151 – Verity Holloway & The Onion Skin of Trauma

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War, what is it good for? Absolutely noth…. well actually, it is quite good for horror stories.

Our guest this week doesn’t plumb the usual horrors-of-war route, though. Verity Holloway’s The Others of Edenwell is a supremely subtle, slow-burning excavation of trauma and national nightmares, set in a (supposedly) idyllic spa-cum-convalescent-hospital as battle rages elsewhere.

Of course, there are horrors much closer to home.

It’s possibly my first foray into the First World War on this podcast and Verity and I talk about her family connection to the story, her physical connection to the hospital setting, and her inspirations in the literature of the time. We also discuss cryptozoology, ghost stories, and why German helmets have such a creepy design. 

Enjoy!

The Others of Edenwell was published by Titan on July 4th.

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

• All the White Spaces (2022), by Ally Wilkes
• “Still Falls the Rain” (1944), by Edith Sitwell
• Negative Space (2020), by B.R. Yeager
• Ghost Eaters (2022), by Clay McLeod Chapman

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