AUTHOR PANEL: The Northern Weird Project
House of Books & Friends will be hosting three of the authors behind The Northern Weird Project on 5th November at 6pm. Gemma Fairclough, Katherine Clements, and Jodie Robins will be discussing The Retreat, The Turbine, and The Off-Season respectively. The event will be chaired by Robert Welbourn, author of Belonging. The evening will consist of a discussion between our panel, a Q&A, and an opportunity for attendees to get their books signed.
Tickets
As there are multiple authors in discussion, you can purchase a ticket-only option, or you can purchase a copy of the book from us to act as a ticket; see options below:
£5 Ticket only and the option to buy ONE of the titles available here
£35 for all 3 books to act as your ticket here
About The Northern Weird Project
Throughout 2025, Wild Hunt Books will publish six fantastic pocket-sized novellas from authors based in the North of England and who are also engaging with the North as setting, subject and character.
The novellas incorporate eerie and uncanny incidents including a strange occurrence on a train, a young boy’s disappearance in a village, a grieving couple renovating a haunted house, a group of mysterious strangers by the beach, a sinister wellness retreat and the unearthed danger beneath an ancient peat bog.
Editor Ariell Cacciola said of the project, ‘Im so excited about this project. The novellas will transport readers into the strange and dangerous corners of the North, and it will be impossible not to read each book in one sitting.’
About The Retreat
Richard’s sister Julie returns home from a mysterious wellness facility in remote Cumbria in 1994. He’s convinced that this place was a cult and was the cause of his sister’s eventual suicide. Finally, after years as an unaccomplished academic, he decides to investigate the disturbing accusations against the Hartman Retreat Centre. Then he meets Lucy, a young woman whose story is eerily similar to his sister’s decades before. Richard is determined to unearth what’s really been happening at the Hartman Retreat Centre but more importantly, who is Charles Hartman, the celebrated healer who casts a powerful hold over all who come to the retreat.
Told through letters, interviews and found texts, lovers of Fairlcough’s Bear Season will be swept up in a sinister world of wellness gurus and mystery.
About The Turbine
In the near future, England is experiencing the hottest summer in living memory. An unnamed environmental scientist, is tasked with evaluating the impact of a controversial new wind farm on the West Yorkshire moors. Camped out alone by the base of Turbine 34 – the most remote of the new turbines, built on an ancient peat bog – she spends her days gathering samples. But when she discovers signs of the devastation caused by the construction, she begins to see things – things that shouldn’t be there.
She has dedicated her life to protecting the moor, but will it protect her?
Inspired by a real-life proposed wind farm in the North of England, Turbine 34 is for readers of Dark Matter and Wuthering Heights with a dash of folk horror.
About The Off-Season
It’s the off-season in the seaside resort town of Blackpool, where Tommy never imagined he would return. His relationship has broken down, so he returns home to keep an eye on his widowed father. While counting down the hours before attending the funeral of a well-loved friend, a mysterious group turns up on the seafront. One by one, the locals are entranced by their presence until Tommy and his father can no longer resist the allure.
Tommy soon discovers a secret desire his father has been harbouring for his entire life.