In this episode Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray talk about the post-apocalyptic Young Adult novel The Garden of Darkness by Gillian Murray Kendall from 2014.

We discuss what makes a horror, look at the early modern influences on the book,
and despair of our own chances in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Plus we discover the natural source of morale.*

Content notes, there are a few: Discussion of an adult character preying on children, including in a sexually-loaded way, discussion of eugenics and mention of Nazis in relation to the same character.

Also apologies also for the slightly poorer sound quality than usual on this episode, we had some mic volume issues!

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/27-gardenofdarkness

* It's toucans.

Happy day, spooky kids! In this episode Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and returning guest Ali Kay delve into the brain-washing, time-looping world of the 1977 BBC TV series Children of the Stones.

Join us for Morris dancing, Solar Serpents and educational asides into the history of surgery, as we try to untangle the plot of this creepy and atmospheric seventies classic.

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/26-childrenofthestones

What's up, spooky kids? Join Still Scared for their Christmas-or-thereabouts episode about the 1984 TV series, The Box of Delights.

This time, Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and special guest Willow discuss whimsical kidnapping, dolphin chariots and 1930s slang, and Willow really gets some #teachervibes going.

All this and more from a podcast that can proudly say that it's not in the pocket of Big Posset.

A full transcript of the episode is available at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/25-boxofdelights

In their most squamous, writhing, goopy and tendril-filled episode yet, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray explore the vibrant landscape of 1982's dark fantasy puppet film, The Dark Crystal.

Join us for this wallow in a many-textured world, featuring a special guest appearance from Adam's unattached false front tooth.

A full transcript of this episode is available in the show notes, here: https://stillscared.podigee.io/24-dark-crystal

This episode we invite you to join Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and a cast of geese, scamps and orphans in the Dickensian horror-romp that is The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.

Featuring shipwreck, secret passageways and a villainous governess, this book delivers the thrills and chills, and a plethora of Textures of the Week.

Content note: description of a child's death by drowning.

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/23-wolves

In this episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray celebrate one year of Still Scared with a ghost story graphic novella, Malevolents: Click Click, by Thom Burgess and Joe Becci.

We huddle in front of our campfire to discuss mental illness in horror, ghosts in our hometowns, and take a look back on what we've learned about children's horror over the year of our podcast.

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/22-malevolents

In this episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray alliterate themselves into a particularly gothic gloomy ghost story, 2017's Thornhill by Pam Smy.

We discuss fibrous drawings, ambivalent endings and the powerlessness of childhood, as we talk about this uniquely told modern horror.

This episode also features a particularly crunchy and unanimous Texture of the Week that all you creepy puppet fans won't want to miss!

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/21-thornhill

Content note: Descriptions of school bullying, allusions to suicide, and death by fire.

In this episode, Adam Whybray, Ren Wednesday and returning guest Alex Ava discuss 'one of the cursed books of childhood', Roald Dahl's The Witches.

Together they discuss monstrous femininity, death positivity and the horror of the English seaside hotel, and Alex mounts a passionate defence of being turned into a mouse.

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/20-witches

Get yourself a flask of bilberry wine, and join Ren and Adam as they talk about the 1965 stop-motion animation series The Pogles, by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin.

In this episode we reminisce about what Postgate and Firmin's work has meant to us, chat about folk horror, and do more voices than might be strictly necessary.

Cosy horror has never been more charming.

A full transcript of this episode is available in the show notes at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/19-pogles

Strange things happen when you're going round the twist, and this week Ren and Adam re-discover this childhood favourite and it's particular brand of gross-out horror.

We talk shaggy-dog stories and pushing the boundaries of children's horror, and decide that it's probably for the best not to dress up in those dead clown's clothes that wash ashore in an old trunk.

Content note: Scatological humour, pregnancy storyline.

A full transcript of this episode is in the shownotes at: https://stillscared.podigee.io/18-roundthetwist