{"id":777,"date":"2019-09-26T09:09:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T08:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/?p=777"},"modified":"2019-09-26T09:15:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T08:15:14","slug":"writer-alison-littlewood-tells-us-about-her-favourite-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/writer-alison-littlewood-tells-us-about-her-favourite-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer Alison Littlewood tells us about her favourite horror"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This October, we’re proud to be hosting acclaimed horror writer Alison Littlewood, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction. Her latest novel, Mistletoe<\/a>, a winter ghost story, is published in October this year, and previous books have been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, and described as ‘perfect reading for a dark winter’s night.’ Her short stories have been picked for several year\u2019s best anthologies, and gathered together in her collections Quieter Paths and Five Feathered Tales.<\/p>\n

To celebrate hosting Alison at our “Horror Out Loud” event on Saturday October 26th<\/a> [book tickets here<\/a>], we caught up with her to ask all about her own favourite horror.<\/p>\n

Welcome, Alison! What, to you, makes good horror?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people may find it odd, but I don\u2019t think that horror is all about the chills. For me it\u2019s something more than that \u2013 it\u2019s an exploration of what it is to be human, albeit looking at some of the darker aspects of life (and indeed death). It\u2019s also about the questions we\u2019ll never be able to answer, the persistence of a little bit of mystery in the world. I certainly wouldn\u2019t define it in terms of horror movies, which tend to be about splatter and superficial revulsion. I prefer more psychological work. And for me, horror is often really about love; after all, love is closely intertwined with fear, because it isn\u2019t until we love someone that we can truly appreciate what it means to lose them.<\/p>\n

\"\"Can you tell us about a couple of your favourite horror writers or short stories, and what it is you love about them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a tough question, because there are so many writers out there producing amazing work, before even looking at some of the classic tales from the past. Can I do both? I love Priya Sharma\u2019s recent short story collection, All the Fabulous Beasts. It\u2019s so subtle and nuanced and moving and beautifully written. Nathan Ballingrud\u2019s collection, North American Lake Monsters, is another of the finest from the last few years \u2013 he paints such eloquent, fully-rounded characters with the seemingly casual stroke of a brush.<\/p>\n

As for individual stories, one of my all-time favourites is The Monkey\u2019s Paw, by by W. W. Jacobs. It\u2019s just so neat and perfectly told \u2013 and another story that is really about love. It\u2019s emotionally horrific and made a lasting impression on me. I also love The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in which a slow, creeping madness seems to creep over the reader. It\u2019s rooted in the author\u2019s experience of being subjected to a \u2018rest cure\u2019, and speaks volumes about women\u2019s position in society and oppressive approaches to their mental health.<\/p>\n

What do you personally find scariest in horror writing? Are there subjects or themes that you return to in your own work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I suppose what I find scariest is the fear of loss: the knowledge that all we have is temporary and can easily be swept away. That makes me sound rather maudlin, but hopefully it has a flip side in showing the value of what is truly important in life! It\u2019s something I explore in my own work, though more recently, as well as the loss of others, I\u2019ve been fascinated by the loss of the self. I love using unreliable narrators, where characters operate from within a particular world view or mental state but the reader can draw their own conclusions. I\u2019m also interested in the ultimate unknowability of other people, particularly characters who aren\u2019t what they appear to be. Hence I\u2019ve been drawn to writing about changeling folklore, in The Hidden People and Cottingley, or characters whose perceptions are altered by hypnotism in The Crow Garden, or by even more supernatural influences, in my new book Mistletoe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thankyou, Alison!<\/p>\n

You can hear Alison Littlewood, along with Lucie McKnight Hardy, on Saturday October 26th at our Horror Out Loud at Frightfest! a one-day minifest of horror writing in Leeds’ oldest and most haunted surviving subscription library. Book your tickets here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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