Horse

by T.J.J. Hogben

When James returns home after years abroad, he finds the land changed — and yet hauntingly familiar. The once-gentle hills of Gloucestershire seem to breathe, the fields whisper his name, and the farm he grew up on hides something restless beneath the soil.

What begins as an uneasy reunion with his aging parents soon unravels into something far more disturbing. Livestock are found mutilated. A strange light falls beyond May Hill. And as old tensions resurface, James realises that the darkness surrounding his childhood home has been waiting for him all along.

Horse is a tale of memory, madness, and the inescapable pull of home — where the line between man and beast blurs, and the past refuses to stay buried.

234 pages, Paperback

Published November 21, 2024

About the author

Theo J. Hogben was born in Gloucestershire and grew up in the Severn Valley, surrounded by the folklore and rural traditions that would later inspire his fiction. He has worked across many fields — from bar work and teaching game design in northern Sweden to founding creative studios under the Tyrant name.

In 2020, during a difficult period of his life, Hogben began writing what would become Horse — a feverish blend of memory, folklore, and nightmare, written largely in one sitting. He later revised it several times over the following years, shaping it into a dark meditation on homecoming and inheritance.

Though he had no formal literary training, Horse was praised for its atmosphere and lyrical prose. His later work expands upon these themes, exploring the uncanny and the cosmic within the ordinary. He now lives north of the Arctic Circle in Luleå, Sweden, where he continues to write and teach.