L. C. Winter (she/her) likes to give the reader a shiver and writes gothic historical fiction that explores relationships and place. After studying for her English degree many years ago, Libby went on to a career as a gardener, demonstrating that, if nothing else, she’s not afraid to change her mind. She has spent many years wrangling the gardens at various historic homes, feeding a love for the past and walking through it every day. She lives in Derbyshire with her nerdy husband and neurotic cats, and her debut novel, Spider, Spider, was published in March 2026.
AUTHOR LINKS:
Website: lcwinter.com
Instagram: @libbythescribbler
Substack: @lcwinterauthor
Book links:
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/spider-spider/l-c-winter/9780715655825
Goldsboro books (for special edition): https://goldsborobooks.com/products/spider-spider
Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/0dHYLzA4
Read Sample:
Spider, Spider – Amazon Sample
Book Pitch for Book Clubs/Readers:
Vengeance is theirs and theirs alone. But who will deal the fatal blow?
Young Nancy Ratcliffe is on the run. Her father had sought refuge for his family with the Brethren, led by the charismatic but dangerous Prophet. But now her father is gravely ill, and even the sooty streets of Victorian London hold less terror for Nancy than the brutality of Brethren Hall.
Meanwhile, Spider is biding her time. Wrapped in dreams and visions, she paces the dark corridors and hidden staircases of the crumbling house she grew up in. The man who murdered a part of her disappeared many years ago, but still she hopes for revenge.
Jet-black and thrilling, Spider, Spider is an unforgettable tale of a woman who has lost herself in the poison of vengeance, and the knife-sharp girl who might just bring her back.
Spider Spider, your Victorian Gothic Horror/Thriller novel came out in March 2026 – what inspired you to write a tale of religious cults and dark secrets set in the Victorian era?
The Victorian era is one I feel strangely comfortable in. Sherlock Holmes is one of my chief comfort-reads and I have memories of reading the set of those short stories my parents owned. From Conan-Doyle I moved on to Dracula, Jekyll & Hyde and MR James. I’m always grateful not to live there but I do enjoy spending time there in my mind.
As for dark secrets, I seem to be unable to write anything cheerful. Someone always seems to end up dead! And the cult grew up in the planning of the book – it started as a criminal organisation and sort of morphed into a cult.
Where did the theme of vengeance come from – did you know from the start it was going to be about revenge, and a bond between two women as the central focus?
I am fascinated by vigilantism and revenge; how our society allows the wronged to get justice, decides who is allowed to seek and receive justice, what happens when people step outside those restraints to find their own justice.
The bond between Nancy and Spider sort of grew in the telling and it’s a very conflicted bond – I don’t think they like each other much, though they respect and maybe even fear each other. Spider isn’t someone who has easy relationships!
Introduce us to Nancy and Spider. How did you develop these characters, and did anything surprise you about them as they emerged on the page?
Nancy is a girl who is blindingly angry. She is absolutely furious about what has been done to her and her family. The only thing that modifies that rage is her love for her little sister Pigeon who she wants to keep safe at all costs.
Spider’s rage is deep and old; it’s curdled in her soul without any release for nine years. So there’s a lot of anger with both of them and that was clear from the very beginning.
My very first sketched scene was Nancy on Spider’s doorstep hissing the word ‘vengeance’ when asked what she wanted by the mysterious figure behind a candle flame. I think the thing that surprised me was the depth of both of their sadness. Both of them are grieving, not just for the people they have lost but also for their lost selves, and that feeds back into anger.
Who are the Brethren, and how did you come up with their cult/sect for the book?
The Charitable Brethren of Christ are a group that Mr Darner has gathered around himself over the years. There were a few real world inspirations that I drew on aside from all my reading about cults generally.
One of these was Father Jay, a charismatic religious figure that Sarah Wise writes about in The Darkest Streets. Father Jay does not seem to have been a bad person, so he didn’t directly inspire Mr Darner, but a charismatic man gathering people around him from the poorest parts of London could certainly have dubious motives. There was also a 19thC sex cult called the Agapemone – I wrote about in in the March issue of Historia (https://historiamag.com/victorian-sex-cult/) – which showed me a cult could survive at this time.
Describe Brethren Hall – what does it look like, and what’s its history? Did any real locations inspire the layout and the aesthetics of it?
Brethren Hall was inspired by the mission halls, friendly society buildings and methodist halls you see in many places, but it’s also a converted clothing exchange and exchanges are often big square buildings with wide steps, so it’s sort of an amalgam of those without any direct inspiration.
My other locations were more directly inspired. Lansdowne Asylum is like the real asylums that sprung up across the country in the mid-19thC, looking like stately homes, Hanwell Asylum was especially influential.
Hangcorner House sprung from a few places I have lived and worked; mazes of houses, old and disorientating, but also from a place called Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire. Snowshill is full of unusual collections, weird corners and frightening objects, and I visited just as I was writing Spider, Spider. It definitely found its way into my book!
Describe your target audience – who would love this? If you’ve had any reviews/feedback you’re especially pleased about, let us know here!
Spider, Spider is for anyone who loves the gothic, dark secrets, old horrors coming home to roost. To take two contrasting reviews that I’ve been extremely happy about, Nick Rennishaw in The Times said, ‘Dozens of novels are published annually that fall into the subgenre, but this is one of the most original of recent years.’
My husband, a fantasy reader who would not usually read this genre, halfway through my book said, ‘Bloody hell love, I’m going to need something a bit lighter after this. Maybe something like a Joe Abercrombie.’
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