Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories of ghosts and strange happenings.

Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors – master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre – bring this time-honoured tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales.

From a bustling Covent Garden Christmas market to the frosty moors of Yorkshire, from a country estate with a dreadful secret, to a London mansion where a beautiful girl lies frozen in death, these are stories to make your hair stand on end, send shivers down your spine and to serve as your indispensable companion to the long nights of winter.

So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the spell of The Haunting Season . . .

Featuring new and original tales from:
Bridget Collins, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Binding; Imogen Hermes Gowar, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock; Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies; Andrew Michael Hurley Sunday Times bestselling author of The Loney; Jess Kidd, International award-winning author of Things in Jars; Elizabeth Macneal, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory; Natasha Pulley, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and Laura Purcell, Award-winning author of The Silent Companions.

My Review

I’ve read a few of these authors before, which is why I was attracted to this compilation in the first place.

A Study in Black and White by Bridget Collins
Spooky and scary, reminding me of the traditional ghost stories of MR James. When Morton sees a black and white house, with huge topiary in the shape of chess pieces, he is fascinated. So he can’t believe his luck when he discovers he can live there for a nominal rent. Well, you know what they say, ‘if it seems too good to be true it probably is.’

Strange things happen in the house – he can see and feel a presence and the chess pieces keep moving.

Thwaite’s Tenant by Imogen Hermes Gowar is one of the scariest ghost stories I’ve ever read. When Lucinda Lisle leaves her husband, taking their young son Stanley with her, she is ‘aided’ by her father and driven to the old Thwaite house, a place of ‘some notoriety’. Neither she nor her sister have ever been there, but somehow their father is caught up in its reputation.

The house is cold and dark and Lucinda’s father leaves them both there. That’s when the spooky stuff starts happening. And terrifying it is too. Footsteps, objects being moved, voices, apparitions, but this is way beyond the usual haunting occurrences. I was truly chilled.

Story number three is The Eel Singers by Natasha Pulley. Very different from the other stories so far, it follows Thaniel, Mori and Six from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street as they decide to take a break for Christmas and stay in a cottage in the Fens. There’s something not right, however, about the people and the place. Thaniel finds himself sleepwalking for the first time in his life and hears a strange song – the song of the eel singers.

It makes more sense if you have read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street – otherwise you won’t have any background on the characters, which I feel is important.

Lily Wilt by Jess Kidd is my absolute favourite. So much so that I immediately downloaded Things in Jars to read next. I just love the way she writes, the turns of phrase, the descriptions, are all so original.

Seventeen-year-old Lily Wilt died in her sleep. Her body is lying in an open coffin in the house in Hanover Square. People come to file past and revel in her beauty. She has become a celebrity in death. And strangely, her beauty hasn’t faded since she passed.

The renowned photographer Walter Pemble is hired to take her picture – a memento mori – something the Victorians were very keen on. He has been warned not to get too close to Lily’s body. But Walter doesn’t heed the warnings. Just how far is he prepared to go to be with Lily? Terrifying!

The Chillingham Chair by Laura Purcell, another of my favourite authors, The Silent Companions is one of my favourite books.

A few days before her younger sister’s wedding, Evelyn falls off her horse and breaks her ankle. She is supposed to be a bridesmaid, but now that won’t be possible. She can barely stand let alone walk. However, her sister’s fiance Victor Chillingham has a solution in the form of his late father’s wheelchair, a horrible, scruffy thing that only just moves. Why is Victor so keen to have Evelyn at the wedding, seeing as he had proposed to her first and she had rebuffed him in no uncertain terms. The chair appears to have a mind of its own, but what does it want?

The Hanging Of The Greens by Andrew Michael Hurley is probably the strangest of the stories. The Rev Edward Clarke is visited by a sick man called Joe Gull who tells him that he is dying and wants to make his peace with the people he has wronged due to his alcohol addiction. He has done some terrible things, particularly to Murray and Helen Oxbarrow of Salter Farm. In his conceit (as he himself believes) Edward will use his own influence, not God’s, to act as mediator between Joe and the Oxbarrows. So far, nothing supernatural. But when Edward visits the Oxbarrows, it all turns a bit Christmas Carol and The Ghost of Christmas Past.

Confinement by Kiran Millwood Hargrave – absolutely terrifying and based on the true case of Mrs Amelia Dyer, the Victorian baby murderess, and the author’s own experience of postpartum psychosis.

Catherine Blake has given birth to a baby girl and is confined to her room, as was often the advice given by doctors in Victorian times. She is fed laudanum on a daily basis to keep her calm and locked in the dark. Seems unbelievable today. Probably because of the newborn baby, I needed to finish the story to make sure the baby was OK. Just terrifying.

Monster by Elizabeth Macneal is set in 1838. Victor Crisp has always been the clever brother, the one who was good at everything from cricket to mathematics. His younger brother is only interested in plants and flowers. Victor calls him Daisy. But now, years later, Daisy is a leading horticulturist and Victor has achieved nothing. Then he marries Mabel and they go to Lyme Regis where Victor can search for a fossilised skeleton that will make his fortune. He’ll be celebrated by the Royal Society. But things are not as they seem. Seals that turn into women, women that turn into seals, selkies and strange happenings. It’s all rubbish to Victor until a terrible tragedy changes everything.

A brilliant anthology of scary stories just in time for Christmas. I loved every single one.