The first edition of the UK Ghost Story Festival (UKGSF) will be taking place in Derby this month at QUAD and the Museum at the Wardwick venues. With Derby’s reputation as one of the UK’s most haunted cities, the festival will be an atmospheric weekend bringing into focus one of the most popular forms of fiction.
Taking place over the last weekend in November (29th – 1st December), the festival promises three days of readings, author interviews, screenings, workshops and panel discussions.
Headline authors for the event include acclaimed writer and anthologist Johnny Mains, who will be discussing female ghost story authors in the Victorian era. Multiple award-winning folk horror author Adam LG Nevill will be launching his new novel The Reddening. There will also be interviews with two of the most exciting modern names in supernatural fiction: Laura Purcell (The Silent Companions, The Corset, Bone China) and Andrew Michael Hurley (The Loney, Devil’s Day, Starve Acre). An interview with popular crime and supernatural horror writer Martyn Waites, author of The Old Religion and The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, will close the event.
The festival will see a host of workshops and panel discussions for aspiring writers, looking at subjects such as ‘The Elements of a Ghost Story’, ‘A Ghost Story Primer’, ‘The Relevance of Ghost Stories Today’ and ‘Developing a Great Ghost Story’ among others.
Film fans will have the chance to attend a Friday night triple-header screening at the Museum at the Wardwick, beginning with ghost story classic The Innocents (12A) (inspired by Henry James’s iconic The Turn Of The Screw), followed by Tim Burton’s cult favourite Beetlejuice (12A) and concluding with Japanese masterpiece of suspense Ring (15).
The Ghost Story Festival films take place on Friday 29th November from 6:00pm. Individual film tickets are: £9.50, £7 concessions, or £3.50 for 16 to 25 year olds. Triple Bill tickets are: £19 or £14 concessions and available from QUAD Box office or their website.
There will also be an insightful double-bill documentary screening looking at Wits in Felixstowe & Dim Presences (Advised 12A); two of MR James’s most famous ghost stories. This is taking place in QUAD Cinema on Sunday 1st December at 1:45pm. Tickets are £10.