Anna Mazzola

Hello, I'm Essie Fox, and welcome to this episode of Talking the Gothic, which I'm going to give the title of Religious Bat Shittery, with that description being suggested by Elsie Winter, my podcast guest today, and the author of Spider Spider, a Victorian-era Gothic novel which censors on the themes of extreme religious cults, poison, asylums, and revenge.

But before I talk to Elsie, I've been thinking of examples of other stories that fit today's Gothic themes, and What Better Than the Monk, written by Matthew Lewis and published way back in 1796, because when it comes to religious bachelorette, there's nothing quite as deranged.

The monk of the title is called Ambrosio, and as the novel develops, he's increasingly consumed by overwhelming lustful urges.

And I'm just going to tell you a little bit about Elsie, who I'm going to call Libby today.

Libby lives in Derbyshire with her husband and cats.

She's a published author but also a gardener at various historic homes, working among the landscapes that have nurtured her love for the historical past, as well as her obsession with the darker side of fiction, being inspired by the cycles of life, death and decay experienced in the natural world.

Her debut Spider Spider came out earlier this year and the author Anna Mazzola called it as black as night and as cleverly woven as a spider's web and AJ West described Libby as a thrilling new voice in the world of gothic fiction.

Well I concur with both of them and I'm thrilled to welcome Libby today to Talking the Gothic.