The Workshop of Filthy Creation

Winner, Best Horror in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award

Shortlisted for the 2022 Rubery Prize.

Hardback / 270 pages

by Richard Gadz

In the autumn of 1879, an intelligent, artificially-created being—outwardly a young woman called Maria—arrives in London under the protection of biologist Professor George Hobson. Hobson gathers a few close friends and reveals her existence, explaining that she is the final result of a research programme undertaken by a dynasty of unethical scientists, the von Frakkens—all now dead.

Thrilling and evocative, fantastical and grotesque, The Workshop of Filthy Creation uses a Frankenstein-ian thread to stitch together elements of real scientific history with the darkest parts of Victorian London and speculation on the nature of human life.

"A remarkable book, visceral and philosophical in equal measure. The perfect combination of big ideas and a rattling good yarn. Hell of a read." - James Kinsley, author of Playtime's Over