163 – Liz Hand & Visiting the Thing That Walks Alone

Come home!! We have to come home!! The House is calling us. 

Yep, this week we are going back to the most haunted house of all. Hill House. Shirley Jackson’s classic bad place. And we’re going in the company of three-time Shirley Jackson Award Winner, Elizabeth Hand, whose new novel is the first ever sanctioned sequel to Jackson’s classic.

A Haunting on the Hill submits four new unwitting victims to the horrors of Hill House. But that’s where the stories diverge. Liz’s take on this soured ground is a whole different thing, full of witchcraft, theatre-drama and weirdness even Jackson didn’t dream up.

We talk about Jackson’s huge legacy, the pressures and pleasures of playing in her sandbox, treating Hill House as a character and murder ballads. 

Enjoy! Welcome home. 

A Haunting on the Hill was published on October 3rd by Mulholland Books and Sphere

Books mentioned:

• When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (2021), ed. by Ellen Datlow
• The Shining (1977), by Stephen King
• Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (2011), by Rob Young
• The Magic Box: Viewing Britain through the Rectangular Window (2021), by Rob Young

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