Baskerville snares Cledwyn Hughes’ ‘devilishly macabre novella’ 47 years after his death

Baskerville, an imprint of John Murray Press, will publish The Inn Closes for Christmas by Cledwyn Hughes, which it has dubbed “a lost classic of Welsh literature”.

Yassine Belkacemi, editorial director at John Murray and Baskerville, acquired world English rights including e-book and audio from Norah Perkins at Curtis Brown. The Inn Closes for Christmas will publish with Baskerville in hardback, e-book and audio in November 2025. 

“Currently out of print, The Inn Closes for Christmas is a masterpiece of horror,” Baskerville said. “In the form of a confession, the novella revolves around a dentist murderously obsessed with his wife’s prosthetic leg and the terrible consequences of his obsession. We follow the dentist’s spiral into madness as we walk through his nightmares, visions and thoughts in this profound and macabre tale.” 

Hughes (1920 to 1978) was an Anglo-Welsh author of short stories, novels and narrative non-fiction. He wrote for more than 30 years across a wide range of genres including crime, Celtic Noir, children’s and topographical writing. Born in Llansantffraid, Montgomeryshire, he worked as a hospital pharmacist in the north of England before settling down in Wales to write full-time. 

His work has been featured in magazines such as Suspense as well as in collections like Woodrow Wyatt’s English Story. He was also a regular contributor to the BBC. Hughes’ contemporaries called him a “brilliant young Welshman whose short stories have already established his reputation” (Spectator). 

Rebecca Hughes and Janet Laugharne, daughters of Cledwyn Hughes, said: “We are thrilled that our father’s work is being rediscovered and enjoyed in all its authenticity and originality after having been out of print since his death in 1978. There is a dark Celtic humour and lyricism in his writing and an unflinching gaze on good and evil in many guises, that is unmistakably his.”

Belkacemi said: “Cledwyn Hughes’ writing is so stylish, gripping and twisted. The Inn Closes for Christmas is a devilishly macabre novella, and a masterpiece of 20th-century Welsh literature, which has been out of print for over 45 years. I can’t wait to work with Cledwyn’s daughters and Norah Perkins to bring his brilliant work back into the reading public’s eye.”