What do you think?
Rate this book
Winter Freits
A Black Shuck Shadows book: Andrew David Barker’s WINTER FREITS presents a trio of wintry writings in: 'Polar Vortex', 'The House on Lidderman Street' and 'Christopher'. Here be ghosts.
118 pages, Paperback
Published January 31, 2019
4 people want to read
About the author
Andrew David Barker
9 books37 followersAndrew David Barker is a screenwriter, director, and author.
Born in Derby, England in 1975, Barker has had pretty much every job going. In his time he has worked as a window fitter, a rail track worker, a factory worker, a carpet salesman, a car cleaner, a delivery driver, a bricklayers' labourer, a shop assistant, and a care worker, among others. None of them stuck.
In the late 90s he played lead guitar in a rock band. They got signed, made a single, played London, thought they were famous, and, subsequently, imploded.
As a filmmaker he wrote and directed the little seen opus, A Reckoning – a last man on earth tale which won acclaim from many who saw it - and has made several award-winning short films, including Laura Living Backwards, which he co-wrote, and Shining Tor.
In the feature film world, Barker is a co-screenwriter on the forthcoming horror satire, The Wilding, and the writer/director of micro-budget chiller, The House on Lidderman Street.
He is also the co-screenwriter of British gangland thriller, Improper Bastards, shooting this spring, and has several other projects in development for 2026.
He is the author of The Electric, Dead Leaves, The Winterman, and Society Place, and is an Arts Council Grant recipient for his writing.
He now lives in Warwickshire with his wife and daughters, trying to be a grown up..
Born in Derby, England in 1975, Barker has had pretty much every job going. In his time he has worked as a window fitter, a rail track worker, a factory worker, a carpet salesman, a car cleaner, a delivery driver, a bricklayers' labourer, a shop assistant, and a care worker, among others. None of them stuck.
In the late 90s he played lead guitar in a rock band. They got signed, made a single, played London, thought they were famous, and, subsequently, imploded.
As a filmmaker he wrote and directed the little seen opus, A Reckoning – a last man on earth tale which won acclaim from many who saw it - and has made several award-winning short films, including Laura Living Backwards, which he co-wrote, and Shining Tor.
In the feature film world, Barker is a co-screenwriter on the forthcoming horror satire, The Wilding, and the writer/director of micro-budget chiller, The House on Lidderman Street.
He is also the co-screenwriter of British gangland thriller, Improper Bastards, shooting this spring, and has several other projects in development for 2026.
He is the author of The Electric, Dead Leaves, The Winterman, and Society Place, and is an Arts Council Grant recipient for his writing.
He now lives in Warwickshire with his wife and daughters, trying to be a grown up..
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 10, 2019
Part of the superb Shadows series of micro-collections from Black Shuck Books, this features three short stories from Barker, who wrote the excellent “Dead Leaves”. “Christopher” is my favourite, a bleak and melancholic exploration of grief and parenthood, old friends and old loves and the lure of nostalgia that doesn’t help anybody. The characters are rich and well drawn, the horror is nicely underplayed and a sense of doom hangs over the whole thing. “The House On Lidderman Street” features an apprentice brickie, his awful workmates and a job in an empty house isolated by a snowstorm. Subtle before a gruelling episode of horror, this plays nicely on expectation and delivers the terror. “Polar Vortex”, an overlong study of a woman hurt in the snow, didn’t really work for me and while the narrators voice might have been apt for the time period it felt over-written and flowery, slowing the pace right down. All three stories are linked by snow and winter and also a sense of defeat and bleakness and, at two out of three for me, I was impressed. If you like your horror well written and skilfully plotted, I’d very much recommend this.
Displaying 1 of 1 review