Ghost Stories: Wakenhyrst - How It Happened
Channel: Michelle Paver
Date: 2020-11-10

Michelle explains how she had the idea for her gothic chiller Wakenhrsyt.  Buy Wakenhyrst here: https://amzn.to/32xmGyL

"Paver is one of Britain’s modern greats. This sinister, gothic chiller shows why."
- The Big Issue

“The most impressive nov­el of the year. It’s an utter triumph of a book, a pitch-perfect evocation of the stories of M.R. James and A.C. Benson filtered through a 21st-century sensibility. Concise and intense, filled with references to the tradition of English ghost stories, Paver’s novel succeeds on a number of levels. Starting with her 2010 novel, Dark Matter, and continuing with 2016’s Thin Air, Paver has been writing ghost stories distinguished by their vividly evoked settings and the struggles of their protago­nists. Wakenhyrst is a more-than-worthy addition to their ranks.”
- John Langan, Locus Magazine 

“A masterfully creepy gothic thriller”
- The Bookseller 

*  Selected by the BBC Radio 2 Book Club *

“A gripping ghost story… This is a brilliantly atmospheric read (be warned: it’s also terrifying!) with a brave, forward-thinking heroine I loved.”
- Joanna Finney, Good Housekeeping 

“Paver’s storytelling is irresistible”
-  The Times

“As in Dark Matter, Paver manages the balance between outright supernaturalism and the suggestion that the horrors are psychological in origin with great skill. It is more difficult to pull this off at novel-length than in a short story, and harder now than it was 100 years ago, but she succeeds. Revisiting M R James territory with a modern feminist sensibility, Wakenhyrst is weirdly compelling.”
- David Sexton, Evening Standard 

“This dark, gothic tale with hook you in with its atmospheric setting of a house on the edge of the Suffolk fens, and its themes of superstition, witchcraft and religion”
- The Sun 


“Months after reading it, I remain obsessed with Michelle Paver’s Wakenhyrst… Spooky, twisted and unforgettable”
- The Observer – Best Thrillers of the Year, Alison Flood