John Jarrold

Don D’Auria of Flame Tree Press has acquired World English rights in ANCESTRAL, the new novel by doyen of horror writers, Ramsey Campbell. The book will be published in 2026. The agent was John Jarrold.

Long ago the Bystone and Stanton families were enemies, for reasons nobody remembers now. Lou Stanton and Ray Bystone are married with a young son Tim. It’s his choice to spend a summer holiday visiting places in England the families seem to remember although they’ve never been there: the dauntingly dark Boggart’s Grot, Umbrage Cove where the ocean turns voracious, Fay Woods that birds have good reason to avoid, Stalking Edge where the fog feels as solid as flesh… If he’s driven by inherited memories, what is he bringing home? If even the ancestors who summoned what the sites hid were unable to control them, can anybody living do so?

Flame Tree have published Ramsey’s most recent novels, AN ECHO OF CHILDREN, THE INCUBATIONS, THE LONELY LANDS, FELLSTONES, THE WISE FRIEND and SOMEBODY’S VOICE, as well as a number of his backlist titles.

Ramsey Campbell  is the only living horror writer to appear in the Oxford Companion to English Literature. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University in 2015.

Film-maker, screenwriter, producer and novelist Guillermo del Toro has tweeted about Ramsey Campbell: “An absolute master of modern horror. And a damn fine writer at that.”