An excellent performance as ever!

A treat for a chilling Wednesday evening. The suitably spooky setting of Revelations Ashford for a performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by the brilliant Gerald Dickens great great grandson of Charles Dickens himself. Great to catch-up with @atters1000.bsky.social Truly we’re in the season of ghosts

Now reading Reggie Oliver’s new novel from PS Publishing, Wings of Night. A ghost story set at a provincial theatre, perfect Oliver territory!

The Ghost Train doesn’t stop here anymore www.kentonline.co.uk/romney-marsh...

We went to see an am-dram production of Strangers on a Train last week and for some reason they seem to have used AI to write an article on ‘strangers on a train’ for the programme. Drivel in its purest form.

Great fun delving into the esoteric and occult collections of the ‘Dark Secrets Exhibiton’ at the Vaults, London yesterday with @atters1000.bsky.social Some really interesting artefacts ( alongside a terrifying apparition playing a piano ) #darksecrets #london

“A tawny owl is looking down from its high vantage point at the great bonfire” Artist: CF Tunnicliffe Writer: EL Grant Watson

Happy Hallowe’en spooksters!

This years window offering.

A couple of belters from W.H. Smith (or whatever it’s calling itself now) - a Dark Side magazine Italian Horror special, and a Doctor Who Magazine gothic horror edition!

The “Not at Night” centenary - an aericle by Douglas A Anderson from the fantastic Wormwoodiana blog wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Borley Rectory Christmas cards now available from my shop! Also I'll bung one in with any advent calendar bought this week. sarahcoomershop.etsy.com

Check out this exciting new horror comic project from @manoghosts.bsky.social Darkade : An Arcade Horror Comic www.kickstarter.com/projects/man...

“Six o'clock was the autumn witching hour, when the smells of every wet and leaf-blown country cricket field in England were wafted up-river with the damp shreds of dusk” John le Carré

Some Barbican snaps!

Birthday apocalypse of Mr Blobby

Carry on, Jeeves turns 100 www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/carry-o...

Joanna Lumley & Tobias Menzies To Lead Annual Mark Gatiss Christmas Ghost Story

Charlotte Riddell news www.bbc.com/news/article...

Happy World Octopus Day!

Currently reading and thoroughly enjoying this beautiful new selection of Daphne du Maurier’s macabre short stories from Virago, with a new introduction by Stephen King!

Some snaps from a wander around Bloomsbury today with some pals from the Sherlock Holmes Society of London

Exciting news! HELLEBORE’s first short story anthology is here! 9 new tales of the supernatural and the strange by Ramsey Campbell, Ally Wilkes, Reggie Oliver, Helen Grant and more, set in some of the most beguiling locations of Occult Britain. 👉🏼 Pre-order now to secure your copy: helleborezine.com

Great fun yesterday hunting down some film locations from the 1970 film The Railway Children, thanks to a day rover ticket on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway!

Hammer sign news www.bbc.com/news/article...

On the Brontë trail in Haworth!

We have a cover! ‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ will be published by Oxford University Press on 10 September 2026. Set your watches, mark your calendars, and spread the word!

The Portsmouth Shantymen did a fantastic performance of The Old Gray Fox as part of their after-dinner set for the Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s visit to Pompey last weekend! The jokes in the song went down very well with the crowd after a few tots of rum!

A Victorian picture of a swan, fashioned from dead moths. On display at the excellent Abbey House Museum in Leeds.

The Abbot’s Treasure, a 1930s penny machine (by Dennison Sisters) on display at the Abbey House Museum in Leeds. I can only assume that the Abbot in question is Abbot Thomas!

Ready for a new issue? Pre-orders for The Mirror Issue are now open worldwide! ✨🪞✨ Mirror magic, ritual masks, films that cast a spell, doppelgängers and fetches, changelings, evil portraits, spirit traps and much more. 👉🏼 helleborezine.com

Just back from the Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s autumn excursion to Portsmouth! I was responsible for organising this year’s trip and I’m pleased to say that it seemed to go swimmingly! Cambridge next year!

Great to see Andrew Lycett talking about the origins of Sherlock Holmes at The Sohemian Society last night, and he was kind enough to sign my copy of his excellent Conan Doyle biography (highly recommended)!

The Hammer House of Horror! These offices in Wardour Street were used by Hammer Films from the 1940s onwards!

Blue plaque for Sir Mansfield Cumming, first chief of the Secret Service - spotted in Whitehall Court

Thanks again to @bbcworldbookclub.bsky.social for inviting me to join Harriet and Denise to ramble on about The Hound of the Baskervilles. And thanks to all the Sherlockian societies and listeners who submitted questions. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Now watching Hammer’s 1950 suspense movie The Man in Black, based on the radio series introduced by Valentine Dyall. Starring Sid James (!)

Enjoying another true crime story of old New York, Edgar Allan Poe and the Murder of Mary Rogers by the brilliant Daniel Stashower

We had a great time at the Silver Screams screening of The Blair Witch Project at Ashford Cinema, presented by @manoghosts.bsky.social with a post-film Q&A with @bunnydarke.bsky.social - unnerving to find that one of the twig charms has followed us home!

I picked this up in NYC and tore through it on the flight home. Blood and Ink by Joe Pompeo, a fascinating true crime story about an infamous double murder in New Jersey, and the tabloid press frenzy that followed in jazz-age New York. Highly recommended!

McSorley’s Old Alehouse - founded in 1854 and New York City’s oldest continuously operating saloon. Cash only and there are only two drinks on the menu - light and dark ale. This was my favourite bar from our NYC visit, loadsa character!

My trip to NYC would not have been complete without a visit to The Mysterious Bookshop! Picked up a couple of Sherlockian titles - a signed copy of The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr and The Gospel of Sheba by Lyndsay Faye (part of the Mysterious Bookshop’s Bibliomysteries series)

Cleopatra’s Needle, Central Park

Alice in Wonderland by José de Creeft, Central Park

Look at this creepy bit of business - from the Bergdorf Goodman window display on 5th Avenue, NYC

Yankee Stadium in the sunshine today!

25 West 45th Street in New York, original offices of Black Mask magazine - pioneers of the hardboiled school of crime fiction!