Andrew Michael Hurley

Andrew Michael Hurley (born 1975) is a British writer whose debut novel, The Loney, was published in a limited edition of 350 copies on 1 October 2014 by Tartarus Press^[1][2] and was published under Hodder and Stoughton's John Murray imprint in 2015.^[3] He was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Open Book programme "British Gothic" in October 2015.^[4]

Early life and education

Hurley was born in 1975^[5] in Preston, Lancashire and grew up there, spending holidays in Cumbria and Yorkshire "in the sort of rural, rugged landscapes dotted with smallholdings that he now writes about".^[6] He has said that at the aged of ten he was obsessed with Tolkien,^[7] and that on family holidays he would look out for books of local ghost stories.^[6] He has worked as a teacher and a librarian.^[6]

Literary career

Hurley had two volumes of short stories published by Lime Tree Press: Cages and Other Stories (2006) and The Unusual Death of Julie Christie and Other Stories (2008).^[2]

His debut novel, The Loney, was reviewed in The Guardian and The Telegraph.^[8][9][10] It is set in the area of Morecambe Bay in north west England, described in the text as "that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune".^[3] Hurley has said that the novel's two starting points were "to write a kind of dark version of the Nativity [...] and exploring ideas of faith and belief" and "various wild, lonely places on the north west coast of Lancashire [...] a sense of imminent menace or dormant power lying just under the sand and the water".^[11] He has also described how the landscapes and placenames around Silverdale, further north on Morecambe Bay, influenced his writing.^[7] It is the winner of the 2015 Costa Book Award for First Novel^[12] as well as the British Book Industry Award for best debut fiction and book of the year.^[13]

His second novel, Devil's Day, was published on 19 October 2017 by John Murray ^[14] and Tartarus Press^[15] Its setting, "The Endlands", is based on Langden valley in Lancashire's Forest of Bowland.^[16] The book "deploys myth, landscape and the tropes of horror to chilling effect".^[17][18] Hurley was joint winner of the Royal Society of Literature's 2018 Encore Award for best second novel.^[19]

Hurley's third novel Starve Acre was published 31 October 2019 by John Murray. The "Starve Acre" of the title is the home of a couple whose child has died, and it is "a novel which grapples with the irrationality and complexity of grief, the power and potency of folklore, and a moving examination of the effect a child's loss can have on its parents".^[20] The Guardian's critic described it as "an atmospheric tale in the same tradition of English folk-horror" as his previous two books.^[21] The film Starve Acre based on the book, was directed by Daniel Kokotajlo, starred Morfydd Clark and Matt Smith, and premiered at the BFI London Film Festival 2023.^[22]

His fourth novel, Barrowbeck was published on 24 October 2024 and comprises a collection of tales about the fictional village of Barrowbeck, on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, across 1,000 years.^[23][24][25] A series of stories based in Barrowbeck were broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2022 under the title Voices in the Valley; readers included Maxine Peake, Reece Shearsmith, Toby Jones, Tamsin Greig and Jessica Raine.^[26]

Hurley's story "At the Rising of the Sun" was read by Stephen Campbell Moore in the BBC Radio 4 series Short Works in June 2025.^[27]

Personal life

Hurley has been a lecturer in "creative writing (fiction)" at Manchester Metropolitan University since 2016.^[28] He lives in the Preston area, having previously lived in London and Manchester.^[6]

Awards

Year	Title	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2015	The Loney	Costa Book Awards	First Novel	Won	[29]
		Waverton Good Read Award	—	Longlisted
2016		Authors' Club First Novel Award	—	Longlisted
		British Book Industry Awards	Book of the Year	Selected	[30]
			Debut Fiction	Selected
2018	Devil's Day	Encore Award	—	Won	[31]

Selected publications

Novels

• The Loney (2014, Tartarus: ISBN 9781905784691; 2015, John Murray: ISBN 9781473619821)
• Devil's Day (2017, John Murray: ISBN 9781473619869; Tartarus: ISBN 9781905784981)
• Starve Acre (2019, John Murray: ISBN 9781529387261)
• Barrowbeck (2024, John Murray: ISBN 9781399817486)

Collections

• Cages and Other Stories (2006, Lime Tree Press: ISBN 9781411699021)
• The Unusual Death of Julie Christie and Other Stories (2008, Lime Tree Press: ISBN 9780955981401)

Short stories

• "While The Nightjar Sleeps" (2021) in The Best British Short Stories 2017 (Salt Publishing: ISBN 9781784631123)
• "Katy" (2018) in Seaside Special – Postcards from the Edge (Blue Moose Books: ISBN 9781910422427)
• "Mr Lanyard's Last Case" (2018) in Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories (September Publishing: ISBN 9781910463741)
• "Hunger" (2020) in Strange Tales: Tartarus Press at 30 (Tartarus: Limited edition or ebook)^[32]
• "Clavicle Wood" (2021) in Test Signal: Northern Anthology of New Writing (Bloomsbury: ISBN 9781526630902)
• "The Hanging of the Greens" (2021) in The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights (Sphere: ISBN 9780751581973)
• "The Old Play" (2023) in The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Festive Nights (Sphere: ISBN 9781408727584)