Creator Matthew Holness pens his TerrorTome

Matthew Holness is to released the first book in the guise of his cult horror writer Garth Marenghi.

The comic announced the news on Twitter, posting: ‘Coming in November in hardback, ebook and audio: three spine-shattering tales of fright from Garth Marenghi's long-lost multi-volume epic: TerrorTome.’

And he released this video, too:

The Master of Darkdom returns… pic.twitter.com/NMWILxYz9F

— Matthew Holness (@MrHolness) August 17, 2022

Garth Marenghi was created by Holness and Richard Ayoade, with their live show – which also featured Alice Lowe – winning the Perrier Award at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe. It was then made into the cult Channel 4 sitcom Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, co-starring Matt Berry.

In their blurb, publishers Hodder & Stoughton say: ‘When horror writer Nick Steen gets sucked into a cursed typewriter by the terrifying Type-Face, Dark Lord of the Prolix, the hellish visions inside his head are unleashed for real.

‘Forced to fight his escaping imagination - now leaking out of his own brain - Nick must defend the town of Stalkford from his own fictional horrors, including avascular-necrosis-obsessed serial killer Nelson Strain and Nick's dreaded throppleganger, the Dark Third.

‘Can he and Roz, his frequently incorrect female editor, hunt down these incarnate denizens of Nick's rampaging imaginata before they destroy Stalkford, outer Stalkford and possibly slightly further?

‘From the twisted genius of horror master Garth Marenghi - Frighternerman, Darkscribe, Doomsage (plus Man-Shee) - come three dark tales from his long-lost multi-volume epic: TerrorTome.

‘Can a brain leak? (Yes, it can)’

The publisher also gives a biography of the character, explaining: ‘Garth Marenghi was born in the past, graduated from his local comprehensive (now bulldozed) with some O levels in subjects. He taught for nine years at his local library reading group before becoming a full-time horror writer.

‘He has published numerous novels of terror (too numerous to list, nay count), over 500 short stories, and has edited 40 anthologies of his own work, which have all received the Grand Master of Darkdom Award.

‘He wrote, directed and starred in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the Peruvian market, which subsequently aired on Channel 4 and has not been repeated due to its radical and polemic content. He commenced work on TerrorTome during the late 1980s, continued on it alone and unaided by editors throughout the 1990s, and on into the early 2000s, then the mid-2000s, and has only now found a publisher brave enough to unleash its chilling portendings. He is an honorary fellow.’

Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome will also be available from Amazon, priced £16.99

Published: 17 Aug 2022