Clare Cavenagh

Literary horror novelist

Clare Cavenagh is the author of Tillinghast, the darkly compelling and irresistably readable new novel, available for preorder now.

Preorder Tillinghast

T is for Tillinghast. Photo by @annacavenagh and Sadhbh McCarthy McCool

Pre-order a copy of my book from Bookshop.org between 13-17 May and save 20% with the code: PREORDER20 Every sale supports real independent bookshops across the UK!

Caution, May customs throughout the whole Bank Holiday.

Beautiful Tillinghast US proofs, and an equally beautiful review in @publisherswkly! 'Cavenagh debuts with a sophisticated take on the v------ genre', they say. 🧛‍♀️ Find out what else they say via the link in my bio.

This is out this week, and my preordered copy had JUST ARRIVED! You ought to get one too - Sour Fruit is seductive, stomach-churning and studded with moments of pitch-black comedy. @ahanavirdiauthor brings together mind-bending horror and kitchen-sink satire in a tale that reads like American Psycho for the 2020s. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll retch, you’ll never look at your shopping lists the same way again. She’s also very cool and I’m super excited for the release of her debut novel 🥳 get it while it’s hot!

Do you like spooky old houses? Have you ever changed the number plates on a car? Is your dad a bit weird? If yes to any of the above, Tillinghast is your ideal summer read and it’s currently available to preorder with a 25% discount from Waterstones.

I got up before the crack of dawn to get a bacon and scallop sandwich, and it was totally worth it. Sandwich on final slide.

A tiny bit more Tillinghast research trip nostalgia…

I mentioned historic cemeteries, in which Rhode Island is extremely rich. Another interesting thing to stumble across is the remnants of abandoned farms and homesteads - you happen upon these all the time while hiking, and they’re very charming and a little
bit spooky. You think you’re somewhere abandoned, and you are, but you weren’t always…

This time, also, a bowl of exemplary clam chowder, which kept me going through my adventures, the brick-paved streets of Providence, and a slightly unsuccessful but very endearing portrait from the John Brown House Museum.

This is your last chance to get Tillinghast with a 25% discount if you’re a Rewards or Premium member with @barnesandnoble Code: PREORDER2025. Link in bio.

#BNPreorder

The @barnesandnoble preorder sale rages on (details below), so I’m sharing a bit more about my time in Rhode Island researching Tillinghast.

Check out the photos for another glimpse at the Athenaeum, a truly wonderful library where Edgar Allan Poe was dumped by fiancée Sarah Helen Whitman - she passed him a note. There’s also a private cemetery, typical for Rhode Island, where you stumble across such
things all the time. Then the Exeter cemetery crypt and the grave of Mercy L. Brown - remember those for later… and another serene stretch of forest.

You’ve still got 2 days to get Tillinghast with a 25% discount if you’re a Rewards or Premium member with B&N! Code: PREORDER2025. Link in bio.

#BNPreorder

A message for my US-based friends: you can now get Tillinghast from @barnesandnoble with a 25% discount if you’re a Rewards or Premium member! Code: PREORDER2025. The deal is on until the 1st of Jan, so act fast.

It’ll be 2026 in just hours, which means that Tillinghast is getting closer and closer to publication. I’ve been thinking back over the process of writing the book, including my trip to Rhode Island and Massachusetts (Tillinghast’s haunts) in 2023.

It will surprise nobody to hear that it was mostly forests and cemeteries, as it always is. Here are some of those - the woods, the remains of a farm, a New England tombstone, a glimpse inside the Providence Athenaeum.

Link in bio. #BNPreorder

You can preorder my book at get 25% off at Waterstones between now and Friday!

It’s spooky and yet perfectly safe.

It’s open to everyone, you just use the code ‘OCTOBER25’ on the Waterstones website or app. Go wild!

For Christmas, I received a copy of the Savoy Cocktail Book, and accordingly a new tradition (‘Cocktail Sundays’) begins. Here is the first - the Abbey cocktail: dry gin, Kina Lillet, orange juice, bitters. We’ve also got a special ratings system to help sort the thousand-odd cocktails we will sample over the next 20-odd years. VG=very good; G=good; NSG=not so good. The Abbey is a solid G.

Guess what I wrote a book! And super cool people at @boroughpress and @vikingbooks are going to publish it! I literally cannot believe it but also I can’t wait for you all to meet my spooky pal Tillinghast.

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TILLINGHAST

About Tillinghast

There's a name for what he is. He prefers not to use it...

Stutley Tillinghast lives a solitary life, ostensibly as the minister of a remote rural parish in Rhode Island. For many decades now, what little human contact he allows himself has been brief, frenzied and bloody, and always ends in a shallow grave in his cellar.

You and I would have a name for what he is, but he prefers not to use it - he has needs, and when they become unbearable, he fulfils them.

Then a girl arrives - 19 years old, she has travelled from the UK to find him. She seems to have his surname, and her resemblance to him is uncanny. She is sick - very sick - and Tillinghast recognises her symptoms all too well. Which means he also knows what she needs...

Darkly compelling and irresistibly readable, TILLINGHAST marks the arrival of a major new literary talent.

Preorder Tillinghast

Clare Cavenagh

Literary horror novelist

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TILLINGHAST

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