Halloween is the perfect time for reading scary stories
Happy Halloween, everyone!
Halloween or All Hallows Eve is celebrated on the 31st October. In popular culture, it has become a day to celebrate horror and is associated with the macabre and supernatural. It is a day for activities such as trick or treating, costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, apple bobbing, bonfires, and playing pranks. It is also a great time to watch a horror or Halloween-themed film or to read a really scary short story.
This year, we have the perfect book to suggest to you because at the end of September, Virago published a new book of Daphne du Maurier’s scariest short stories, which is the perfect Halloween book. It is called After Midnight, and it includes the thirteen darkest tales selected from all of Daphne du Maurier’s short fiction. In After Midnight, you will find familiar stories such as The Birds, Don’t Look Now, and The Blue Lenses and much less well-known examples of her work, such as The Alibi and Split Second.
Daphne du Maurier's new book, published in September 2025, After Midnight
If you love Daphne du Maurier’s writing, and we are sure you do, pick up a copy of After Midnight and start reading so that you can enjoy these great stories and scare yourselves in equal measure this Halloween!