Searching Out The Terrors Within

Kirsty Logan uses her own fears as she ventures into horror

AS the dark winter nights draw in, there’s no better time to curl up indoors with a good book. While some might opt for a cheery tale, many of us will look forward to devouring a ghost story. Dicken’s Victorian masterpiece A Christmas Carol, inspired by a gravestone in Edinburgh, is just one of many gothic tales to be born in Scotland.

Now award-winning Glasgow-based author Kirsty Logan is continuing this tradition. After penning critically acclaimed literary novels including The Gracekeepers and the magical mermaid tale The Gloaming, released earlier this year, the writer has turned her hand to a more sinister form of fiction – horror short stories.

“I’ve always loved horror, I have done ever since I was a kid,” Kirsty explains. “I’ll read horror books and listen to horror-inspired podcasts. I love films too, I’ll watch absolutely everything – I’m not picky. I like a real trashy ’90s slasher as much as the next person!” An avid reader, Kirsty devours books, citing Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black, Camilla Grudova’s The Doll’s Alphabet and Stephen King’s The Shining as some of her favourite horror titles.

She also has a lifetime fascination with the ’90s teen horror novels she read as a girl, which she re-reads and analyses from a modern perspective for the popular podcast Teenage Scream, along with her friend and fellow writer, Heather Parry. However, when it came to writing her own collection, Kirsty decided to take a slightly different approach to the genre, producing something quite different to the horrors she enjoys reading and watching. “Sometimes with horror there are certain expectations. People expect serial killers, vampires, zombies or a 