About Us
Neil McRobert
Your Podcast host
Neil is a writer, podcaster and recovering academic. After completing a PhD in Contemporary Gothic Fiction (useful!) He fled the ivory halls to live a quiet life amidst the moors and dark satanic mills of northern England. Here he dwells, writing words, talking to famous writers and doting upon his dog. And yes, that is Stephen King’s front gate in the photo.
Want me to write for you? Get in touch.
Ted
Your Podcast mascot
The reason i’m a freelance podcaster (who could leave that face at home?). My own personal Cujo. He gets more likes than me on Instagram.
THINGS I HAVE WRITTEN
Look upon my works and despair…
- The Best Horror Books of 2024 – Esquire (ongoing)
- Why Carrie is Still Scary as Shit! – Esquire (April 2024)
- 11 Books That Scratch the 3-Body Itch – Vulture (March 2024)
- 12 Books to Read if You Can’t Move on From Night Country – Vulture (February 2024)
- The Best Horror Books of 2023 – Esquire (December 2023)
- My Macabre Weekend at StokerCon – Esquire (October 2023)
- The Scariest Sci-Fi Horror Movies for Halloween – New Scientist (Oct 2023)
- Shock of the New: Jordan Peele, Mariana Enriquez and More on the Horror Fiction Renaissance – Guardian (October 2023)
- The Long Tale (Tail?) of Dogs in Fiction – Esquire (August 2023)
- Whalefall Review – New Scientist (August 2023)
- Interview with Lauren Beukes – Elle (August 2023)
- Generation H: Meet the Writer’s Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age – Esquire (July 2023)
Black Mirror Season 6: The Good, The Bad and The Existentially Harrowing – Elle (June 2023)
- The Deluge, review – Guardian (March 2023)
- How Black Filmmakers Reinvented the Horror Genre – Esquire (Feb 2023)
- The 22 Best Horror Books of 2022 – Esquire (Nov 2022)
- What to Read this Halloween and Beyond – Guardian (Oct 2022)
- Where to Start with Stephen King – Guardian (Aug 2022)
- The Fifty Best Horror Books of All Time Will Scare You Sh*tless – Esquire (May 2022)
- All 75 Stephen King Books, Ranked – Esquire (Sept 2022)
- The Final Girl Breaks Out –Slate (Sept 2021)
- Billy Summers, review – Guardian (August 2021)
- Project Fear: What Will Brexit Gothic Look Like? – Guardian (Feb 2019)
140 – Andrew F. Sullivan & The Cutest Mould in Fungus City
What if the world ended, not with a bang, but a slow squelch? That’s the premise of The Marigold, the brand-new dystopia from Andrew F.
139 – Ai Jiang & Home is Where the Haunt Is
This week we’re dissecting spectres and excavating the haunted house in Ai Jiang’s word-of-mouth smash, Linghun.
138 – Rachel Eve Moulton & The Bellybutton of the Beast
The Insatiable Volt Sisters is the weirdest island story since Lost, or Brexit. Curses, killer quarries and the wearing of other people’s skin.
137 – Kelly Link & Once Upon a Time in a Ghost Story
Kelly Link knows a thing or two about the darkness inside fairy tales. White Cat, Black Dog twists them into new shapes.
136 – Max Booth III & Stories With Teeth
Terrible times and awful words await us this week.Max Booth III is here to talk about his new collection of uber-dark stories, Abnormal Statistics.
135 – Victor LaValle & The Weird, Weird West
Wagons West with Victor Lavalle. We talk about his weird western: Lone Women. Homesteading, monsters, tears and fear.
134 – Margaret Atwood & Hope in the Dystopia
Breathe! Our guest is Margaret Atwood. We talk dystopias, the Canadian wilderness, men who turn into bears, horror and slapstick, and her own haunted house.
133 – Jacqueline Holland & At Last! Vampires!
Jacqueline and I talk about horror imposter-syndrome, New England vampire lore, the terror of living forever, and the joy of being a ‘dark weirdo.’
132 – Matt Ruff & A Hostile Universe Here on Earth
I take a road trip with Matt Ruff, through Lovecraft Country, talking racism, cosmic horror and writing Black stories from a white perspective.
131 – Johnny Compton & A Pyroclastic Flow of Negative Energy
Johnny Compton’s The Spite House delivers more ghosts than you think you could fit into 250-pages … and none of them are anything less than
128 – C.J. Tudor & Locked Rooms at the End of the World
The Drift, takes C.J. Tudor from her crime chillers into a whole other world of horror. We talk failed novels, TV adaptation and pandemic grief.
127 – Grady Hendrix and the Radical Puppet Collective
They say selling a house is up there with divorce and death. Now imagine that house is haunted… by demonic puppets. That’s the premise of
A Special Thanks to my Patrons
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