One year ago. #thesignalman

Venturing out shortly into the blustery weather for an appointment with Mr Sherlock Holmes on the silent silver screen.

Following Saturday's revisit to The Woman in Black on stage, I'm having a mini-WiB marathon. Rewatched the Hammer film & relistened to the serialised radio adaptation. Hammer sequel next to see if it's improved with age, & the second radio adaptation, culminating with the mighty 1989 TV version.

Just slightly over 5 months till Dark Shadows reaches its 60th anniversary. I'm clinging to the hope that there'll be an announcement from @bigfinish.bsky.social before then.

Lost track of the number of times I've seen The Woman in Black on stage, but the play never loses its power to enchant and ensnare (despite the best efforts of the sweet wrapper rustling, mobile phone screen flashing element of the audience) and exercise the imagination.

Tom Baker returns to Baker Street? How wonderfully irregular! www.kickstarter.com/projects/152...

Ticket booked to see Barry Bostwick, (Little) Nell Campbell, and Patricia Quinn when the Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Tour climaxes(!) in Edinburgh in May! "Well... how nice!"

Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, revisited. Faffing about with portfolio work.

I just backed SINK YOUR TEETH IN #1 - Mature Sapphic Noir Chicago Vampires on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/dea...

Happy Tom Baker Day! 92 today!

Driven from my slumbers today by the sudden urge to write a brief but entirely unexpected sequel to one of my earliest ghost stories.

First ghost story submission acceptance of the year! December and January proving good months for the unquiet dead.

Beautiful collection of Alan Rickman memories. Pretty much all of them talking of his kindness and generosity; many saying they sometimes think he's still here and they get brought up short when they remember he isn't. To leave behind that much love is something special.

An excellent, eerie collection of tales.

'I'll be calling Fiona's name when I'm spearing the beast,' may be the most unintentionally erotic sentence I've heard this year. #TheTraitors

Rare #Merlin and #KingArthur text found hidden in binding of #medieval #book. The ‘extremely significant' text was hidden for centuries. Link for more photos, a video and information: www.popsci.com/science/king...

50 years ago today the BBC broadcast Tomkinson's Schooldays, Michael Palin and Terry Jones's sublime take off of Victorian and Edwardian boarding school stories and boys' own adventures that led to the beautiful and brilliant Ripping Yarns the following year. "Hop on, Graybridge!"

Enjoyed the Stranger Things finale. The flashbacks to the early seasons when the kids were so tiny were a wee bit jarring - maybe exposure to the Upside Down causes advanced aging? - but, that aside, I thought the series ended well. And had brilliant closing credits!

Woke up inspired to go back and work on drawing together the strands of a short story that has been sitting as an only vaguely connected jumble of notes and scenes for several years. Laying the old year to rest by raising new ghosts, that's how I roll!

New folk horror-themed ghost story submitted! This has been a busy month for the ghosts after too long away from them... at least in prose.

A year ago today my Sherlock Holmes novel, The Devil's Crown, made its debut in paperback (the hardback followed later) after existing in my head and in various forms for over quarter of a century.

Caught up with and greatly enjoyed this year's Ghost Story for Christmas, Mark Gatiss's adaptation of 'The Room in the Tower', having re-read EF Benson's original short story in the run up to the festivities.

Appropriate Christmas week activity means the messy first draft of a new ghost story is now finished. The polishing and honing will begin after it has been allowed to simmer for a few days while I engage myself with reality for a change.

Appropriate Christmas week activity means the messy first draft of a new ghost story is now finished. The polishing and honing will begin after it has been allowed to simmer for a few days while I engage myself with reality for a change.

NEW FICTION: The Stray Dog “The incoming air had a faint but unusual scent, not entirely wholesome, as if something had been left out of the pantry and was beginning to turn...” precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/12/20/f...

On Sky Arts tonight, and repeated on Christmas Eve: 'Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror', Linus O'Brien's excellent documentary about his father, Richard's play and film, and the cult that's grown around them.

Tomorrow evening on BBC Radio 4... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

One of those promos the BBC used to be so good at making. A raft of comedy talent on display here

Just a reminder that if you fancy listening to a ghost story for Christmas, David Longhorn has done a lovely recording of my completion of M.R.James's "The Game of Bear". www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay2q...

It's Krampusnacht! So why not celebrate with a digital edition of last year's Commando Comic Christmas ghost story before the fiend of the festivities comes calling? www.amazon.co.uk/Commando-581...

Pleased to see that the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine features a fleeting guest appearance by M.R. James in the comic strip, 'A Ghost Story for Christmas', a lovely homage to the 1970s BBC films, written by Alan Barnes and drawn by Martin Geraghty.

That time in 2014 when the BBC daytime soap 'Doctors' adapted M.R. James's short story 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jQO...

Spooky Advent Day 3: it’s the sanguine soaked standing stone nightmare fuel that is Stigma (GSFC 1977)

Delighted to receive my contributor copies of 'Number 13: Selected Ghost Stories by M.R. James', which I compiled and introduced for Weird House Press, with frontispiece and endpapers by K.L. Turner, and 13 illustrations by M. Wayne Miller. weirdhousepress.com/products/num...

Something I'd love to see again. 'The Recordist' (1991) 10 minute film from BBC2's 10x10 series. 'A ghost story for Midsummer's Eve. On the shortest night of the year a sound recordist has a close encounter with the Dark Ages.' With Bernard Archard & Petra Markham. Directed & written by Neil Grant

Sounds like a must-listen in the midst of ghost story season... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I just backed First in Fright: The FANGORIA Compendium on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/fan...

Today would have been the 100th birthday of the one with the short, fat, hairy legs! Eric gets all the attention, but Ernie was equally as important. As a double act they worked with such perfect unity that, even still, you can't see the join!

Number 13: Selected Ghost Stories by M.R. James is part of the Weird House Classics Duo Special offer from Weird House Press. weirdhousepress.com/products/wei...

RIP Jack Shepherd, a brilliant Renfield in the BBC's splendid 'Count Dracula' in the 1970s, and seen here in an adaptation of a strange story by Robert Aickman. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLit...

Tonight's cinema trip is for this utter masterpiece of the macabre...

Delighted to have a ticket booked for Dundead's 80th anniversary screening of the brilliant anthology horror film that inspired so many that followed in its long shadow, the wonderful 'Dead of Night'.

After a year of waiting, look who turned up in the post today! The Vincent Price Ultimate Action Figure from Neca, complete with interchangeable heads, hands, props, and a pet raven. black cat and skull for company. The little family of Price, Cushing, and Lee figures is complete!

Seeking something mysterious to read on the darker nights? Looking for a tale of seances and secrets, curses and clues, treasures and terrors, death and deduction? Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Crown may hold just the solution! www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Hol...

Three Eille Norwood Sherlock Holmes films from the silent era, newly restored by the BFI, to be screened in cinemas around the UK from December 12th. www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-rel...

Is everyone else getting an Internal Server Error when they try to view their feed or alerts, or is it just my account that's acting up? (Silly question, as how will I know if anyone answers if I can't see my activity? Ah, well...)

RIP Pauline Collins. Always loved 'Upstairs, Downstairs', and only a few weeks ago I was enjoying repeats of of the charming sitcom 'No, Honestly' on one of the retro TV channels.

In the wee small hours I stumbled upon an unboxing video for 'Number 13: Selected Ghost Stories by M.R. James', which I edited and introduced for Weird House Press's series of Weird House Classics. (And, no, that's not how you pronounce my surname.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8FY...

Boom bloody boom, Bloody boom, bloody boom, Bloody boom, bloody boom, Bloody boom-boom-boom!