Andrew Michael Hurley at Chorlton Book Festival

Andrew Michael Hurley’s gothic novel The Loney has attracted praise from Stephen King, won the 2015 Costa First Novel Award and was the British Book Awards’ Book of the Year in 2016. The author is headlining the 12th annual Chorlton Book Festival, which runs 18 to 26 November in – apparently – “Manchester’s most literary suburb”. This year’s showcase promises to be the biggest yet, with more authors, family events, open mic poetry and immersive theatre.

But back to Lancashire-based Andrew Michael Hurley. Described by The Sunday Times as a ‘masterful excursion into terror’ and by The Sunday Telegraph as an instant modern classic, his debut is is an unsettling tale of landscape and mysticism set on a desolate stretch of North West coastline known as ‘the Loney’. The story follows two brothers, one mute and the other his protector, as the boys and their parents seek help from a sacred shrine. Listen to Andrew read from his spine-tingling book and find out why no one in it ever goes near the water – “No one apart from us, that is” – and what secret the family hopes will stay hidden for ever.

A former teacher and librarian in Preston, Andrew is a graduate of Manchester Writing School’s Masters programme and recently returned to Man Met to embark on a lectureship in Creative Writing. As well as his novel on Hodder & Stoughton, he has had two collections of short stories published by Lime Tree Press, Cages and Other Stories and The Unusual Death of Julie Christie and Other Stories. Expect a thrilling, chilling evening.

PLEASE NOTE: change of venue – this event will now take place at Chorlton Central Church at the crossroads of Barlow Moor Road and Edge Lane/Sandy Lane.