HOW TO HEAR GHOSTS was the winner in the Young Adult Horror category of the 2025 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author David Griffiths.
Thanks to everyone at Indie Reader! Greetings from Liverpool (UK). It’s a truly tremendous feeling to have been nominated (and by such a cool group of people). Cheers! Proud to be an Indie!
What is the title of your book?
What is the book’s first line?
“The church bells clanged unevenly around the cemetery and the wind blew hard.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch.”
In search for answers after his mother’s tragic death, a grieving teenage boy discovers his gift of communing with the dead – or so he believes.
But as he starts to hear voices in his head and uncovers the ulterior motives of his uncle, a celebrity medium, he must confront the possibility that they are no more than a spiral into hereditary madness.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
My sister is a lady who’s had tragedy in her life. As an adolescent, I used to sneer at her for visiting psychics and clairvoyants, but, after suffering a similar bout of grief, I sought one out myself. I came away from the experience unconvinced, carrying a tape recording of the encounter, which, many years later, managed to unnerve me with the accuracy of its predictions of certain events, which I’d forgotten in the intervening years.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who – real or fictional – would you say the character reminds you of?
Ollie is grieving and secretly self-medicating with unprescribed anti-depressant drugs. But he’s funny. And self-effacing and witty.
His uncle, the successful stage medium, Dominic Quinn, could just as easily be a politician. The idea for the story came to me while Britain was experiencing its period of Brexit hysteria, and certain key politicians promised comfy black-and-white solutions to complex problems, appealing to the emotions instead of reason, just as Dom does.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book.
It’s about loss, and the fact that loss has a point. When we lose someone or something that matters more than anything else in the world and the loss seems unbearable, we can sometimes find ourselves and discover who we really are. And then we find we haven’t truly lost them: they’re inside us. Strange as it seems, we need death and loss and pain because there’s be no need for love without them.
Oh, also, I wanted to write a rollicking good ghost story.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character?
I would love Ollie to be played by Owen Cooper (who plays the boy in “Adolescence”) – though he’d need to be two years older.
When did you first decide to become an author?
As a child, I spent an out-of-season holiday in a deserted hotel (- long story). The only reading matter I had to hand was a copy of The Shining. (It made an impression.)
Is this the first you’ve written?
Nah. Written loads. All rubbish. But being rubbish is an extremely important and valuable experience. As ong as you’re not an airline pilot. Or a political leader. (Same thing really.)
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’m a professional ghost-writer. So I’ve gone from writing about them to being one.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
At least an hour on my own stuff each day – before the rest of the house wakes – then I work on someone else’s.
What’s the best and hardest part of being an Indie?
The best part is knowing it’s cool to be “indie” (like most of the best rock bands). The hard part? Yep – selling fewer copies.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Yep, because I’d be able to spend the whole day writing my own stuff – not just na hour.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (Fame/ Fortune?)
Honestly, fame isn’t what it used to be. But the buzz of writing is wonderful. Surely, it’s the closest you can get to flying. I forget who said it, but “In art, a difficulty overcome is a thing of beauty.” And that’s how it feels.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Emily Bronte. She was Yorkshire, born and bred, like Ollie.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. If spooky’s what you’re after, that’s as good as it gets.