Meet the author

Jack Mackay.

Writer · United Kingdom

Jack Mackay: a striking new horror voice whose debut Gloam is genuinely frightening and deeply felt, ideal for nine-to-twelves who like a proper scare.

Jack Mackay is a British writer and theatre-maker with a taste for the macabre, and the co-founder of the York-based Griffonage Theatre company. He wrote his debut novel while still an undergraduate at the University of York. That book, Gloam, is an accomplished middle-grade horror in which Gwen, grieving her mother and newly moved to a crumbling house on a fog-bound island, is the only one who can see the monster hiding behind the too-perfect babysitter's smile. Illustrated with eerie chapter-head artwork by Ben Joel Price, it is genuinely frightening but tender at heart, threading real feeling about loss and sibling love through the scares. Praised on publication by writers including Jonathan Stroud and Lemony Snicket, Mackay is a striking new voice for readers of nine to twelve who like their stories to keep them up at night.