In June 1816, the 19 year old Mary Shelley found herself in one of the most famous house parties ever. Together with Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Claire Clairmont, she was marooned on the shores of Lake Geneva in a summer of ferocious storms caused by a vast volcanic eruption in Indonesia.

Trapped indoors, the group turned to telling ghost stories. On the night of the 22nd of June Mary had what she called a waking nightmare when the story of a living monster created by man began to form in her head. By the end of the month she had begun work on the most famous of horror stories – Frankenstein.

You can download Derek Jacobi reading Frankenstein - one of the most chilling and gruesome horror stories ever told - exclusively from silksoundbooks.com