Jenny Twist was born in York and brought up in the West Yorkshire mill town of Heckmondwike, the eldest grandchild of a huge extended family.
She left school at fifteen and went to work in an asbestos factory. After working in various jobs, including bacon-packer and escapologist’s assistant (she was The Lovely Tanya), she returned to full-time education and did a BA in history, at Manchester and post-graduate studies at Oxford.
She stayed in Oxford working as a recruitment consultant for many years and it was there that she met and married her husband, Vic.
In 2001 they retired and moved to Southern Spain where they live with their rather eccentric dogs and cat. Besides writing, she enjoys reading, knitting and attempting to do fiendishly difficult logic puzzles.
In July 2018 she won the Author Show TOP FEMALE AUTHOR Fantasy/Horror/Paranormal/Science Fiction award.

. . .In the south of Spain at the beginning of the twentieth century, village people still believed in this particular fabulous beast. Sometimes they called it a mantequero, and sometimes a sacamantecas; it was a monster which looked like a man, but which lived in wild places and fed on human manteca or fat . . .
Some people still do . . .

This book is a compilation of the three Mantequero stories: Mantequero, Disappeared and Sins of the Father; with the addition of two new stories: The First Mantequero and The Last Mantequero.


Tales of the Mantequero

José gave him a dismissive glance. "Here's these two chicas,"he went on, as if no-one had interrupted him. "One of them as fat as butter, coming here with no idea of what is going on."He leant over and spat into the hearth. "And nobody's telling them."He turned back to Alison. "You,"he said, pointing a trembling finger at her, "are in danger and your fat friend is in even more danger. He likes them fat. She will call to him. You keep your doors and windows locked and don't go out after dark without a couple of strong men beside you."


"What happened to her?"Alison whispered. "The other fat English lady. What happened?"


"What happened?"the old man repeated furiously. "What do you think happened? He killed her, that's what happened. He sucked every bit of fat off her body. When they found her she was nothing but skin and bone. Do you understand?"He leant forward and shook his finger in front of Alison's face. "This is not a joke. He kills them. Especially the fat ones."


Chapter 25