"An Autumn Lane" 1886 🍂🌙 John Atkinson Grimshaw A hauntingly atmospheric street scene from Victorian artist John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893). As the nights draw in, golden autumn days are just around the corner…

Happy Autumn Equinox! It's the first day of autumn, when day and night will be roughly equal length. Days will get shorter, nights will get longer, and all coffee will be pumpkin spiced. Farewell summer, hello spooky season... 🍂🎃 #autumnequinox #halloween

"All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." Loved WNO's revival of Bernstein's Candide just as much as the premiere in 2023 - bravo! #wnocandide

Getting Gothic in Cowbridge 🪦 A lovely evening at Holy Cross Church for Brahms’s Requiem, performed by English Chamber Voices to close this year’s Cowbridge Festival. Quick wander round the graveyard first, too — as you do!

Hello pumpkins 🎃 🍂

Autumn leaves, Neath Castle 🎃🍂

Now THAT'S a headline that makes me feel much about my autumn drinking habits: "The hidden benefits of pumpkin spice" 🎃 www.independent.co.uk/life-style/h...

Pumpkin spice, autumn waves. Happy Monday, all... 🎃🍂

100 days until Christmas. ❄ The Mari Lwyd is coming... 🐴

I'll be kicking off the new season of Dracula Lunchtime Bites with a talk on the Sublime Landscapes of Dracula this Wed. It's free and online - book a ticket here! 🧛‍♂️🦇 www.ticketsource.co.uk/draculalunch...

Opening night of WNO's new production of Tosca at a wet and windy Wales Millennium Centre! Starring Swansea’s own Natalya Romaniw in the title role, it’s wonderfully dark and moody. Full review in the Western Mail soon... #wnotosca #opera

Did you know... there's a tiny Dracula statue hidden in Hungary? 🧛‍♂️ Perched just outside Budapest’s Vajdahunyad Castle - a building inspired by Transylvanian fortresses - this little bronze statue shows Count Dracula reading... Bram Stoker’s Dracula! 🦇

Good morning from Switzerland! Who needs an alarm when you have cowbell?

Wouldst thou like to live deliciously? (in Villars, Switzerland) 🐐🇨🇭

Sublime Switzerland: The view from my hotel room in Villars is insane. 🇨🇭

Just made a new Swiss friend. 🇨🇭 #Caturday

Channelling Shelley and Byron on the sublime waters of Lake Geneva. Santé! 🇨🇭

What a backdrop! Wonderful night of cello courtesy of Kian Soltani and friends at Septembre Musical festival in Montreux. Great use of Fuseli's Gothic masterpiece The Nightmare, too!

This is "Frankie" - a contemporary interpretation of Frankenstein's monster - standing in Geneva, the city where Mary Shelley first conceived the novel during the famously "year without a summer" of 1816. #gothic #art

In case of vampires, break glass. 🦇 🎨 Museum of Art and History, Geneva

"Le Pays de Galles" - outside Richard Burton's home in Switzerland. 🇨🇭

The Full Corn Moon shines bright over Lake Geneva. 🌕

Bonjour Switzerland! The Richard Burton/ Romantic poets adventure begins in Geneva... 🇨🇭

If anyone needs me, I'm drinking pumpkin spice latte in Heathrow Airport. 🎃

Spent some quality time today with this iconic vision of romantic Wales: "The Bard" (after Philip James de Loutherbourg) by John Harrison, c1840s. Currently on loan at Swansea’s Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, where you can really see the detail of Edward’s invading army. #Art #wales

I'm not saying the window display worked, but I *might* be about to have my first pumpkin spice of the season... 🎃☕️

Theodor von Holst – the first artist to imagine Frankenstein – was born in London today in 1810. 🧟‍♂️ A pupil of Fuseli and master of the supernatural, he painted literary subjects from Dante to Shakespeare, but is best known for illustrating Mary Shelley’s Gothic classic in 1831. #gothic

Welsh Folklore of September 🌾🍎 Known as the “reaping month”, September brought lucky marriages, gales blamed on “witches’ frolics,” nut-gathering for Mabsant, and a rowdy harvest mare contest. Farmers left 3, 7 or 9 apples on trees to bless next year’s crop. #Wales #Folklore

Hello September the 1st, hello meteorological autumn, and hello spooky season. Let the leaves fall and the pumpkins bloom... 🍂🎃 #autumn #Halloween

Mermaid in the Window: folklore street art by the sea... 🧜‍♀️ 📷 Porthcawl, Wales #folkloresunday

Happy Sunday, and farewell August. Spooky season is nigh... 🍂🎃

A spooky night at Swansea Grand Theatre ahead with The Haunting of Blaine Manor. Bring on the ghosts...👻

Here's a reminder of how Mary Shelley's Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein REALLY ended... ⚡️ #frankenstein

Mary Shelley - author of Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein - was born in London today in 1797. 🎨 "Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley" by Richard Rothwell (1800–1868), National Portrait Gallery, London #maryshelley #gothic #frankenstein

Autumn is here... 🍂🎃

“Bird Singing in the Moonlight” (1938–39) by American painter Morris Graves — born on this day in 1910, known for his mystical style and muted tones inspired by the Northwest. 🎨 Tempera and watercolour on mulberry paper, MoMA, New York. #art #otd

Next month I’ll be getting Gothic around Lake Geneva, walking Switzerland in the footsteps of Byron, Mary & Percy Shelley et al — from Chillon Castle to the Frankenstein statue. Treated myself to the shiny new edition of "History of a Six Weeks’ Tour" to read along the way... 🌙

Sorry Iceland, I'll eat any old rubbish with tenuous Halloween branding, but I might have to draw the line at... Stuffed Crust Slime Cheese pizza. Pumpkin spice pizza, on the other hand… 🎃🦇

Happy #Caturday! 🦇 🎨 Nosferatu by Susan Herbert.

Ray Bradbury — legendary author of Fahrenheit 451 & The Martian Chronicles — was born today (Aug 22) in 1920. This is "The Halloween Tree", painted by Bradbury for his daughters in 1964. Years later, it inspired his classic Halloween book and animated special of the same name. 🎃🍂

Halloween is here... 🎃🍂 #Halloween

I’m giving a free online talk this autumn about everyone’s favourite bloodsucker! 🧛‍♂️🦇 On 17 Sept I’ll present an extended version of my “Sublime Landscapes of Dracula” talk as part of the excellent Dracula: Lunchtime Bites series. Book a ticket here: www.ticketsource.co.uk/draculalunch... #dracula

Landmark 113-year-old Swedish church arrives at new home after two day-journey: "The church in Kiruna was at risk from ground subsidence after more than a century of iron ore mining in the old city centre" www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy...

H.P. Lovecraft — the writer who practically invented cosmic horror — was born today (Aug 20) in Providence, Rhode Island, 1890. This life-sized bronze statue, by local artist Gage Prentiss c2019 & commissioned by fans, stands in his studio, awaiting a permanent home. #HPLovecraft

Had a great day filming the final, final, final voice overs for spooky new documentary series PARANORMAL UNPACKED with the wonderful Steve Balsamo and Ant Jones. Watch this space for ghosts, folklore, and whole lot more!

"Market Day in Old Wales" 1908 Sydney Curnow Vosper Best known for "Salem", Vosper painted Siân Owen again in this watercolour. A widow who raised her grandsons after her son’s death, she embodied the strong maternal figure so celebrated in Welsh life. 🎨 National Museum Cardiff #wales #art

I was talking to the police and CADW conservators about about this in Caerleon recently. It's wild that one of the biggest threats to Wales's heritage is mindless thieves and/or vandals: "Night-time treasure thieves threatening a nation's heritage" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #wales #heritage

Happy #BlackCatAppreciationDay!🐈‍⬛ Black cats are amazing and, as Welsh folklore tells us, bring good luck to the home: "A black cat, I’ve heard it said, Can charm all ill away, And keep the house wherein she dwells From fever’s deadly sway." Folklore of Wales 1909 #folklore

Good morning/ bore da. 🔆

Happy #Caturday! 🐈 🎨 "Sleeping Cat", c.1850, watercolour, Japan