To me autumn means many things days get shorter, the colour of the trees looking for natures rich harvest cosy days and evenings curled up with a book of short stories and if that book is one of old folk tales and creepy stories that just make the hair on the back of your neck stand up all the better. Well if this has got your attention then you are going to love Help the Witch (unbound) by Tom Cox. Tom’s previous book 21st-Century Yokel was longlisted for the 2018 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize. Help the Witch is a book I just loved. This is just the perfect autumn book to curl up with. There are ten stories some of which I went back to read twice. I always feel a book of short stories should start with a story to grab the reader and in this case the opening story just nailed it. It is the story of the title of the book. Help the Witch. I just loved the setting and of isolation. A journey and in the snow and the snow gets heavier as you travel and then you arrive. I have always found travelling country lanes in the dark really creepy did I really see something or was that just a shape of a tree, a shadow. You have the feeling something is watching you. You get the drift. Then there are a further nine stories to read. I was just totally immersed in each story. These are stories that that could have been written many years ago but Tom Cox gathered his inspiration from E.F. Benson and M.R. James. Some tell of natural landscapes and old broken sheds and rusty barbed wire with shred of old wool still clinging on despite best efforts of winter winds. Each story is unique but just perfect for this time of year. You know you are being taken on a journey but you are not sure how or where. Then there is the last story. I will just leave this hanging there. I have come to really enjoy reading books by Tom Cox because you know you are reading a book by a very talented writer. Tom has covered many genres but this is his first foray into short stories and I am hoping there are more to come. Readers will flock to this attracted by the incredible cover designed by Joe McLaren and there are illustrations in the book by the authors mum. How wonderful is that. Help the Witch is just superb and another by the superb publisher Unbound and I am delighted to Highly Recommend. 208 Pages.

I’ve followed Tom Cox on social media for a number of years and this is the first book of his I’ve read. I’ve subsequently been buying everything he releases. This is a collection of short stories based around the loose themes of folklore, winter, nature, ghosts, witches... it’s definitely a mixture, but nonetheless it’s very well put together. Cox’s descriptions transport the reader so far into the story that you can almost feel a cold draught in an old house, or hear a rabbits footsteps through the grass, but all the while he keeps his signature wit, expressed through his funny and charming characters. Anyone with an interest in folklore, nature and good old fashioned ghost stories will find something here to love. For me it was absolutely unputdownable.

A very good book with a very warm and welcoming style. The characters Cox presents are very recognisable and relatable and the stories he weaves are captivating and unnerving. I couldn't put it down.

A wonderful and distinctly strange collection of genre defying short stories that intrigue, entice, thrill, chill and genuinely move the reader. My favourite was 'Just Good Friends', weirdly spooky but also touching, but there wasn't one story that didn't evoke some kind of emotion in me. I have very much enjoyed Tom's first foray into fiction and very much look forward to what he might do next.