The hills of the Lake District fill many visitors with peace and tranquility. But for one visitor reflecting on his childhood summer holidays, the misty landscape has a more menacing edge, inspiring a new zombie horror novel, published on March 7.
The story of James Bolland, recovering from a family rift, quickly turns dark as a virus spreads through the area. The protagonist has to overcome his resentment and join forces with the brother who betrayed him, to rescue their sister from a zombie attack.
Tom Watts spend many childhood holidays in the Lakes
For Lancashire author Tom Watts the horror book ‘All Dead Men’ is the culmination of a lifelong dream, and many years working to pay for writing classes given by John Truby. His self-published novel takes inspiration from childhood visits to the Lakes where he never could shake an eerie feeling.
Growing up, I often stayed in the town of Bowness. The Lakes are beautiful, but at night they can be very dark, very atmospheric, and cold. It can transform from a place of stunning landscapes, to somewhere dangerous and mysterious.
Watts joins a long line of writers who have drawn inspiration from the dramatic Cumbrian landscape. Crime writers including Reginald Hill, M. W. Craven, Rebecca Tope and Elizabeth George have found this rural idyll the perfect setting for gritty crime stories. This tradition harks back to John Bude’s 1935 classic, The Lake District Murder.
The Lake District landscape tends to affect people’s imagination
It’s not surprising that authors have found their imaginations wandering. A landscape that looks beautiful on the surface can often hold dangers for the unwary traveller. A great example of this is Booker-shortlisted author Magnus Mills’s surreal novel ‘All’s Quiet on the Orient Express’ where seemingly innocuous circumstances involving a spilled tin of paint soon turn sinister.
There is a long literary tradition invoking this landscape to popular effect. Perhaps most famously, the bleak, unforgiving landscape across the border in the Yorkshire Dales was used as a character in its own right by Emily Bronte in the classic novel Wuthering Heights:
I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.
Watts found his inspiration to write in the Lakes
Watts found the Lake District gave him the inspiration he needed to write his first full-length novel.
I’ve always been obsessed with the region’s legends and ghost stories – and drawing on my own experiences to help craft a terrifying story about a place I love has been fantastic. I hope readers enjoy it!
All Dead Men launched on Friday 7 March on Amazon and is available to order in eBook and print here.
