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Charlotte Cross and Mairi Kidd talk to India Ysabel

Gothic Greats: Retelling Horror Classics

Hay Festival 2026, 

Grab your garlic and prepare your pitchfork for this encounter with modern-day Gothic authors Charlotte Cross and Mairi Kidd. They discuss retelling horror classics to place women at the centre, taking the iconic stories of Dracula and Frankenstein and reimagining them from a feminist perspective.

Cross’s The Brides brings to life the three women who became the brides of Dracula – and the fourth who managed to escape. Kidd’s Poor Creatures follows a young Mary Godwin – who would go on to become Mary Shelley – as a troubled girl with a mysterious ailment.