Books to Buy Horror Lovers this Christmas!

Ghost stories and Christmas go hand in hand. A traditional Christmas is all about mulled wine, family time, Christmas carolling, sugar plum fairies and cosy, creepy stories told amongst friends huddled around the fireside.

As the nights draw in, what could be better than snuggling up with a thick blanket, a warm drink and a great horror story this Christmas?

Following in the footsteps of the Christmas ghost story greats – the likes of M.R. James, J.S. Le Fanu, Edith Wharton and Charles Dickens – are our authors, whose horror stories are sure to thrill and terrify.

As M.R. James so skillfully put it in A Warning to the Curious:

“Two ingredients most valuable in the concocting of a ghost story are the atmosphere and the nicely managed crescendo … Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage.”

Now go curl up by the fire, find yourself a good ghost story, and try not to look at the shadows behind you…

Here are some books to buy the horror lovers in your life this Christmas.