Jonathan Aycliffe – författare

''A chilling story'' -- IndependentCharles and Laura live a sheltered, gilded life in the the privileged world of Cambridge academia: young and in love, their marriage is blessed by a wonderful child - Naomi.On Christmas Eve morning, Charles sets off with Naomi on a shopping trip to London. By the end of the day, all Charles and his wife have left are cups of tea and police sympathy... Their beautiful, angelic only child, has disappeared. Days later her murdered body is discovered... but is she dead?

When the Blitz starts in London, Dominic Lancaster, injured out of service at the battle of Narvik, accompanies his 10 year old sister Octavia to the family house on the shores of Ullswater in the Lake District. Octavia is profoundly deaf but at night she can hear disturbing noises in the house. When questioned by Dominic as to what she can hear, she replies: ''voices''. Two nights later she comes into his bedroom to tell him that the dead children in the house want them to leave.And then Octavia falls mysteriously ill... during her sickness she tells Dominic he must go to the attic. There, he releases an older, darker evil that threatens the lives of Olivia and himself.Praise for Naomi''s Roomt:''A chilling story which gives the lie to any notion that supernatural horror is remotely theraputic. Aycliffe has a fine touch.'' The Independent.''Naomi''s Room must rank among the finest of English ghost stories... They certainly don''t come any more dark and fearsome.'' Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

Seek and you shall find...After the death of his beloved wife, Andrew Macleod finds solace in his research in Edinburgh.His interest in the ancient practices of magic is purely academic until the soothingly hypnotic rituals and mysterious ceremonies begin to lure him into a consuming quest for knowledge.When his passion escalates into an obsession for power and mastery, Andrew unwittingly becomes the apprentice of Duncan MyIne, who has a strange hold over him.Though Andrew fears MyIne''s menacing tutelage, he allows himself to be drawn deeper into an inner circle of evil.When he finally discovers the demented motivation behind MyIne''s interest in him, it is too late for redemption, poised as he is on the edge of the horrific abyss between life and death...

At the end of the nineteenth century Charlotte Metcalf is a child of good fortune: a prosperous father, a loving mother, a loved brother all cocoon her from the fears of the outside world. But then her father dies… and she is plunged into poverty and the workhouse becomes her miserable home.Yet Charlotte escapes, determined to find her lost brother, and her search brings her to Barras Hall, home of unknown relations where fine clothes, good food and wealth seem to promise her all she desires. But at night the horror begins – of sound and sense, surpassing all earthy terror. And Charlotte finds that daytime comfort comes at a price...and she must fulfil her terrible destiny.Praise for Jonathan Aycliffe:‘Aycliffe has a fine touch’ Independent‘Aycliffe conjures up a feeling of dread that deepens with each unsettling incident’ Time Out‘Naomi’s Room must rank among the finest of English ghost stories… They certainly don’t come more dark or fearsome.’ Newcastle Evening Chronicle

Peter and Sarah’s marriage has reached an impasse; their holiday in beautiful Cornwall is chosen to mend old wounds and bandage past pain. The house they go to has space – space for their writing, their painting, and their reconciliation. It has space too for its own memories and its own unforgettable horrors… but they are not to know that.When the locals are less than friendly than they might be and when the house sighs with its secrets, the sands of their marriage shift… and then Sarah vanishes and Peter is left alone. Or is he?Praise for Jonathan Aycliffe:‘Aycliffe has a fine touch’ Independent‘Aycliffe conjures up a feeling of dread that deepens with each unsettling incident’ Time Out‘Naomi’s Room must rank among the finest of English ghost stories… They certainly don’t come more dark or fearsome.’ Newcastle Evening Chronicle

British born Michael Feraru, scion of a long line of Romanian aristocrats, leaves his country of birth and his love, to reclaim his heritage - a Draculian castle deep in the heart of Transylvania. He plans to turn his inheritance into an orphanage in the new post-Ceausescu, post-communist country. There he enlists the help of a young local lawyer, Liliana Popescu, to search for the missing Feraru millions, and battle through the complex maze of old bureaucracy in the scam-rich, newly-born state.Feraru describes his journey into the heart of the Romanian countryside, wasted by years of neglect and caught in a time-warp, as though the twentieth century had never reached it. When he eventually arrives at his inheritance, he finds the castle of the Ferarus, in a sunless valley in the Carpathian Mountains, is home to much more than memories...Aycliffe conjures a feeling of dread that deepens with each unsettling incident.''TIME OUT''Aycliffe has a fine touch.''INDEPENDENT''Should ultimately be ranked among the greats.''INTERZONE''There are echoes of the great ghost writer of them all, Edgar Allan Poe, in the poised and elegant bookishness of the prose.''SCOTSMAN''Sends chills down the spine. Read him and you''ll never forget him.''YORKSHIRE GAZETTE

In the countryside of Victorian England, Edward Atherton, rector of Thornham St. Stephen, has taken on the arduous task of restoring the ancient church. But he should never have meddled with the tomb that lay beneath the church''s crumbling walls. The moment the workman raised the tomb lid, an unspeakable horror escaped. At a loss to explain the unsettling noises and frightening visions that begin to plague the church, Atherton calls upon fellow antiquarian and Cambridge professor Richard Asquith to help investigate the strange events that began in the wake of the tomb''s disturbance.The two discover tantalizing hints of whom and what may have been laid to rest in the tomb, but the unforeseen circumstances force Asquith to give up his inquiries and leave the small village of Thornham behind. Asquith tries to put the frightening experiences behind him and focus on his new wife and family. But death and disappearances abound, and Asquith soon has no choice but to confront the darkness that has followed him from that ancient church into his own home.Praise for Jonathan Aycliffe:''Aycliffe has a fine touch'' Independent''Aycliffe conjures up a feeling of dread that deepens with each unsettling incident'' Time Out''Naomi''s Room must rank among the finest of English ghost stories . . . They certainly don''t come more dark or fearsome.'' Newcastle Evening Chronicle

A statue, unearthed in ancient Babylon during the course of an archaeological dig, is transported to London. Once there, it quickly exerts an evil influence over those with whom it comes into contact; an influence which threatens to spread throughout London and beyond, and which pits the living against the dead in a battle for all mankind . . . Praise for Jonathan Aycliffe:''Aycliffe has a fine touch'' Independent''Aycliffe conjures up a feeling of dread that deepens with each unsettling incident'' Time Out''Naomi''s Room must rank among the finest of English ghost stories . . . They certainly don''t come more dark or fearsome.'' Newcastle Evening Chronicle