Aunt Grizelda
Grizelda Schwarz (AKA Aunt Grizelda) was born on 31 October 1832 in Transylvania. After graduating with a degree in lycanthropy from Kreep University, she worked as a journalist for Zombie Times and then for the women’s Magazine Haunted Homes. Grizelda is now a freelance writer, and has gained notoriety for her two publications: Aunt Grizelda’s Treasury of Grim and Grisly Rhymes and Aunt Grizelda’s Tales of the Unexpected, both of which were named Witch Magazine’s top twisted titles, and were selected by the Reading Agency for the Summer Reading Challenge.
Having completed her third book Aunt Grizelda’s Monstrous Myths, she is now working on her most menacing work yet – a collection of verse inspired by infamous villains. Grizelda lives in a belfry on the Yorkshire Moors with her pet wolfhounds Fang and Baskerville, pipistrelle bat Squeaky, and serpents Bella and Donna.
How Aunt Grizelda came to be
It was a savagely wild night as I edged along the narrow road snaking across the North Yorkshire Moors: clouds scurried across the face of a pale moon; the wind bit like a vampire and howled like a banshee, and shivers of apprehension ran down my spine. What weird and menacing creature might at any moment loom out of the darkness? And suddenly – there she was! From the swirling mist materialised Aunt Grizelda – a fully formed demi mortal with a gruesome talent for grisly rhymes.
Courtesy of Dom Makin
Since that night, she has penned three collections of grimly funny verse, with a fourth on its way. So…
If you thrill with chills listening to a spooky tale around a camp fire
If a nighttime wander around a graveyard to read the tombstones is your idea of fun
If you’d rather have a snake, a crow or a bat for a pet than a fluffy kitten
If your favourite night of the year is Halloween
If your book shelves groan with tomes by Lewis Carroll, the brothers Grimm, Hilaire Belloc, Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein, Neil Gaiman and Lemony Snicket… then step this way you’ve found your tribe!