In a special Halloween column for Weekend, author and former Penketh High School pupil Curtis Jobling recalls how childhood visits to Warrington's museum and library partly inspired his horror and fantasy novels

I'VE never made a secret about the fact that my love of role playing games, books and films inspired me to become a writer, but a huge influence on my formative years was always right on my doorstep.

Growing up in the 80s in Warrington, weekend trips to town usually involved regular haunts, all now long gone.

G&I Models for lead Citadel miniatures to paint, Our Price for the latest vinyl, and the dearly departed Bookland in Cairo Street. All roads ultimately, though, lead to Museum Street.

The fact that the museum and library were adjoining meant there was a two-bird-one-stone shenanigan going on.

Reading has always been the purest form of escapism for me, more so than any film. I didn't need to see Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies to know what a hobbit looked like.

I'd visited the Shire as a nine-year-old schoolboy via the books. In the library I could make a nuisance of myself, pestering the brow-beaten librarians into ordering obscure, fantastic and frankly inappropriate works of horror fiction before hopping next door for the real deal. The museum was where the genuine frights were to be found.

My memory isn't what it once was, and perhaps the more ghoulish artefacts I found on display have taken on mythical proportions in my mind, but I found a world of wondrous chills and thrills in Warrington Museum as a boy.

The more macabre the exhibit, the better. Skulls and skeletons, of all shapes and sizes from all manner of beasts, were a must-see. As were the insect rooms with a freakish selection of giant bugs that made my skin crawl.

I distinctly recall there being a mummy, possibly of an infant, its ancient sarcophagus replaced by one of glass. And of course, the shrunken Maori head, absolutely grotesque and inappropriate (and recently - thankfully - repatriated).

All of this, at my fingertips. That I've gone on to write fantasy and horror novels such as Wereworld came as no surprise to friends and family.

Haunt: Dead Scared is based upon my life growing up in Warrington (the sequel, Dead Wrong, will be out next year).

Indeed, in my next two novels, for two separate publishers, museums play a major part within the stories.

World of Warriors is a new game from Mind Candy (the guys behind Moshi Monsters) and I'll be writing a series of books set within that universe - the first book opens in the British Museum.

I also have Max Helsing: Monster Hunter coming out in the States, featuring a museum of anthropology directly inspired by Warrington's own house of history.

I occasionally get asked: 'Are your books too scary for children?' My answer is no. But they are scary.

Fear is an emotion that affects us all, and what better way for a child to experience it than through a book? Books don't chase us down the street.

Books don't make us jump out of our skin. If a book is scary, close it. Crikey, if it's really scary, throw it in the chest freezer in the garage.

A little fright now and again can be a healthy jolt to anyone's heart, especially via the pages of an engaging, entertaining book. Or even through the dark, foreboding doors of your local museum...

- Curtis's books are available at Waterstones in Golden Square and you can follow him on Twitter at @CurtisJobling