Author event with Lucy Rose talking about ‘The Lamb’, hailed as the Literary Debut of 2025

Author talk, signed, first edition, hardback, welcome drink and canapes: £20

A gripping, sinister folktale set in contemporary Cumbria for fans of Sophie Mackintosh, Angela Carter, Daisy Johnson, Margaret Atwood and Julia Armfield.

A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.

Margot and Mama have lived by the forest since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.

But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, little Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires and make her own bid for freedom.

With this gothic coming-of-age tale, debut novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire and animal instincts – and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.

‘A new generation of literary horror begins with Lucy Rose’ Genevieve Jagger, author of Fragile Animals

‘Deliciously dark and shockingly bold.’ Kirsty Logan, author of Now She is Witch

‘Lucy Rose’s fearful and fantastic imagination is a powerful weapon’ Benjamin Myers, author of Cuddy

‘Lucy Rose weaves together flesh, bones and mommy issues with unsettling deftness to create an unforgettable, nightmarish tale. I ate it all up’ Anna Bogutskaya, author of Feeding the Monster

Lucy Rose is a writer and filmmaker with an interest in the gothic, girlhood and horror. Her short fiction and personal essays have been published in Dread Central, Mslexia, Ghouls on Film and more. She’s proud to be a Curtis Brown Creative Breakthrough alumni writer and one of Mslexia’s featured columnists and fiction writers.