08/21/2026
Bingo’s pick of the week at The Quill & Candle Bookshop!
The Rats by James Herbert 🐀🩸
The brutal, masterfully gory classic of British horror, The Rats is the multimillion-copy bestseller from James Herbert.
The first victim was a former paper salesman drinking himself into oblivion down by the docks. Next a child and her beloved dog, then six drifters fighting over a bottle of gin - all devoured by a black, writhing mass of giant rats.
As London descends into panicked chaos, high school teacher Harris is pulled head first into the nightmare when a student arrives with a rat bite on his hand. And he quickly realises that this is no ordinary creature, nothing like anyone has ever seen before.
With their intelligent, wicked looking eyes and razor-sharp teeth, the balance of power between man and rat has suddenly, shockingly, horribly - shifted.
The rats have had their first taste of human blood.
And they’re hungry for more . . .
‘Lean, mean, and nasty as punk, The Rats are here!‘
- Grady Hendrix, bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House
‘A seminal work from a king of British horror‘
– Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual
‘Splatterpunk deluxe . . . I loved it then, love it still‘
– Stephen King
About Author:
James John Herbert, OBE (April 8, 1943 – March 20, 2013) was a definitive English horror and thriller novelist who became Britain’s number one bestselling writer of chiller fiction. Over a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, he published 23 novels that sold more than 54 million copies worldwide and were translated into over 30 languages. He was widely celebrated for blending graphic, visceral horror with fast-paced thriller elements and acute social commentary.
