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Be afraid. Today's programme is not for the faint-hearted. I'll be delving deep into the best new Gothic fiction and revealing an award-winning grisly rites of passage tale by a 14-year-old author.

And we'll also be finding out why a whole new style of writing is required to celebrate the pleasures, or should that read,

pain of running. The sensory overload of how the grass feels against the souls of your feet,

of the air hitting your skin and pumping in and out of your lungs, of your eyes scanning

their horizon, all as you stroke the pinion of the tall grass. These reflections are more at home

in poetry, the essay or in nature writing than they are in the novel. More later on why walking,

not jogging, is the chosen pace for writers. But we start with a happy tale of talent

uncovered. The Loney, a debut novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, was first published last year by

Tartarus Press, a small imprint specialising in old masters of mystery suspense and chills,

who printed just 300 copies of the book. Thanks in part to the

plaudits of critics, it was subsequently picked up by John Murray, received further

great reviews with no less than Stephen King, describing it as an amazing piece of fiction,

and the film rights have just been snapped up. So what's the fuss about?

The Loney set in 1976 tells the story of Smith,

his mute and disabled brother Hannie and their evangelistic Catholic parents

who are determined to cure their child through prayer and pilgrimage.

On retreat with their new parish priest, Father Bernard,

to the wilds of the Lancashire coastline,

the malevolent foreboding landscape sets the scene for a horror story of faith, belief and supernatural unease.

And it's not the only Gothic novel out this autumn.

Kate Moss, Joyce Carol Oates and Kate Morton all have distinctly eerie stories to

...