Haunted UK Fiction

From the moment of its creation, a wedding dress bears silent witness to decades of human lives. “The box moved again. Had it been years already? This time, a man was staring back at me. I recognized him from the wedding. His eyes looked sad. I felt his tears fall and soak into my satin. I could feel his heavy heart. He put the lid back on the box and I felt myself being carried away…” From the mo...

A hidden passage. A flicker of light. Something is spreading behind the walls. “Robert placed his face in the hole, to find a stone opening. It was a natural cave... He should have been excited by this startling architectural find, but one detail instead made his skin pallid and cold. There was a single flickering candle, the wax placed upon a sharp shelf of jutting rock. It had been placed here,...

A young couple’s search for a new home takes an unsettling turn... “Adele... slipped her hand from her mother’s grasp to wave. When asked who she was looking at, Adele couldn’t say and when she glanced back there was nobody there after all. Maybe she had imagined it? Only a very old lady lived in the Rectory. There were no children there…” What begins as a hopeful search for a new home slowly give...

Creepy twists. Strange encounters. The stories that first made us afraid. Before the stories we tell… there were the stories that shaped them. In this episode of Ink and Influence, we explore the legacy of R.L. Stine, the writer who introduced a generation to horror — blending fear, humour, and unexpected twists into stories that linger long after the final page. From eerie transformations to unse...

Secrets. Atmosphere. The quiet dread of something not quite right. Before the stories we tell… there were the stories that shaped them. In this episode of Ink and Influence, we explore the life and legacy of Daphne du Maurier, a master of gothic suspense whose work blurred the line between psychological tension and the supernatural. From isolated settings to unseen presences and creeping unease, h...

The man behind Dracula. The ideas that shaped modern horror. Before the stories we tell… there were the stories that inspired them. In this episode of Ink and Influence, we explore the life and legacy of Bram Stoker, the author whose work helped define the vampire as we know it today. From folklore and superstition to obsession, fear, and the unknown, Stoker’s influence continues to echo through m...

The stories behind the stories. The origins of Haunted UK Fiction. What really goes into bringing these tales to life. Join Steve and Melissa for a special fireside chat as they reflect on the first season of Haunted UK Fiction — from how the podcast began, to the writers and stories that shaped it, and what lies ahead. This behind-the-scenes episode offers a rare look at the creative process, the...

Ancient customs and lore haunt visitors to a remote Scottish forest... 'This place gives me the creeps,’ said Ruth, ‘it’s too quiet. It doesn’t seem natural.’She was right of course, the location, time of year and warning from the night before gave the moment an uncanny quality. Ruth wasn’t given to strange notions but for a second, she couldn’t tell if what she was seeing was real or some very co...

A Christmas Tree that doesn't want Christmas to end, a true case of by careful what you wish for! “I wish it could be Christmas every day,” she whispered, like a prayer or a spell, and then whispered it again without meaning to… " .As the decorations come down and the season slips away, one quiet wish begins to take hold, and something in Willerby listens. This original paranormal horror story exp...

When the ghost of Christmases past lingers in the back of our minds, and the dark corners of the room... "I have a Christmas Ghost. Each year, the moment I haul the bins of holiday decorations into the living room, it begins to form. I can usually feel it hovering in the corner of the room, like a mass of swirling clouds coming together to form a storm…" Hello and welcome, dear listeners, to Haunt...

Preparations for a festive event turn into a terrifying holiday horror... “She eyed the tractor...They hadn’t told her much about the previous owner, but she’d heard the rumours. She hoped they weren’t true. Imagine living such an isolated life that you’re only found because the bills are long overdue…”  What should have been a cheerful Christmas event quickly turns into something far more unsettl...

Revenge is best served at Christmas... "A bead of sweat careered down the dome of his forehead like a wet cockroach.  Slapping his head and rubbing frenziedly... In wiping the sweat from his brow, he must have caught the curtains, and they had parted more widely... Blinking his vision back into focus, he saw the dark invaders stop dead where they were; a tableau from some obscene pantomime..." Wha...

A castle legend. A restless spirit. A voice determined to be heard. “Around the late 1400s, there was a woman who was a mistress of one of my ancestor’s lairds. His vengeful wife locked her up in one of the castle turrets, where she perished from not eating. Some psychics have seen her. She walks the stairways at night.”  “That’s a lie,” a voice hissed in Pucci’s ear—warm breath prickled her cheek...

The perfect holiday retreat holds a deep, dark, twisted secret... "The Hollow Rooms stood on the crest of the mountain like a black crown…. A long drive curved up through wrought iron gates, their bars twisted into the shapes of roses and thorns. The two figures who had been waiting were staff members—a man in a black suit with a gold watch chain, and a woman in a gray dress buttoned high to her n...

Below the surface, the perfect holiday retreat hides a dark secret... "To anyone else, the Hollow Rooms was a grand winter retreat. Only Ian and Liam knew the truth: beneath the glitter, the walls pulsed with something else..." What began as a quiet holiday has revealed something far darker, a place where appearances deceive, and something beneath the surface has been waiting all along. This origi...

A child's Christmas wish turns into a nightmare wrapped in ribbons. "It is the not knowing that twists the guts of the helpless figure, almost as much as the awesome fear inspired by its breath-rasping gaoler.  This butcher now reaches deep into a pocket and its hand emerges with a fistful of brightly-coloured, self-adhesive bows – some green, some red, some silver, some gold…" This original paran...

A late-night drive. A snow-covered road. Something moving just beyond the headlights... "Heart pounding, he exhaled a shaky breath and forced himself to look left, then right. Nothing. No headlights, no shapes, nothing at all. Who else would be out here on a night like this? He was about to move off when something caught his eye—a flicker of movement in the field opposite...A dark shape, large, po...

A shared nightmare. A collapsing boundary between dreams and reality. What if your mind was no longer your own? “Alice saw the wave… it rose like a predator preparing to strike — silent, inevitable.” In this special episode of Haunted UK Fiction, we explore the terrifying premise of Nightborn, the debut novel from internationally bestselling author Theresa Cheung. Blending psychological horror wit...

A simple request. A careful craft. A garment that carries something far darker within it. "My father was in a strange mood that day. He welcomed me with genuine warmth and appeared, to me at least, quite comfortable and content in his soft armchair and his cup perched delicately on the left knee. His words, however, were of the most serious sort; he betrayed no emotion by stating the facts clearly...

Sometimes, echoes just need to be heard... "Eilidh MacKenzie always knew she was different. Raised in a quiet Scottish village cradled by hills and lochs, her childhood was shaped by the whispers of her great-grandmother —stories of second sight, banshees crying by the river, and the mist that wasn’t just mist. Most folk rolled their eyes. Eilidh never did…"  In a quiet Scottish village, where fol...

Some things should never be unearthed... "Pierce saw a large group of men appear from a bellowing wall of white. Like ghostly figures emerging from beyond the supernatural veil. They were carrying a man on a makeshift stretcher. Pierce’s eyes still were not great, and he thought someone had covered the man in a velvet blanket for warmth, but as the struggling group got closer, he could see that it...

A roadtrip takes a dark turn after a stop at a roadside diner... "A jukebox blasted out some Chuck Berry. He knew the tune but not the words... He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard it. Or any music, come to think of it. Had they been listening to the radio in the car? He didn’t think so, but hadn’t there been a tune? Perhaps Nina had been humming as she drove…" ”What begins as a simple st...

A ghostly tale told from a chilling perspective... "When I awoke again, it was to darkness. I had been hopeful for my bed, to find myself ensconced in blankets with my beloved governess by my side, mopping my brow. Instead, four, solid, wooden walls bore down upon me…" A young girl dies, but something of her remains, bound to what was left behind. As grief consumes the living, the line between lov...

A shattered moment. A lingering presence. A ghost who remembers everything. “I stayed where I had fallen, frozen in fear… Papa had seen. And I knew exactly what was going to happen next.” Told from the perspective of the ghost itself, this chilling story unravels a moment of trauma that refuses to stay in the past — replaying, reshaping, and lingering long after it should have ended. This original...

A travelling circus. A strange invitation. A night in Willerby that may not belong to this world. “Welcome to my Big Top… From nowhere and everywhere… the wonders of this multiverse brought here to your front door…” When a mysterious train arrives in Willerby, it brings with it something extraordinary — a circus that seems to exist beyond place, beyond time, and perhaps beyond reality itself. But...