During the countdown to SLEEPERS, I’ll be posting regularly about different aspects of horror, folklore and suspense. To begin with (and to get you into the mood!), here are some of the novels and short stories that have influenced me over the years, and whose shadows this book

My first published novel, THE EVIL SEED, was unashamedly in the horror camp, and I’ve always had a soft spot for a really well-written tale of unease. Here are some of my favourites: some are short stories, others novels. But all of them have this in common; they explore the idea of fear via human psychology and experience, rather than relying solely on aspects of the supernatural.

L.P. Hartley: THE PYLON. One of the main influences of SLEEPERS IN THE SNOW, this story of a boy obsessed by a nearby electricity pylon encapsulates everything I’ve always found unsettling about electrical towers and pylons.

Shirley Jackson: THE DEMON LOVER. One of Jackson’s most evocative stories, THE DEMON LOVER follows a woman on her wedding day, going in search of her absent bridegroom. Nothing tangible happens, but as always with Jackson, it does it in a terrifying way.

M.R. James: THE MEZZOTINT. James’ classic story of a changing, haunted picture has inspired countless others, including perhaps this one –

Stephen King: THE ROAD VIRUS HEADS NORTH. Classic King, and genuinely unsettling, as a garage-sale picture turns out to be possessed by a serial killer.

Ramsey Campbell: THE MAN IN THE UNDERPASS. A wonderful short story from a master of the genre, written from the perspective of a young girl fascinated by a local underpass, and especially by a piece of graffiti that seems to contain ancient powers. A masterpiece of urban unease, childhood fear, and folk-horror.

Ray Bradbury: FEVER DREAM. From another master of the child’s perspective, this nicely ambiguous story deals with ideas of body horror, adolescence, mental illness and possession. I can see its influence in SLEEPERS, especially in the way in which the protagonist’s body no longer seems his own, and in the way in which perception shifts throughout the tale.

Peter Straub: GHOST STORY. Not all horror writing needs to be brief. This complex and masterly novel deals with the fears of old age; buried secrets, guilt and regret, and, with its cast of principal characters in their seventies, proves conclusively that not all heroes need to be young.

William Hjortsberg: FALLING ANGEL. Detective Harry Angel is hired to find a missing musician, and finds himself confronted by a series of ongoing murders, all of which seem to point to him as the culprit. A terrific story, with a great twist, later filmed as ANGEL HEART in 1987.

Michelle Paver: DARK MATTER. I love Michelle Paver’s writing. This is a beautifully evocative ghost story about an Arctic expedition in 1927, and a lone protagonist trapped in his camp as the winter closes around him.

Camilla Bruce: YOU LET ME IN. Not explicit horror, as such; but a marvellous riff on the abducted-by-fairies trope; elegant and original, and genuinely unsettling.

 Simon Maginn: SHEEP. Starting off with a classic horror concept – a couple with a young son move to an isolated farmhouse in Wales – this novel quickly gets seriously strange, and still counts as the only horror novel I’ve ever come across in which sheep are used as a source of dread…