Yvonne Battle-Felton (Curdle Creek) Andrew Michael Hurley (Saltwash)

Yvonne Battle-Felton was born in Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey. She holds an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. She is the Academic Director of Creative Writing at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education. A writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, Yvonne's work has been published in literary journals and anthologies. She has six children’s titles in Ladybird Tales of Superheroes and Ladybird Tales of Crowns and Thrones. Remembered was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2019) and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize (2020).

Curdle Creek: 

Welcome to Curdle Creek. We’re dying to make you feel at home.

Osira, a forty-five-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of Curdle Creek, an all-Black town in rural America governed by a tradition of ominous rituals designed to keep the residents safe.

Curdle Creek has one particularly strict policy: one in, one out.

And one day, it is Osira’s turn.

Forced into the great unknown. The sinister reality of her birthplace unravels around her. As she comes face-to-face with those she believed were lost, Osira must reckon with all she has ever been told and confront the insidious cruelties of inheritance. 

Praise for Yvonne:

“A gorgeously written, surrealist folktale that goes bone deep. Compelling, thought-provoking, thrilling, haunting, Yvonne Battle-Felton’s Curdle Creek is simply a marvel” Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at The End of the World and Horror Movie.

“A thoughtful, sinister tour-de-force” Tananarive Due, L.A. Times Book Prize-winning author of The Reformatory.

“Tautly written, utterly gripping, Yvonne Battle-Felton's novel invites the reader into a world of mystery and mythology” Carolyn Ferrell, author of Dear Miss Metropolitan.

Andrew Michael Hurley lives in Lancashire with his family. His first novel, The Loney, was originally published by Tartarus Press as a 300-copy limited edition, before being republished by John Murray. It went on to sell in twenty languages, win the Costa Best First Novel Award and the Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. 

Devil's Day, his second novel, was picked as a Book of the Year in five newspapers, and won the Encore Award. TV rights in The Loney have just been sold to New Regency with Jonathan van Tulleken (Shogun) on board to direct. Andrew Michael Hurley’s fourth book, Barrowbeck, was released to critical acclaim in October 2024. 

In 2024 the film of Starve Acre starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark and directed by Daniel Kokotajlo was released and was chosen to represent Britain at the London Film Festival in 2023.

Saltwash:

ALL WILL BE FORGIVEN, IF ALL CAN BE FORGOTTEN.

The dilapidated seaside town of Saltwash isn't a place that Tom Shift would have chosen to come to at all, let alone on such a bleak November afternoon. B

But his new friend, Oliver Keele, has insisted on meeting for dinner at the Castle Hotel, where the owners, the Paleys, try their best to cling on to the glory days.

Both terminally ill, Tom and Oliver have been bound by the saddest of circumstances, though they have found some solace in writing to one another via a pen-pal scheme set up by their respective cancer clinics. So far, their friendship has been conducted solely through letters, with Oliver proving himself to be a treasury of literary quips and quotes.

Yet, for all his flamboyance and verbosity, he is guarded, and Tom suspects that he is lonely and nomadic. And Oliver sees Tom for what he is too: a man haunted by guilt and desperate to try and atone in some way before it's too late.

Regret is what brings others to the Castle. Much to Tom's surprise, dozens more guests appear, dressed in their finest to take part in a prize draw that offers one person the chance of deliverance from their remorse. But does everyone deserve the opportunity?

Praise for Andrew:

'Impeccably written . . . tightens like a clammy hand around your throat' Daily Mail on The Loney

'A work of goose-flesh eeriness' The Spectator on Devil's Day

'A tale of suspense that sucks you in and pulls you under' New Statesman on Starve Acre

‘Curiously seductive . . . there is a deep sense of darkness’ Guardian on Barrowbeck

‘Thrilling, unsettling, ominous . . . like a knock at the door on a dark evening’ Irish Times on Barrowbeck

'Barrowbeck casts a real spell - or is it a curse?’ Mail on Sunday on Barrowbeck

‘Impeccable and beautifully drawn . . . Hurley has been rightly lauded in British folk-horror circles’ Big Issue on Barrowbeck

We look forward to seeing you. 

Catherine & Claire