MONSTROUS TALES: HAUNTING ENCOUNTERS WITH BRITAIN’S MYTHOLOGICAL BEASTS is a magical anthology coming soon from Raven Books. To celebrate the upcoming release, and because we thought it would be fun for the Halloween season, we invited some of the anthology’s authors to a roundtable interview. Let’s find out more about Monstrous Tales first:

This isle is full of noises…

From the finfolk of the beaches of Orkney to the plague monsters of the Welsh mountains, and the giant slugs of the Derbyshire peaks to the Beast of Bodmin Moor, Britain is home to many strange creatures of folklore. Some are ancient, as enduring as the forests and mountains they inhabit. Others live among us, in our cities, creating new legends as they scuttle through the shadows. And none of them are to be trusted.

In this deliciously chilling collection, award-winning and bestselling authors bring you tales inspired by the monsters that share our land. The perfect read for anyone who’s ever spotted something slimy and unexplained in their peripheral vision, or seen eyes reflecting back in the forest where no eyes should be.

INCLUDES NEW AND ORIGINAL STORIES FROM:
Janice Hallett
Abir Mukherjee
Rosie Andrews
Stuart Turton
Dan Jones
Jenn Ashworth
Sunyi Dean
Jane Johnson
Rebecca Netley

Tell us a little about your story! What, or who, makes it monstrous?

Jenn Ashworth: In ‘Old Trash’ a mother convinces her wayward teenage daughter to come on a camping trip in Lancashire witch country. Mae is intrigued by the folktales about a dog that roams the fells and woods, a dog with fire for eyes, and a dog that, if you see it, can predict your death. Rachel just wants to bring her somewhere where the mobile signal is bad to get her away from the influence of a much older man who is grooming her. I wanted to play with the idea of ‘monster’ in this story – thinking about these old stories about monsters and strange animals that roam remote places, and the more human, nearer to hand dangers that teenage girls are subject to – in the form of controlling mothers and men who might want to exploit them. 

Abir Mukherjee: My story, ‘The Doctor’s Wife’, is about a young locum GP who moves from Glasgow to what he thinks will be a nice cosy job in a village in the  Highlands. But things aren’t quite what they seem. The last doctor left under mysterious circumstances, there are unnerving things going on in the hills outside town and a strange woman keeps turning up at his surgery – one that he can’t get out of his head.

Rebecca Netley: In ‘Mr Mischief’, ten year old Bessie joins her uncle when he takes up the post of gamekeeper on the Yorkshire moors. Local rumour states that they will be sharing their new home with a boggart named Mr Mischief and for leftover scraps, Mr Mischief will provide household rewards. However, it soon becomes clear to Bessie that not only does Mr Mischief actually exist but that his influence is less benign than she had hoped and her uncle’s mood takes a dramatic turn for the worse, particularly towards his niece.  Before long Bessie finds herself trapped in a precarious situation. Perhaps the greatest horror of this story lies in the fact that when it becomes clear Bessie must make a critical choice between her uncle and Mr Mischief – no alliance can leave her unscathed.

 Sunyi Dean: A young woman and her husband arrive on a remote and ominous Orkney island surrounded by watchful seals and haunting mists, but the real horror is the story of their relationship, and the darkness they brought with them to the island. 

Which British folklore do you find the most unsettling? Did it inspire your story?

Jenn Ashworth: There’s a lot of folklore about dogs that roam the wild places of Lancashire and the broader north. The phantom black dog of my story has been seen at Formby Sands, its glowing eyes visible in the sea mist, its paws leaving footprints on the sand. It crops up in Cumbria – where it appears as a brindled hound who drinks the blood of unguarded sheep.  It’s been seen in Pendle – connected to the witches, whose familiars include huge dark hellhounds that may or may not also be the devil. A version of this folktale crops up in Jane Eyre too, where ‘Gytrash’ or ‘Padfoort’ is also said to haunt the lonely roads that cross the north country moors, waiting for the unsuspecting solitary traveller. There’s something persistent about the folkloric dog – haunted and devilish, familiar and dangerous, that has always appealed to me – perhaps because dogs are also our helpers, our companions, our work animals and our best friends and so the versions of them that crop up in the folklore seems to perform a function of making what is nearby and familiar deeply unsettling. 

Abir Mukherjee: To be honest, the inspiration for my story comes not from Britain, but from India, specifically from Bengal, where my parents came from. Bengal has a rich and gruesome history of ghost folklore – everything from ghosts who steal fish to those who will suck out your soul – and I thought it would be fun to see what would happen if one of those was transported from the jungles of India to the rugged Highlands of Scotland.

Rebecca Netley: I find fairy folklore most unsettling. There are abundant tales stretching back hundreds of years and people who claim to see and communicate with them today. There are some fascinating myths surrounding fairies such as the exchanging of a real child for a fairy child. Although I didn’t use fairies as a premise for Mr Mischief, there are definite similarities, and particularly as to whether they present a malign or benign presence.

Sunyi Dean: Anything to do with the ocean is unsettling to me, including but not limited to selkies, mermaids, and finfolk.  I love swimming and am a qualified diver but I’m also simultaneously terrified of the ocean and of drowning, which makes for a conflicting experience when I’m in water. That fear of what lies beneath the surface definitely influenced my desire to write a finfolk story! 

Recommend us a chilling read to curl up with this Autumn!

Jenn Ashworth: I’m a huge fan of Andrew Michael Hurley, and he has a new book out this month – Saltwash. He’s so interested in northern landscapes and mythologies, and in the new novel, gives us a down-at-heel northern sea-side town which I’m imagining is a version of Cleveleys or Fleetwood – places I know very well – and uses it as the setting for a tightly controlled and slow burning tale of what happens when the guilty try to cheat death. It’s an amazing book – an entire novel set more or less on one night – and the grim salty creepiness of it is an absolute delight for readers who (like me) love Robert Aickman and MR James.

Abir Mukherjee: Well I’ll tell you what I’m looking forward to reading: King Sorrow by Joe Hill. It’s a tale of crime, the summoning of spirits and Faustian pacts at a New England college. Joe Hill is a master of the gripping and terrifying read. I can’t wait.

Rebecca Netley: The Hotel by Daisy Johnson is a fabulous autumn book. It was first written for radio 4 and is a set of connected stories based on a cursed hotel in the fens. This is a wonderfully magical and mysterious read that leaves the reader just a little on the outside yet close enough to imbibe all its rich, atmospheric horror. And if this isn’t enough to delight, Johnson’s magical prose is certain to lure you in and once captured – keep you hostage.

Sunyi Dean: If folklore from other cultures sounds appealing to you, then I personally suggest THE GHOST BRIDE by Yangsze Choo. Set in 1890s colonial Malaya, it is a fantastical take on the age-old (but very real) Chinese practice of marrying living women to dead men, and has all the creeping gothic vibes you could want, complete with controlling ghost husbands. I adored this book and its highly unusual story. (Bonus: there may or may not be a dragon romance, too). 

Monstrous Tales is due for publication on 23rd October – you can pre-order your copy on Bookshop.org

Jenn Ashworth was born in Preston and studied at Cambridge and Manchester. Her novels include A Kind of Intimacy, The Friday Gospels and Fell. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. In 2019 she published Notes Made While Falling, a memoir told in a series of essays. Her latest novel is Ghosted: A Love Story. She is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.

Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in Raj-era India which have sold over 400,000 copies worldwide and been translated into 15 languages. His books have won numerous awards including the CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel, the Prix du Polar Européen, the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing and the Amazon Publishing Readers Award for E-book for the Year.
Alongside fellow author, Vaseem Khan, he also hosts the popular Red Hot Chilli Writers podcast, where every fortnight, joined by special guests from the media and literature, he takes a wry look at the world of books, writing, and the creative arts, tackling everything from bestsellers to pop culture.

Rebecca Netley grew up as part of an eccentric family in a house full of books and music, and these things have fed her passions. Family and writing remain at the heart of Rebecca’s life; she lives in Reading with her loved ones and an overenthusiastic dog, who gives her writing tips.
Rebecca is a writer of long and short fiction; her debut novel, The Whistling (Penguin, 2022), won the Exeter Novel Prize and was longlisted for the Michael Ondaatje Prize. The Whistling has been adapted for stage. It was followed by The Black Feathers which was published by Michael Joseph in 2023.

Sunyi Dean (sun-yee deen) is a multi-award-losing author of speculative fiction. Though born in Texas and raised in Hong Kong, she now resides in Northern England. Her debut novel, THE BOOK EATERS, was an instant #2 Sunday Times Bestseller.In her spare time, she likes buying whisky, collecting dumbbells, and dying in jiu-jitsu. She also founded the Hugo-nominated Publishing Rodeo Podcast with fellow Tor author, Scott Drakeford.Her highly-anticipated sophmore novel, THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND FACES, will hit stores in May 2026.