Women writers turn to the horror story

As an icy wind blows in from the east, the grip of a good horror story is tightening its hold on many of Britain's leading literary talents. Terrifying new novels from outspoken author Jeanette Winterson and from the acclaimed novelist and children's writer Helen Dunmore are at the head of a blast of chilling fiction heading for British bookshops. Where once an accomplished "lady novelist" in search of a change might have attempted a neat whodunnit or perhaps a cosy "Aga saga", suddenly the unholy desire to create a horror or ghost story has seized a range of established talents. Even the television book club presenter Judy Finnigan has been drawn to the genre for her debut novel, a ghost story that will be out this autumn. Winterson, who had her first success with the novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, will try her hand at scaring her readers witless this summer with a story based on the infamous Pendle witch trials held at Lancaster castle in 1612. Dunmore, the writer much loved for her children's books, poetry and award-winning novels, has followed suit. Her first horror novel, a supernatural thriller called The Greatcoat, has been published by Hammer Books, the imprint of the now revived film studios that brought British cinema audiences a succession of gory titles from the 1950s to the 1970s. Dunmore's debut marks the publisher's decision to commission a series of original works rather than rely on the novelisations of horror films which it also publishes. "The interesting fiction at the moment is playing with genres, slipping between them," said Hammer publisher Selina Walker. "So we're approaching all the literary or established greats to see whether they would like to write something with a paranormal twist." This week Hammer's film version of Susan Hill's 1983 novel The Woman in Black, one of the most popular British ghost stories of modern times, is out in cinemas, starring Daniel Radcliffe as the unfortunate solicitor Arthur Kipps. But for Dunmore the work of two other women writers with the gift of instilling fear provided the chief inspiration. "Elizabeth Bowen's work influences me a lot, particularly The Demon Lover. I also love Daphne du Maurier," said the writer, who has turned to horror after writing 11 mainstream novels, including the Orange Prize-winning A Spell of Winter and The Siege. "I was drawn to the genre because it is intensely dramatic material," she said. "To some extent it is a psychological playground. You wonder what is the match between the ghost and the person who is haunted. What is there in the past that has driven them to this point?" The key, Dunmore believes, is to make the experiences described as "palpable" as possible, to carry the reader into the darkness: "It has got to have a lot of sensory richness." Dunmore's spectral romance is set in the early 1950s in a period of rationing, bad weather and discomfort. "I have tried to set the intensity of daily life against the emotional and psychological drama. We need to feel for my heroine Isabel when she hears a tap at the window one night. We need to shiver and shrink, and then try to normalise it with her, as people do." Dunmore suspects that horror is becoming a more appealing genre for women writers. "There is a fascination with it again. It was very demanding to work in a new genre. It has to deliver and you can't fudge it. I found it very exciting to do, so I would like to doanother." In the summer Winterson will bring out her treatment of the 17th-century Pendle witch case, which saw the conviction and hanging of 10 reputed witches. The trial took place in Lancashire amid an atmosphere of national hysteria about witchcraft. A young beggar girl, Jennet Device, lived with her mother Elizabeth, her sister Alizon and her grandmother Demdike in the shadow of Pendle Hill, and the trouble started when Alizon was seen to curse a pedlar who would not spare her any pins. When the pedlar later collapsed, his son reported the Device family to a zealous local magistrate who pursued them to court, persuading the nine-year-old daughter to testify against her own family. Part of the evidence that convicted them was the allegation that they had held a party on Good Friday, when "good citizens" should have been in church. A nearby constable arrested everyone in the house. The story of the case was written down by the clerk of the court, Thomas Potts, and became a bestseller in the years that followed the trial and subsequent executions at Gallows Hill. In the autumn TV presenter Judy Finnigan will bring out her first novel, a ghost story set in Du Maurier's favoured terrain, Cornwall. Called Eloise, it will be published by Sphere and tells the story of Cathy, who has disturbing dreams which suggest that the death of her best friend Eloise was not what it seemed.The genre appeals to male writers too, of course, and in the year that marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of MR James, the British master of the terrifying literary story, Hammer Books have also lured the controversial children's author Melvin Burgess into their new stable of horror writers. Burgess, who caused outrage among some parents with his forthright treatments of drugs and sex in the books Junk, Lady: My Life as a Bitch and Doing It, is to write his first work of horror. Billed as a story about teenagers and ghouls it is due our early next year