The Horror Book Club

As many of you know, the author, journalist and encyclopedia of all horror knowledge, Kim Newman, has been our Horror Book Club patron for many years and every year he picks a book for us to read and discuss. This year he has gone for another classic, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg.

Here’s the summary from Goodreads:
Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, the novel recounts the corruption of a boy of strict Calvinist parentage by a mysterious stranger under whose influence he commits a series of murders. The stranger assures the boy that no sin can affect the salvation of an elect person. The reader, while recognizing the stranger as Satan, is prevented by the subtlety of the novel's structure from finally deciding whether, for all his vividness and wit, he is more than a figment of the boy's imagination.

The meeting will start at 7pm and finish between 9.00 and 10pm (BST), with breaks in between. Just a reminder that the pub lets us to use the room at no charge so please do purchase drinks/food from the bar. Bringing in your own food from outside the pub is not allowed!

This will be a joint meeting with the Constant Readers (Stephen King) Book Club - if you want to attend online then please join the Constant Readers event on Thursday 29th October.

We will be focusing on the below 10 stories

• In a Pig's Eye - Joe R Lansdale
• Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time - Robert C Cargill
• Grace - Tim Lebbon
• The African Painted Dog - Catriona Ward
• The Boat Man - Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes
• The Story I Tell is the Story of Some of Us - Paul Tremblay
• He's a Righteous Man - Ronald Malfi
• Came the Last Night of Sadness - Catheryn M Valente
• The Devil's Children - Sarah Langdon
• The Unfortunate Convalescence of the Super Lawyer - Nat Cassidy

The meeting will start at 7pm and finish between 9.00 and 10pm (BST), with breaks in between. Just a reminder that the pub lets us to use the room at no charge so please do purchase drinks/food from the bar. Bringing in your own food from outside the pub is not allowed!

Book blurb follows:
Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered Stephen King's seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction. It has sold millions of copies and has been adapted twice for television. Generations of writers have been impacted by its dark yet ultimately hopeful vision of the end and new beginning of civilisation, and its stunning array of characters.

Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorised a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology, as presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. Bringing together some of today's greatest and most visionary writers, The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand—brilliant, terrifying, and painfully human tales that will resonate with readers everywhere as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel.