By the end of this month the clocks in the UK will have fallen back, and the days will be shorter. Children will walk home from school in the dark, crunching dead leaves underfoot and trees will stand stripped back to trunk and branches. Darkness and death become more apparent in nature and when the light is not strong enough, the darkness starts to take shape.

On the 31st, monsters come out in the form of stories, movies and costumes, principalities manifesting through secondary causes. Children will come knocking on our doors, dressed as vampires, zombies, ghosts and ghouls. They will ask for a treat and threaten a trick for those who refuse to participate. It’s not easy to know how to handle this dark carnival of death, but one thing is clear: as a soc-iety we haven’t handled it well.