In today’s mail from Telos Publishing is the limited hardcover of Terror Tales of Chaos edited by Paul Finch. Sprayed edges and gorgeous endpapers based on Jan Van Eyck’s Last Judgment. Excellent group of authors including four who had stories in our Gaslight Sherlock Holmes anthologies.

A happy 83rd birthday to the 'Big Yin' himself, Sir Billy Connolly CBE, who was born #OTD November 24, 1942. I don't think there's a comedian alive who has ever made me laugh harder or longer than Billy.

Lazy Sunday reading on the couch with D.

Happy 62nd anniversary to Doctor Who! Who first appeared on BBC TV at 17:16:20 GMT on Saturday, 23 November 1963 with the broadcast of An Unearthly Child... the rest is history!

Born #OTD in 1887. William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969) AKA the one and only Boris Karloff! ‬He played a retired Sherlock Holmes, under the name Mr. Mycroft in the Elgin Hour ‘Sting of Death’ episode in 1955, an adaptation of H. F. Heard’s novel "A Taste for Honey."

138 years ago #OTD November 21, 1887, the first story to feature Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet - was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual. Written in 1886, and rejected by a variety of publishers for being either too long or too short,

A new bookstore opening in Calgary? It's a horror bookshop? Yeah, this I'll need to see! Full open this Saturday. www.nocturnebooks.ca

Party Discipline Is Undermining Canadian Democracy via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...

Fellow podcasters, I am currently up for four awards at the Canadian Podcast Awards! Voting ends on Nov. 22 I would very much appreciate a vote in these categories👇 canpodawards.ca/vote

On the train home from Inverness. It's twilight and we are travelling through a birch wood.

Born #OTD in 1913, the incomparable Vivien Leigh (5 Nov 1913 – 8 July 1967). Immortalized forever on screen as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but my favourite role of Leigh's is as Cleopatra opposite Claude Rains in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945).

"There is a tremendous delicacy in preserving Holmes in other people's imaginations because there are a million different ways of seeing him. You try not to interfere with anybody's image." - Jeremy Brett (3 Nov 1933 – 12 Sept 1995)

Live now... 46th Annual Saturday with Sherlock Holmes at the Enoch Pratt Library. www.youtube.com/live/fp0hkVV...

A Hammer Halloween bookshelf… 😎

Happy Halloween! "There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world." - Arthur Conan Doyle, Selecting a Ghost

When he's finally gone, there is going to be this flood of books and tell all interviews from Republicans about how hard it was to be a Republican in Washington during this time and I am going to be galatically furious about it.

Born #OTD in Toronto in 1886, the great Sherlockian writer, journalist and bibliophile, Charles Vincent Emerson Starrett (Oct 26, 1886 – Jan 5, 1974). For background on Starrett, and his fascinating life, visit Studies in Starrett at www.vincentstarrett.com

The UCP is introducing legislation to ensure that only "serious" people are allowed to run in elections. Whatever could go wrong with a government putting up barriers for people who want to run against them? #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

Serious people only. And the govt will determine who is serious.... Pretty sure that this is a violation of Section 3 of the Charter (Democratic Rights).

Wow! The UCP has just announced they will be introducing legislation to restrict who can run for office! #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

"A leader who resorts to slandering the institutions vital to our democracy cannot be trusted to uphold the values of our nation. Poilievre’s tactics not only erode trust in the RCMP but also undermine the very fabric of Canadian governance." www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

113 years ago #OTD October 15, 1912 - Arthur Conan Doyle's great SF novel THE LOST WORLD was 1st published in book form, after appearances in The Strand Magazine. Both the regular (10,716 copies. 6/-) and large paper (190 copies bound. 10/6) editions were released by Hodder & Stoughton on this day.

133 years ago #OTD October 14, 1892 - THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES was first published, after monthly appearances in The Strand Magazine, in book form.

An excellent piece written by a friend regarding Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s visits to Jasper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/home2/in-191...

I'm really looking forward to this one. Pre-ordered a hardcover a week or two back. Great ToC of contributing writers, including four contributors to my Gaslight Sherlock Holmes anthologies. paulfinch-writer.blogspot.com/2025/10/its-...

An October bookshelf… one that I face in my seat here in my home office. It is one of 6 shelves in that 7x4 foot bookcase opposite my desk.

Alberta is Canada’s Fascist Growing Province. Only 16 days to sign the Canadian Forever petition.

In the mood for a bit of Buchan today, so revisiting what is probably my fave of his ‘strange’ stories, ‘No-Man’s-Land’. Good intro from James Machin. Amused by the obligatory Doyle/Sherlock Holmes reference practically right out of the gate. 😉

"Mr. Poilievre knows all of that because he’s not stupid. But he seems to think the people listening to him are." Nice to see Poilievre called out for a change. His fantasist approach to everything is beyond tiresome at this point. Canada is not broken, but Poilievre seems to be.

"He has that rare quality which can only be described as glamour, which compels you to watch an actor eagerly when he is doing nothing." - Arthur Conan Doyle Born #OTD in 1861 actor Anthony Edward Brett (11 October 1861 – 24 December 1948), better known by his stage name - Eille Norwood.

"Without legislated accountability, the province risks losing Ottawa’s support for pipelines and carbon capture projects, along with private investment from companies under pressure to prove climate compliance."

She wants a fight with Ottawa, not a pipeline. And she’ll do almost anything — including damaging the prospects of a new pipeline — to make it happen.

Just in from Blackwell’s UK. Shipped Sept 30, expected them stuck in postal strike, but, nope, delivered by Landmark courier. I love Buchan’s weird fiction (he was Governor General of Canada 1935-1940) and This Way Lies Madness features stories by a number of folks whose writing I very much enjoy.

Wishing a happy 89th birthday (b. October 9, 1936) to the living legend that is the one, the only, Brian Blessed! 🙂

The latest from Angela Slatter. Will get into it this afternoon. Looks to be perfect October reading. Titan sure is doing some nice work in producing these lovely little hardcover novellas lately.

Given the recent announcement that this year’s Ghost Story for Christmas adaptation is of E.F. Benson’s ‘The Room in the Tower’ today seems a good day to re-read some Benson. Happily, I have the 1912 first edition handy. 😉

Here's to the memory of Sidney Paget (4 October 1860 – 28 January 1908) on the anniversary of his birth. The first illustrator to truly influence and shape the image of Sherlock Holmes in the minds of the reading public.

The British Library have just sent me photos of ILLUSIONS OF PRESENCE - it has been printed!!! EMINENT ANTHOLOGIST Aww yeah. #FESTIVESHINYSHINY Book out October 16, pre-order your copy from links below:

At the UK Masters of horror dinner FRONT ROW James Moran Stephen Volk Naomi Wright Ashley Thorpe Jed Shepherd Me Marko Mäkilaakso Ethan Evans Jessica Bartlett Lesley Manning BACK ROW Steve Pemberton Jeremy Dyson Reece Shearsmith Neil Marshall Christopher Smith Paul Davis Juan Martinez Moreno

‘Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes’ new book, first part (of 2) of a new story (set in Scotland) "THE NIGHTMARE OF LOCH LEATHAN" will be out in French version Dec. 5th from Ankama Editions

Check your email, check your spam folder — a newsletter went out last night announcing the next Parker novel: hosted.verticalresponse.com/205621/d24c9...

A happy 80th birthday to the excellent Clive Merrison born #OTD 15 September 1945. Merrison famously gave voice to Sherlock Holmes (alongside the late Michael Williams as Watson) in the fine BBC Radio dramatizations of all 60 Sherlock Holmes stories...

Billionaires keeping us busy with culture wars to avoid tackling the real problems - them!

It was #OTD 30 years ago that Jeremy Brett (3 Nov 1933 – 12 Sept 1995) died. His portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the Granada series defined the character for a whole generation of television viewers. Here’s my old pen & ink tribute sketch from 1995.

BOUND IN BLOOD is now out in paperback! 🩸 A chilling anthology of nineteen stories of cursed and haunted books; featuring malevolent second-hand books, cursed novelizations, unsettling journals and the end of the world. Order now: https://tinyurl.com/2wrcer9f

The artist of one of my favorite paintings, Caspar David Friedrich (September 5, 1774 – May 7, 1840), was born #OTD in 1774. The painting is, of course, Friedrich's 1818 composition - Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer above the Sea of Fog).

The 'birth' of my fave Sherlock Holmes tale and Wilde's only novel took place at the Langham Hotel #OTD in 1889... "Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle dined here with the publisher of 'Lippincott's Magazine' on 30 August 1889, a meeting that led to 'The Sign Of Four' & 'The Picture Of Dorian Gray'"

Born #OTD Mary Shelley (30 Aug 1797 – 1 Feb 1851) "The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine." - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818).

Hmm, reasons to finally visit Montreal sooner rather than later are mounting... Sherlock Holmes is always a good excuse, although I'd prefer my first trip to not be in winter, dammit. 😉

Born #OTD in 1814 Irish author of the supernatural, Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (28 August 1814 – 7 Feb 1873). Among his best known works are "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (1839), Uncle Silas (1864) and In a Glass Darkly (1872)...