Thank you to @essiefox.bsky.social for this chilling Christmas treat. Deftly done 🖤 open.substack.com/pub/essiefox...

Boxing Day shadows on Lincoln Cathedral.

Boxing Day shadows on Lincoln Cathedral.

Christmas is hard for many. The years roll, the ghosts at the table increase. We’re haunted by the absence of voices, of laughter engines who drank and ate with us. This can be day of remembrance rituals. For what it’s worth, Hooklanders near and far are in my candles today. Be gentle on yourselves.

A sharp Christmas Day, Lincoln Cathedral standing proud.

And so the reckless abandonment of science, global infrastructure and truth continues. History will not judge us well. We have allowed this to happen. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/c...

‘I could not shake myself free of the sense of everything around me dissolving slowly, of sinking slowly into deliquescence.’ Wilkie Collins and Henry James, written with a Chandleresque aesthetic, VENETIAN VESPERS immerses the reader in a bewildering Venice of treachery, manipulation and lies.

It all began, 62 years ago today. The greatest TV show ever made. I have always loved it. I will always love it. How much this funny little show has given me. So much joy, so many good friends. Happy Doctor Who day everyone ❤️ #DoctorWhoDay youtu.be/lg5WPOCPyxQ?...

Uncanny, Gothic Venezia has my heart.

Research. SINNERS dir. by Ryan Coogler #vampires #folkhorror #americanfolkhorror #precarity

My next bedtime book 🖤 VENETIAN VESPERS by John Banville @faberbooks.bsky.social

Latest arrival from @goldsborobooks.bsky.social THE BOOK BINDER’S SECRET by A D Bell Such a beautiful and inviting book ❤️ @HarperCollinsUK @HarperCollins

My new bedtime book, as recommended by @sarahhilary.bsky.social MISSING PERSON: ALICE by Simon Mason Been saving this since Theakstons Crime Festival 😊

Autumn shadows, Lincoln.

Tonight’s film - Nic Roeg’s masterpiece DON’T LOOK NOW (1973) - in preparation for attending Venice Noir… #daphnedumaurier #nicroeg #dontlooknow #Venice #VeniceNoir eventbrite.com/cc/venice-noir…

This week saw my last literary interview of the year, chatting to the wonderful @essiefox.bsky.social about her dark, lyrical novel DANGEROUS. My next event is scheduled for the beginning of February. Seems a long time off…

Darkness falls on Lincoln’s windmill.

ASTERIX IN LUSITANIA Just brilliant! Funny, heartwarming, politically subversive and joyous. Loved it. Deli Furtado! Genius ❤️

Every year, to cope with the long, dark evenings, I set myself a reading challenge, to begin the day the clocks go back and to end when they go forward and the light returns. This year I plan to read the Frederica Quartet of novels by A S Byatt, beginning with THE VIRGIN IN THE GARDEN.

#LordByron turning detective? In Venice? Yes please. @essiefox.bsky.social talking all things Dangerous w/ @drtimrideout.bsky.social on 29 October at Nottingham’s The Bookcase 👇 @bars.bsky.social #romanticism

For this spectral #BookWormSat here’s a thread of ghostly revenge stories! Cynthia Asquith's "The Playfellow" first appeared in SHUDDERS (1929). A family inherits an ancestral house, and the malevolent ghostly child who comes with it.

When I was boy I would buy my Asterix books in Wells (a bus trip from Glastonbury on a Saturday morning). Guess what I did today.

Good people of Yeovil! Come along to Westlands tonight at 6pm! I’ll be talking all things India and crime and it’s going to be funny! Click on the link for tickets! www.yeovilliteraryfestival.co.uk/whats-on/all...

So pleased to have got my hands on this fantastic book by the brilliant @drtimrideout.bsky.social #GothicPrecarity is going to be a great resource in my horror writing. Available from all great bookshops, including here: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/goth...

A wet Sunday afternoon in October finds me back at my studies… #UnderstandingPolitics @openuniversity.bsky.social

‘When you knew that it was over, you were suddenly aware That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair.’ Michel Legrand

THE DROWNING PLACE by @sarahhilary.bsky.social Starting reading this evening. Sarah is one the best in the business; I know I’m in for a dark treat 🖤 #TheDrowningPlace #HarvillBooks

I always like to mark #bookshopday This year, it’s with a visit to Bailey Hill Bookshop in Castle Cary 😊 #booksaremybag #BookshopDay #ChooseBookshops

I always like to mark #bookshopday This year, it’s with a visit to Bailey Hill Bookshop in Castle Cary 😊

Very pleased to have reached the fourth series in my Bergerac re-watch 😊

A lovely evening in Doncaster chatting to @davidjhowe.bsky.social about his charming and uplifting memoir, WHO ME! Great to see @samanthaleehowe.bsky.social too 😊 #Dalek #DoctorWho #WhoMe @waterstonesdon.bsky.social

Lincoln’s windmill, at the setting of the sun.

With Hitchcockian skill, @philippaeast.bsky.social ensnares the reader in a complex web of fallible memory, psychological trauma and deadly secrets. A GUILTY SECRET exemplifies her ability to keep the reader on the edge of their seat as the past threatens to consume her protagonists’ present.

I had a great time in Lincoln last night seeing @philippaeast.bsky.social, @tommeadauthor.bsky.social and @drtimrideout.bsky.social and #JackCartwright. Here's my review of Jack's book: hawleyreviews.wordpress.com/2025/10/05/r...

And the next book…

A Conceit by Maya Angelou Give me your hand Make room for me to lead and follow you beyond this rage of poetry. Let others have the privacy of touching words and love of loss of love. For me Give me your hand.

Still light, at 6pm. The long dark nights are coming. But not quite yet.

Stars, I have seen them fall, But when they drop and die No star is lost at all From all the star-sown sky. The toil of all that be Helps not the primal fault; It rains into the sea And still the sea is salt. A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad

One of the highlights of my literary year will be my ‘in conversation’ session with Marcia Hutchinson at this year’s Lincoln Book Festival. Marcia’s solo literary debut, ‘The Mercy Step’, has been widely praised. Do join us! Tickets are available at: lincolnartscentre.co.uk/event/the-me...

MAXIMUM POWER! Very happy with today’s post ❤️ #Blakes7 #Liberator

Cannot wait for this! Do come join me, @drtim @tommeadauthor.bsky.social and #JackCarteright for an evening of Crime (writing) on Saturday 4th October in Lincoln. This #LincolnBookFestival event will also be streamed online 👍👍👍 Grab your tickets here! lincolnbookfestival.org/festival-pro...

Wonderful celebration of @paulmagrs.bsky.social⁦‪‬⁩ Brenda & Effie novels on @essiefox.bsky.social brilliant podcast (and a little bit of Doctor Who 🖤). I'm listening to TALKING THE GOTHIC | Dark Humour in The Gothic ~ Episode 4 on Podbean, check it out! www.podbean.com/ei/dir-iceeb...

Autumn’s eve at Lincoln Cathedral.

Okay, fantastic opportunity here! #BeyondTheSpectrum is a free creative writing project run by and for autistic people, but open to any neurodivergent person who thinks it's right for them. They currently have three FREE workshops and groups running for adults in #Lincolnshire 1/…

3 Auto-buy authors: Mariana Enriquez, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Isabel Cañas

GOTHIC PRECARITY Delighted with Professor Nicholas Royle’s endorsement of my first book, Gothic Precarity. His own work, on the uncanny, is a landmark text and informed my own research. #Gothic #GothicPrecarity @uniwalespress.bsky.social www.uwp.co.uk/book/gothic-...

'Gothic Precarity: Fear and Anxiety in Twenty-First-Century Fiction' by @drtimrideout.bsky.social offers a ground-breaking examination of the Gothic mode's conceptual affinity with notions of neoliberal precarity. 📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/gothic-...

‘I was a slum goddess and in college. He looked something like Richard Burton; I resembled Liz.’ A series of encounters that are funny, strange, unrelenting and, in my view, simply sad. A desire for connection met with odd mundanity and distance. In other words, life. Unsparing and brilliant.

Ordered immediately. A series that has never let me down - always superb 🖤

BACK TO IT… The nights are drawing in (🥲) so I gain solace from returning to my @openuniversity.bsky.social studies. It’s the second year of Politics, Philosophy & Economics (PPE): Understanding Politics 😊 Audio accompaniment: Harry Christophers and The Sixteen - The Deer’s Cry ❤️