October's Child

'The heavy atmosphere lay in the air like dark smog...'

Joseph Freeman was born to thrill. His horror stories are now known and enjoyed the world over, but though he has admitted to having been writing for as long as he can possibly recall, little has been seen of those earliest of tales... until now.

This unique - and at times frighteningly hilarious - collection of 30 stories showcases some of the earliest surviving examples of Freeman's horrors. And what horrors they are... What other book could offer you such delights as self-animating scrap, an evil public toilet, a poem told from the viewpoint of a rotting corpse, inexplicable (even to the author) transformations and occurrences, the secret of where a supermarket gets its red meat, far too much stabbing, parents revealing what monsters they really are... what other book could offer you such lines as 'God, his head was falling off!' and the yarn written by a 13 year-old boy that even James Herbert found too gory?

If there is any other such book then we definitely don't want to know. And neither will you. Trust us, this is quite enough!

Published 15th May 2009.
Trade paperback £7.99.

Child's Play - an interview with Joseph Freeman (May 2009)