Finn Longman and Maura McHugh are two authors that understand the power of darkness to enchant and enrapture their readers. Why do we love a good fright? And why do horror stories haunt us the way they do? Monsters, it seems, are even more relevant than we think.

Maura is a comic artist and teller of dark tales from the West of Ireland, a writer for the Hellboy and 2000 AD universes – so she knows exactly what she’s at. Her own chilling comic, Jennifer Wilde, is getting a video game adaptation as we speak. She’ll be in conversation with Finn Longman, who just so happens to be a medievalist. Finn’s debut novel The Butterfly Assassin is a stunning, twisty thriller about a teen assassin’s attempt to live a normal life … which is surely impossible? Join us and decide!

Finn Longman is a queer disabled writer and medievalist, originally from London. After graduating from Cambridge, Finn went on to do an MA in Early and Mediaeval Irish. The Butterfly Assassin is their debut novel. 

Maura McHugh is a comic creator living in Galway who writes for the Hellboy world and 2000 AD. Her short story Bone Mother was optioned by the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio and premièred in 2018.