Margolyes, Stephen Wight, Finlay Robertson, Natasha Cowley, John Dougall, Nick Murchie, Keziah Joseph and Luke MacGregor 
 
 
Part 6. Gothic Legacies 
 
In Our Time: Gothic 
Presented by Melvyn Bragg 
With Chris Baldick, A N Wilson and Emma Clery 
 
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Tales of Terror: A BBC Radio Gothic Drama Collection

The Castle of Otranto, The Monk, The Mysteries of Udolpho & Northanger Abbey

Lee Onhwa

When twenty-seven-year-old Yeon-hwa loses her grandmother, enigmatic proprietor of the Hwawoldang, she decides to respect her wishes by keeping the store going for at least a month, between the hours of 10pm and midnight. She has never learnt to make the traditional desserts herself, and hopes to learn more about her grandmother. 
 
On her very first day at work, she is soon interrupted by one of her grandmother’s most regular visitors, who hints that Hwawoldang is no ordinary pastry shop, and its customers not entirely alive… 
 
With each new customer at the store, Yeon-hwa is taken into their memories – but will this bring her the closure she craves, and continue her grandmother’s legacy of aiding those left in the land of the living?

A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang

qntm

An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign; but others, less so… 
 
These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you – and you’ll never even know anything changed. 
 
And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading. 
 
But how do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war? 
 
Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. 
 
No, this is not your first day.

There Is No Antimemetics Division

Francine Toon

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, Pine, comes a haunting and atmospheric new gothic thriller, set in the brooding Scottish landscape. 
 
In this corner of Fife, summer nights meant parties on wind-blown beaches, wrapped in hoodies and denim jackets, pretending you weren’t cold in the stubborn evening light. 
 
Joanie, 2013. Desperate to flee the claustrophobia of St Rule, Joanie has long been looking forward to her big escape. But on the night of her school graduation this dream slips through her hands. 
 
Devastated, Joanie falls into the orbit of an enigmatic couple – Erin and David – who offer her a new kind of escape. Charismatic, older and intellectual, they make Joanie feel alive and important in a way she didn’t know was possible. 
 
Cameron, 2023. When Cameron arrives back in St Rule for Christmas a question burns in his mind: what ever happened to Joanie? It’s been a decade since he saw his former friend, and in truth he hadn’t given it much thought – busily building a life. 
 
But as he starts to look for answers, it becomes clear that someone wants to keep this secret buried at all costs. How far should he go to pursue the truth? 
 
Set amongst the ancient cobblestone of a Scottish coastal town steeped in history, Francine Toon masterfully blends the tension of a mystery with the chill of a modern gothic. This is a story where every shadow holds a secret, and every revelation brings Cameron and Joanie closer to a truth that could shatter their worlds. 
 
Praise for Francine Toon: 
 
‘A literary gothic thriller to chill the marrow’ Guardian 
 
‘Hugely atmospheric, exquisitely written and utterly gripping’ Lucy Foley, bestselling author of The Hunting Party 
 
‘A must-read for fans of eerie gothic fiction’ The Skinny 
 
‘An evocative read which will keep you guessing’ Sunday Independent 
 
‘Both eerie and thrilling at once…had me under its spell until the end’ Sophie Mackintosh, Man Booker Prize-longlisted author of The Water Cure 
 
‘Gripping’ Sunday Times Scotland

Bluff

Alex North

Dan Garvie can't move on from a thing he didn't do. He saw the boy. He knew he needed help. But he ran and hid – and a terrifying serial killer got away. 
 
Years later, Dan is a successful criminal psychiatrist, unpicking the very darkest of human behaviour. Because, despite what he saw that day, Dan knows there's no such thing as a monster. 
 
But now his father, John, has disappeared. And days before he vanished, he’d found a body near his home, which might just link back to the serial killer from that fateful day. 
 
Is this a chance for Dan to save his dad and find redemption. Or is he walking straight into a trap...

The Man Made of Smoke

Olga Ravn

It was a black night in the year 1620 when Christenze Krukow made the wax child, when she melted down beeswax and set it in the image of a small human. For days, she carried it tucked beneath her arm, shaping it with the warmth of her flesh, giving it life. She fashioned for it eyes and ears that cannot open, and yet – it watches and listens. 
 
It looks on as Christenze is haunted by rumour, it hears what the people whisper. It sees how, in the candlelight, she gazes with love at her friends, and hears the things they say in the shadows. It knows pine forest, misty fjord and the crackle of the burning pyre. It observes the violence in men’s eyes and the cruelty of their laws. In time, it begins to understand that once a suspicion of witchcraft has taken hold, it can prove impossible to shake… 
 
Based on an infamous seventeenth century Danish witch trial, The Wax Child is the extraordinary new novel from Olga Ravn, one of the most acclaimed and original writers at work today: a mesmerising, frightening vision of a time when witches and magic were as real to the human mind as soil and seawater.

The Wax Child

Thomas Olde Heuvelt

When the darker days fall, the debt must be paid, . . . get ready for the chilling new folk horror from the Hugo Award-winning, bestselling author of HEX - from the publisher of The Exorcist and perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson and Stephen King. 
 
‘One of the most vital and exciting voices in modern horror.’ Mike Flanagan, award-winning director of ‘Doctor Sleep’ and ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ 
 
'No one builds agonizing tension like Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Darker Days is his best yet.' Catriona Ward, bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street 
 
In Lock Haven, a quiet little town in Washington State, there is a very special street. 
Bird Street. The residents of Bird Street are all successful, wealthy, healthy and happy. And their children are all well-mannered and smart and high achievers. 
 
At least they are for eleven months of the year. 
 
In November, however, the ‘Darker Days’ begin. For November’s the month when things take a turn for the worse: accidents, bad luck, familial conflict and illness take hold. And it is in November that a stranger comes to Bird Street to collect the debt owed by the residents. 
 
Because, you see, there is a price that must be paid for all the happiness and good fortune they enjoy for the other eleven months of year. And that price is one human life. Every November. Without fail. 
 
And so it has been for over a hundred years. To ease their guilt, the residents of Bird Street seek out individuals – usually the elderly or the terminally ill – who wish to die with dignity and are content to be helped on their way. 
 
But this year, things don’t go to plan. This year events take a terrifying turn . . . 
 
Propulsive and haunting, Darker Days is a devastating modern take on the Faustian pact, and begs the question: how far would you go for your own happiness? 
 
Praise for Darker Days and Thomas Olde Heuvelt 
 
‘Totally, brilliantly original’ Stephen King, bestselling author of It and Carrie 
 
‘Possibly the most frightening prologue ever written’ Guardian 
 
'This is Olde Heuvelt at the height of his powers.' Alma Katsu, award-winning author of The Hunger 
 
‘A daring and uncompromising jewel of horror fiction.’ Eric LaRocca, award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke 
 
‘Creepy, gripping, and original.’ George R. R. Martin, bestselling author of Game of Thrones 
 
‘Takes the horror/thriller genre to a whole new level.' Sarah Lotz, award-winning author of The White Road

Darker Days

Del Sandeen

In the fall of 1962, Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago--and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans . . . 
 
But Jemma discovers that this family isn't what they seem. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan. And soon, the shocking truth comes out: the Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma can break it. 
 
As Jemma wrestles with the gift she’s run from all her life, she unravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons.

This Cursed House

'A masterful collection' MAXINE PEAKE 
'Astonishing and long overdue, you really need to read this’ ALAN MOORE 
'An absolute treat' ADAM S. LESLIE 
 
Unleash the dark and delirious with this electrifying anthology of folk horror from some of Britain's most iconic working-class voices 
 
A phonograph cylinder that plays on a loop for eternity, casting out ghostly spectres of violence; a centuries-old stew made of severed body parts; a bigoted woman working at an ossuary, the bones she watches over her only remaining friends; three siblings who set out to scatter their father's ashes, a man none of them could stand; and a hag stone sitting in the pocket of a witch. 
 
Uncanny and unsettling, wild and wyrd, the ten stories in this collection showcase the best of folk horror. Set in and across England, they celebrate working-class culture and history, and, sharp as a guillotine blade, reveal the real monsters that stalk our green and pleasant land. 
 
Includes writing from: A.K. Blakemore, Daniel Draper, Emma Glass, Mark Colbourne, Mark Stafford, Hollie Starling, Jenn Ashworth, Natasha Carthew, Salena Godden and Tom Benn. 
 
'Deeply unsettling and totally radical' LALLY MACBETH, author of The Lost Folk 
'Everything folk tales and folk horror should be' TABITHA STANMORE, author of Cunning Folk 
'Feral and furious' CHARLIE COOPER, star of THIS COUNTRY

Bog People

A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror

Josie Silver

From the bestselling author of One Day in December comes a new irresistibly romantic novel, full of humour and supernatural charm. 
 'I loved all of the ghostly chaos in this book' 5 STAR READER REVIEW 
 
'I fell completely in love with this.' 5 STAR REVIEW 
 
'Like the first book, it’s a fun read and I can’t wait for more of this series ' 5 STAR REVIEW 
 
'I loved every haunted, hilarious second.' 5 STAR REVIEW____________ 
 
 
When the new owners of Maplemead Castle need their ghostly inhabitants gone, they call Melody Bittersweet and her Ghostbusting Agency. 
 
Melody quickly identifies the main troublemaker: Britannia Lovell, a stunning trapeze artist who plunged to her death a century ago. But was it a tragic accident, or something far more sinister? 
 
To solve the mystery, Melody must team up with her charming yet roguish ex, Leo Dark, and the infuriating yet irresistible reporter, Fletcher Gunn. With a castle full of ghosts refusing to spill their secrets and her heart pulled in two directions, this is Melody’s toughest case yet. 
 
Can Melody help Britannia find peace and finally untangle her own love life, or will they both be haunted by past mistakes forever? 
 
___________

Kooky Spooky Love

S.A. Barnes

From the Queen of Space Horror comes a terrifying, dread-filled nightmare perfect for fans of Ridley Scott's Alien franchise. 
 
'This slice of space horror will be just the ticket for the Halloween season' New Scientist, best new science fiction books of October 
'So well done and creepy, with a twist that will shock you!' Hildur Knútsdóttir 
'The S.A. Barnes Creature Feature we've all been waiting for! Tense, nasty, and melancholic' Caitlin Starling 
_________ 
 
Halley Zwick is on the run. 
 
Exposing an interplanetary conspiracy should have brought justice. Instead, it’s brought Halley nothing but a target on her back. With nowhere left to turn, she boards a relic of the past: Elysian Fields, a drifting crypt in deep space. 
 
Once hailed as humanity’s answer to death itself, Elysian Fields was trillionaire Zale Winfield’s promise to Earth’s elite — cryo-sleep until medicine caught up with mortality. But that future never came. The program was abandoned. The barge has floated dark and silent for over a century. 
 
Or so Halley thought. 
 
The moment she steps aboard, something feels wrong. The silence isn’t empty—it’s watching. Shadows fall across corridors. Scratching claws echo in the vents. Whispers bleed from the walls. Something is crawling, slithering, waking. 
 
As Halley descends into the heart of the ship, paranoia blurs into terror. The Elysian dead may not be sleeping—and what woke them is hungry... 
_________ 
 
Readers love Cold Eternity 
 
'The best Barnes book yet' 
'Just the right amount of horror' 
'Creepy and atmospheric' 
'I was on the edge at all times' 
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Cold Eternity

Harper L. Woods

The living do not belong here with the damned 
 
An uneasy truce exists between the witches of Hollows Grove University and the archdemons who now walk among them. 
 
Unlike her fellow Red witches, Margot Erotes has never embraced her true power to draw magic from her own sensuality and desire. Instead, her magic finds a release through music, weaving a spell that can bind anyone who hears it to her. 
 
So when Beelzebub, Lord of Gluttony, comes upon Margot singing to herself in the University’s courtyard, he instantly falls prey to her song – and doesn’t hesitate to follow her when she is thrown through the gates to Hell. 
 
Caught under Margot’s spell, the archdemon is forbidden to her touch, and yet he is the only one she can trust to get her back to Hollow’s Grove. They just have to make it through the Nine Circles of Hell first. 
 
No matter what they lose along the way.

The Damned

Heather Parry

‘A gruesome, provocative, stylish fairytale’ Kaliane Bradley, internationally bestselling author of The Ministry of Time 
 
‘Magnificent and devastating’ Alan Moore, author of Watchman 
 
‘As mesmerizing as it is surreal, a haunting gothic tapestry’ Lucy Rose, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamb 
 
‘I loved it’ Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under The Sea 
 
‘Will win awards’ Observer 
 
‘A worthy entrant into the contemporary gothic hall of fame’ Financial Times 
 
Marguerite Périgord is locked in the attic of her family home, a towering Chelsea house overlooking the stinking Thames. For company she has a sewing machine, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and a carrion crow who has come to nest in the rafters. Restless, she spends her waning energies on the fascinations of her own body, memorising Mrs Beeton’s advice and longing for her life outside. 
 
Cécile Périgord has confined her daughter Marguerite for her own good. Cécile is concerned that Marguerite’s engagement to a much older, near-penniless solicitor, will drag the family name – her husband’s name, that is – into disrepute. And for Cécile, who has worked hard at her own betterment, this simply won’t do. Cécile’s life has taught her that no matter how high a woman climbs she can just as readily fall. 
 
Of course, both have their secrets, intentions and histories to hide. As Marguerite’s patience turns into rage, the boundaries of her mind and body start to fray. And neither woman can recognise what the other is becoming.

Carrion Crow

Paul M. Levitt

Bob Sinfield

What drove Harry Houdini - magician, escapologist, and one of the most famous men in the world? 
 
Whether it was escaping from handcuffs, a straitjacket or from a box filled with water, Houdini wowed audiences with his seemingly death-defying performance... This BBC Radio collection shares the story behind the trickery: in two fascinating full-cast dramas about the life of Harry Houdini, and in particular his public campaign to expose fraudulent spiritual mediums. 
 
In the stunning full-cast dramatisation Houdini, a man is naked against the world, bound in chains, deprived of all help. Performing a death defying escape from a galvanised iron can, filled with water and secured with massive locks. Failure means a drowning death! This is the gripping story of the master magician, escapologist, and at the time of his death in 1926, one of the most famous men in the world. Michael Maloney stars as Houdini, with Graham Crowden as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lorelei King as Bess. 
 
Houdini, the showman, longed to believe that he might be able to communicate beyond the grave with his beloved mother, but knew far too much about the trickery and faking of the stage to be easily convinced. The Witch of Beacon Hill is the true story of how Harry Houdini tried to debunk psychics and mediums. Attending séances in disguise, accompanied by a reporter and a police officer he debunked the most famous and celebrated Boston medium Mina Crandon, also known as ‘Margery’. This radio drama tells Margery’s story, and the story of how Houdini set out to disprove her claims. Starring Shelly Thompson as Margery and Nigel Anthony as Houdini. 
 
This double edition collection comes with a bonus episode of Harry Houdini: Escape artist and showman with Rajan Datar. Through interviews, Datar charts the life and career of the legendary Houdini, with writer and biographer Adam Begley, Dr Matthew Solomon, and Dr Katharina Rein.Cast and credits 
 HoudiniWritten by Bob SinfieldProduced by Graham PassHarry Houdini - Michael MaloneySir Arthur Conan Doyle - Graham CrowdenBess - Lorelei KingLady Conan Doyle - Gwen TaylorDash - Jack KlaffWhitehead - Dan StraussDr Steves - Dick VosburghFirst Broadcast BBC Radio 2, Oct 1996The Witch of Beacon Hill Written by Paul M LevittDirected by Martin JenkinsLeroi Crandon - John Woodvine'Margery the Medium’ - Shelly ThompsonHarry Houdini - Nigel AnthonyJames Bird - Kerry ShaleCaldwell/Rand - Vincent BrimbleGray/Munn - Brian MillerMrs Corbridge/Mrs Weiss - Helen HortonCollins/Rubin - Joe DunlopGeorge - Ian TargettCaroline Churchill/Mrs Stinson - Hilda SchroderWinifred Churchill - Barbara AtkinsonHenry/Interviewer - Paul DowningLaura - Jane SlavinFirst Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 Sep 1989The Forum: Harry Houdini: Escape artist and showmanPresented by Rajan DatarProduced by Fiona ClampinFirst Broadcast BBC World Service, 30 Dec 2021©2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Houdini & The Witch of Beacon Hill

Two Full-Cast BBC Radio Historical Dramas

Susan Barker

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances. 
 
Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared. 
 
Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw. 
 
And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice. 
 
But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?

Old Soul

Marcus Kliewer

You let them back in. 
You shouldn't have... 
 
Young couple Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they got on an old house deep in the mountains. One day, a man knocks on the door. He says he lived there years before and asks if he can show his family around. 
 
As soon as they enter, strange things start to happen, and Eve is desperate for them to leave and never come back. But they can’t – or won’t – take the hint that they are no longer welcome. 
 
Then, Charlie vanishes, and Eve begins to lose her grip on reality. She’s convinced there’s something terribly wrong with the house and its past inhabitants . . . or is it all in her head? 
 
The Turn of the Key meets Parasite in this gripping, eerily haunting debut and Reddit hit – soon to be a Netflix original movie starring Blake Lively – that will keep you up into the early hours. Perfect for fans of Stephen King and Leave the World Behind.

We Used to Live Here

Karl Ove Knausgaard

'Strikingly humane, unsettling, and wholly unique' Ferdia Lennon 
 
‘Ferociously readable. . . I still can't get enough' The Times 
 
If no one ever died, what would happen then? 
 
For several days, a bright new star in the sky above Norway has blazed over the restless lives of those below. Tove, an artist, is consumed by intense creativity as she spirals towards psychosis. Line falls in love with a musician named Valdemar and is lured to a secret black metal gig in a remote forest. Geir, a policeman, is investigating a ritual murder but chances upon something more horrifying even than the bodies in the trees – the last bodies he sees, because, as undertaker Syvert is the first to realise, people have stopped dying since the star appeared. 
 
What is haunting the world – and why? 
As profound as it is thrilling, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Third Realm is a breathtaking novel about ordinary lives on the cusp of irrevocable change. 
 
PRAISE FOR THE THIRD REALM 
 
‘A visionary epic' Guardian 
 
‘One of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. . . This book made me afraid of the dark again.’ Brandon Taylor, Washington Post 
 
‘As accessible and creepy as anything by Stephen King and as addictive as your favourite TV drama series. There is no writer I would rather devour’ Spectator 
PRAISE FOR KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD: 
 
'Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of my literary heroes' Torrey Peters 
 
'Addictive' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Knausgaard retains the ability to lock you, as if in a tractor beam, into his storytelling' New York Times 
 
‘Casts an existential spell. . . captivating' Financial Times

The Third Realm

Ottessa Moshfegh

Dive into the depraved, delectable depths of weird fiction with nine books by nine pioneering female authors.

Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body. 
 
While on her daily walk with her dog in the woods near her home, Vesta comes across a chilling handwritten note. 
 
Shaky even on her best days, Vesta is also alone, and new to the area, having moved here after the death of her husband. Her brooding about the note grows quickly into a full-blown obsession: who was Magda and how did she meet her fate? 
 
From the Booker-shortlisted author of Eileen comes this razor-sharp, chilling and darkly hilarious novel about the stories we tell ourselves and how we strive to obscure the truth. 
 
The Vintage Classics Weird Girls series: Dive into the depraved, delectable depths of weird fiction with nine books by nine pioneering female authors. Bold, disruptive, chilling and enchanting, these tales of the weird are strange enough to get lost in. 
 
PRAISE FOR DEATH IN HER HANDS: 
 
'This is a story about what might happen when a woman takes charge' The Times 
'Routinely hailed as one of the most exciting young American authors working today' Guardian 
'A new kind of murder mystery' New Yorker 
'A fine line between shocking realism and the absurd' New Statesman 
'A brilliant off-kilter detective story' Evening Standard 
'A beautiful novel' Sunday Times 
'Dark, devious' Observer

Death in Her Hands

Audrey Niffenegger

A bad thing about dying is that I'm starting to feel as though I'm being erased. 
 
When Elspeth Noblin dies she leaves her beautiful flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina Poole, on the condition that their mother is never allowed to cross the threshold. But until the solicitor's letter falls through the door of their suburban American home, either Julia nor Valentina knew their aunt existed. 
 
The twins hope that in London their own, separate, lives can finally begin but they have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them and works in the cemetery itself. 
 
As the twins unravel the secrets of their aunt, who doesn't seem quite ready to leave her flat, even after death, Niffenegger weaves together a delicious and deadly ghost story about love, loss and identity. 
 
'A ghostly love story and a lovely ghost story' - Tatler 
 
The Vintage Classics Weird Girls series: Dive into the depraved, delectable depths of weird fiction with nine books by nine pioneering female authors. Bold, disruptive, chilling and enchanting, these tales of the weird are strange enough to get lost in.

Her Fearful Symmetry

Seeing ghosts has always been part of Melody Bittersweet’s life – a quirky inconvenience at the best of times. 
 
But on her 27th birthday, she decides to finally make a career out of it by setting up her very own ghostbusting business. 
 
Her first case brings Melody to a house haunted by three brothers with a heap of unfinished business. To complicate matters, her fame-hungry ex, Leo Dark, and sceptical yet maddeningly gorgeous reporter, Fletcher Gunn, are also on the case. 
 
As Melody tries to uncover the truth, the undeniable chemistry between herself and Fletcher becomes increasingly distracting – which is less than ideal considering he's her sworn enemy hell-bent on discrediting her. 
 
Can Melody solve the mystery? Or will her feelings for Fletcher end up haunting her more than the ghosts?

Crazy Spooky Love

Alexis Henderson

‘Saturated with violence, desire, and power. It's a book with blood on its lips, and I loved it completely.’ ALIX E. HARROW 
 
'Alexis Henderson is one of the best Gothic writers out there.' HANNAH WHITTEN 
 
‘Dark academia stunner infused with Henderson's signature style – it's lush, atmospheric, imaginative and impossible to put down.’ RACHEL HARRISON 
 
'A modern-day Anne Rice, Henderson has a gift for creating a world engorged with desire and death.' THE NEW YORK TIMES 
 
Lennon Carter’s life is falling apart. 
 
Until she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to sit the entrance exam for somewhere few have heard of – Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. 
 
Lennon doesn’t know it yet, but she is special. She possesses the innate gift of persuasion: the ability to wield her will like a weapon, controlling others, and even matter itself. But this is a devastating power than Lennon must learn how to master. 
 
While persuasion takes a heavy toll on her body and her mind, she is captivated by all that surrounds her – her studies, Drayton’s lush campus and, most of all, Dante – the charismatic adviser who both intimidates and enamours her. 
 
But the longer that Lennon spends at Drayton, learning to wield her uncanny abilities, the more she uncovers about Drayton’s unsettling history, and Dante’s tragic and violent past. 
 
For it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption and darkness . . . and it’s a test she’s terrified she is going to fail.

An Academy for Liars

Daphne Fama

'One of the best horror books of the year.' Darcy Coates 
 
'A stunning gothic and an exceptional debut.' Rachel Harrison 
 
A young woman is drawn into a dangerous game after being invited to the mazelike home of her childhood friend, a rumoured witch, in this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines. 
 
Carigara, 1986. Josephine del Rosario is the town pariah, left destitute after her parents were assassinated, and destined to marry a man twice her age. 
 
So when Hiraya Ranoco, an old friend, offers Josephine an escape, she can't say no. All she needs to do is spend one night in the Ranoco’s home and play a children’s game of hide and seek. If she wins, she can have anything she wants. Even, perhaps, Hiraya’s heart. 
 
But the manor is sprawling and nightmarish, crawling with insects and rotting from the inside out. The servants stand silently in corners and won't meet her eye. Worst of all, the house itself seems to want to trap Josephine. She must stay hidden until morning, but can she make it through the night? 
 
'This spectacular story will hold you captive until dawn.' Kylie Lee Baker 
 
'A pulse-pounding tale of family trauma, frayed friendship, and political oppression.' Nick Medina

House of Monstrous Women

Josh Winning

When Willow posts something on the internet she really shouldn’t have, she flees to Camp Castaway, an adults-only digital detox based at an old campground in the woods. 
 
On the first night, the campers gather round the fire to tell ghost stories. In particular, the tale of Knock Knock Nancy – a witch, supposedly beheaded in this very woodland. 
 
They say her restless spirit knocks on doors late at night. If you answer, she’ll take your head. 
 
Willow doesn’t believe in ghosts. But next morning, a camper has vanished. And then that evening, alone in her cabin, Willow hears it... 
 
Knock, Knock, Knock.

Heads Will Roll

Jessica Gross

By the time we’d said ‘I love you’ and kissed goodnight and turned out the light, thoughts of whether to resist had left my mind. 
 
I had climbed inside his body, and now he was stirring. 
 
Olive is desperate to get close to Theo – really, really close. 
 
Despite being a radio host, she’s always struggled to connect with people. And now she’s in her thirties, single, and so flustered by relationships that she secretly records her conversations, hoping to decipher social clues and find a way to be less alone. 
 
Then Theo turns up for a shift at the food pantry where she volunteers. He’s a surgeon fascinated by human organs, a former football player, and possibly as weird as Olive. For the first time, someone seems to crave and understand her. 
 
Every recording Olive makes of Theo is a balm – which just makes her more afraid of losing him. The only solution seems to be to bind him to her forever. Luckily, the gap between Theo’s front teeth is just wide enough for something – or someone – to slip inside. 
 
Arresting and immersive, Open Wide explores the boundaries of love and the body, as universal human impulses bleed into the surreal.

Open Wide

Hye-Young Pyun

Fall into the chilling and claustrophobic psychological novel and Korean bestseller from the award-winning author, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Olga Ravn. 
 
WINNER OF THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD 
SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM STARRING THEO JAMES AND SQUID GAME'S HOYEON 
 
'A superbly insidious and atmospheric chiller about caring and cruelty: grief, isolation, helplessness and existential fear' Guardian 
 
‘Korea's answer to Stephen King . . . a thoughtful and elegant exploration of a relationship . . . increasingly unnerving’ Observer 
 
‘Beautifully haunting… Probably my favourite book I’ve ever read.’ 5-star reader review 
 
Following a devastating car crash that killed his wife, Oghi wakes in hospital to find himself trapped in his own body and under the control of his vengeful mother-in-law as she grieves the loss of her only child. 
 
Isolated from his friends and neglected by his nurse, Oghi’s world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his wife, a sensitive woman who found solace in cultivating her garden. 
 
But as Oghi remains alone and paralysed, his mother-in-law is hard at work in the now-abandoned garden, uprooting what her daughter had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes… 
 
A bestseller in Korea, The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms. 
 
Praise for The Hole 
 
‘A gripping read for fans of literary horror’ The Bookseller 
 
‘Will stay with you long after you turn the last page’ Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow and Orpheus Builds a Girl 
 
‘Masterfully unsettling.’ Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells 
 
'Like Hitchcock or Abe, Pyun peers head on into the unnerving depths of human grief' Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000 
 
'A Korean take on Misery' Time 
 
'Suspenseful, eerie and surprisingly profound' Big Issue 
 
'While reading The Hole, you’ll find yourself suddenly doubting everything' Kyung-sook Shin, New York Times bestselling author of Please Look After Mother 
 
‘A chilling psychological thriller . . . the reader is drawn in deeper with each new revelation’ PA Media

The Hole

Jackson P. Brown

Amy is an empath, able to sense the auras of the supernatural creatures that stalk London at night. But sorely lacking in knowledge, she spends night after night searching for answers. 
 
Gerald is a Reaper - a weapon for hire - on the verge of his Awakening. Of coming into his power and becoming the man his family need him to be. The man they demand he be. 
 
When Amy stumbles across Gerald one night, she notices his strange aura, unlike anything she has felt before. Afraid, but desperate to know more, she follows, and he makes her an offer she can't refuse. If she becomes his partner, he will introduce her to a world she has only ever felt the shallow surface of:the secret underground city 
 
And their first mission together: 
 
Find a girl who murdered her own parents

The Reaper

Dan Simmons

Hailed by STEPHEN KING as 'a brilliant, massive combination of history and supernatural horror'. 
 
And made into an acclaimed, chilling 10-part Ridley Scott-produced BBC TV series 
 
Hailed as the most advanced scientific enterprise ever mounted, Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition in search of the fabled North-West Passage had every expectation of triumph. 
 
But for almost two years his ships HMS Terror and Erebus have been trapped in the Arctic ice. Supplies of fuel and food are running low. Scurvy, starvation and even madness have begun to take their toll. And yet the real threat isn't from the constantly shifting, alien landscape, the flesh-numbing temperatures or being crushed by the unyielding, frozen ocean. No, the real threat is far more terrifying. 
 
Because there is something out there in the frigid darkness. It stalks the ships and snatches men. It is a nameless thing. At once nowhere and everywhere, this terror will become the expedition's nemesis . . . 
 
Readers are gripped by The Terror: 
 
***** 'One of the best books I have ever read. I couldn't put it down!' 
***** 'A tremendous weighty achievement in atmosphere and storytelling.' 
***** 'So beautifully written and well researched. I can't praise this book highly enough.'

The Terror

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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