about the author

Virginia Betts is a British author and tutor born in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1971. She graduated from Essex University with a BA in Literature and Sociology in 1994, then completed a post-graduate degree in teaching. She taught for 15 years before forming her tuition company, Results Tutoring, in 2013, where she indulges her love of literary analysis whilst helping her students. She has a particular gift for working with the neurodiverse, being neurodiverse herself, and has been featured in Your Autism magazine as an advocate for the National Autistic Society. Her first published work was a short story, The Rented Room, (The Weird and Whatnot July 2019), and a poem, An Afternoon Walk, (Acumen, September 2019). Since then, she has had stories, poetry, non-fiction articles and memoirs published in literary journals, anthologies and magazines both online and in print. She is a regular speaker and reader on BBC Radio, and has written for and acted in professional theatre, working with The Wolsey Writers, The Wolsey Theatre, The Neurodelicious Launch Pad, Suffolk Writers Group, The Suffolk Poetry Society and Hightide Theatre Company. She is currently working on a second book of stories and a novel, Arianne. Virginia’s poetry collection, Tourist to the Sun, will be also published shortly. Virginia is married with one son, and apart from her work, enjoys swimming and playing the violin.

about the book

Supernatural secrets; psychopathy; disturbing dystopias; vanity and Victorian graveyards. Each story, evoking an atmosphere of gothic classics, will take you on a journey through past, present and possibilities, where the familiar becomes strange. The new tenant above a bookshop uncovers a terrifying truth; a man looks out of his window to discover he is completely alone; a young man’s vanity ends up ensnaring him. You will anxiously anticipate characters’ fates, whilst reflecting on your own lives and experiences. It may lead you to speculate that there are many ways to be haunted, and that the most frightening spectres walk within us and among us. 

news

BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE

Virginia Betts has just signed to bring poetry and stories to life in a professional show, Neurodelicious Launch Pad. The performances will take place at the Cambridge Junction and Colchester Ar ........

RADIO INTERVIEW, SIGNING AND TALK:

I will be speaking on BBC Radio Norfolk and Suffolk for an interview on 12th July, which will be broadcast on the following Saturday. I intend to talk about the book, my writing journey and my s ........

blogs

THE CAMERA OBSCURE: WRITING THE STORIES STORY 7, ETERNAL RECURRENCE.

This story is the strangest and perhaps darkest of all. I wrote it first, a long time ago, although I have edited a lot since then. The title’s premise is a theory by the Greeks, and adopted by ........

A GALLERY OF TIGERS

This story is a really strange one, but one I am proud of. It is a magical realist story, but it is really about abuse. The child, William, is treated very badly by his father and to escape ........

THE SOUND OF THE BELL

‘It was nearly 2am. Barker had arranged to meet Hill in this god-forsaken place upon the hour. He shuddered, but it was not due to the inclement weather, although the night was indeed a fear ........

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