What do a terrifying children’s book, a supposedly haunted staircase, and a children’s TV show featuring some truly horrific deaths have in common? They’ve all left their mark on horror writer Georgia Cook!
This week on Scarred for Life, we’re joined by award-winning writer, illustrator, and horror enthusiast Georgia Cook, whose work includes stories for Big Finish’s Doctor Who range and The Holmwood Foundation—a modern-day found-footage horror podcast and sequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Georgia takes us back to her childhood in a tiny, isolated village in the south of England, where dark countryside, creepy local legends, and a supposedly haunted grandparents’ house provided plenty of inspiration for a young horror fan.
First up, we revisit Little Miss Lucky, a seemingly innocent children’s book that left Georgia terrified of an evil tree lurking in the darkness. Then there’s the particularly unsettling staircase at her grandparents’ 500-year-old former Quaker meeting house, where she was convinced something was waiting in the darkness to grab her ankles.
And finally, we get properly gruesome with Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids—the long-running CITV animated series that taught an entire generation that being naughty could result in some spectacularly horrific consequences. From a child being crushed by a falling cow to some truly stomach-churning body horror, this was children’s television with a seriously dark side!
Along the way, Georgia talks about her love of ghost stories, Shirley Jackson, Clive Barker, and Tanith Lee; finding horror in the mundane; writing for Doctor Who; and why she believes children’s horror has such an important place in growing up.
So, settle in, keep the lights on, and whatever you do, don’t put your feet down near the bottom of the stairs…
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Produced and edited by Nikki Druce @NikkiMacabreLondon
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