Join us for an evening of unsettling fiction, hosted by Emma Liggins

We are delighted to welcome G. R. Pidgeon and Stephen Howard to Blackwell’s for a special event with the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies! The authors will be discussing their work with the Centre’s co-director, Emma Liggins.

Doors: 6.30pm, Starts: 6.45pm.

Tickets are £5 or admission is included when purchasing a Book & Ticket option.

About The Patient In The Tower:

The war may be over, but the nightmare is just beginning…

Released from prison after years of solitary confinement for refusing to fight in the Great War, Robert Latimer arrives in an isolated village looking for his brother.

Thomas was wounded in France and sent to Ravensmere House for treatment. But the sprawling estate has a sinister reputation, housing the most disturbed soldiers returning from war. While searching, Robert sees a mysterious woman dressed in white wandering through the woods at twilight.

Denied access to his brother by the charismatic Dr Abbott, Robert becomes convinced that something is terribly wrong behind Ravensmere’s walls. With the help of outspoken local woman Edith Chalk, he uncovers strange medicines, disturbing experiments and long-forgotten legends.

But as Robert digs deeper and risks his life to uncover the truth, he realises there are darker forces at play. And someone will do anything to keep Ravensmere’s secrets hidden.

Because some evils refuse to stay buried…

About This House Isn’t Haunted (But We Are):

A couple mourning the loss of their young daughter take up an opportunity to renovate a rural cottage on the remote North Yorkshire Moors. However, they can’t process their grief as increasingly eerie events unfold. Is it their daughter haunting them or is something else going on? Part of Wild Hunt Book’s brilliant Northern Weird series, focussing on the North of England as setting, subject and character.

About the authors:

G. R. Pidgeon has spent the last twenty years as Head of English at leading state and independent schools in Kent, aiming to inspire the next generation of readers and writers. He is also an English Subject Leader for The Prince’s Teaching Institute, developing the subject knowledge of new teachers, and specialising in Victorian and Gothic Literature, as well as the Romantic Poets. Most weekends he is to be found exploring the forgotten corners of ancient parish churches, reading the faded inscriptions on the backs of toppled gravestones, or climbing up winding staircases in search of secret passages.

Stephen Howard is an novelist and short story writer from Manchester, now living in Cheshire with his wife and daughter. Stephen has a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from the Open University. His short fiction has been published by Lost Boys Press, The No Sleep Podcast, Metastellar, and others. His sci-fi / fantasy novel, An Invincible Summer, was published this year with Infested Publishing.