Author Talk: The Dead of Summer with Johnny Mains

Join us for an evening with writer and anthologist Johnny Mains as he discusses his new collection The Dead of Summer, published by the British Library.In this fascinating talk, Johnny will explore the strange folklore and eerie traditions surrounding May Day Eve, Walpurgis Night, and Midsummer; moments in the ritual year long associated with superstition, celebration, and the uncanny.The Dead of Summer gathers tales of the bizarre, the beastly and the brutal from classic authors including E. F. Benson and Joan Aiken, alongside long-forgotten stories unearthed from obscure British and American periodicals. Together they capture the strange atmosphere of the summers most liminal nights.Johnny will share insights from his work uncovering lost stories, talk about his love of horror fiction, and read from the collection.
The evening will also include time for questions and discussion.Johnny Mains is an award-winning editor, author and genre researcher. His first book, Back From The Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories won the 2011 British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. His work on the Pan Horrors prompted Pan Macmillan to hire Johnny as Project Editor for the re-release of the first Pan Book of Horror Stories.He created the Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians series, edited several volumes of Best British Horror, and in 2017 began researching 'lost' fiction written by Victorian Women. This led to two volumes of stories, A Suggestion of Ghosts and An Obscurity of Ghosts. In 2022, Mains began working with the British Library and has to date edited five volumes of short stories for their Gilded Nightmare series.