GOTHIC #VALENTINES Mary Shelley is rumoured to have kept Percy Shelley's heart in a silken shroud, carrying it with her for years (his remains were in Rome). After she died the heart was found in her desk wrapped in his poems. It's hard to out goth that! 🎨Embalmed hearts

VAMPIRE FAIRY TALE Marusia is in love with a young man who she later sees eating a corpse laid out in the church. Falling victim to the #vampire she's buried at a crossroad & blooms again as a flower. Afanasev, Tales 1855-67 #FairyTaleTuesday

FAIRIES IN A BIRD'S NEST J.A. Fitzgerald (1819-1906) Fairies inhabit a stolen nest; a grotesque being is hatching from an egg. The painting retains its original gothic frame, its uncanny twiggy forms echoing the tangled, forbidden forest #MythologyMonday

ST VALENTINE is the holy guardian of lovers but not many people know that after death his skull became a decorated floral relic, one of the most gothic items to be found in a Roman reliquary. Shown here in the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin #ValentinesDay

THE GWYLLION The hill fairies of Wales. Thought to be forbidding and malignant. They can visit houses and must be received cordially (if you do not want to risk their mischief). You can read about them in Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, 1880 #FolkloreSunday

SNAPDRAGON SKULLS Did you know snapdragon seed heads resemble tiny skulls? Just found the ones I saved in the autumn. Perfect for #gothicspring #botanicalgothic

THE HOUSE OF STRANGE SECRETS A gothic mystery set on the English moors and published in the last year of the nineteenth century. This first edition has a wonderful bat motif. Gilt lettering on pictorial cloth (London: Sands & Co.1899). #Booksky

A WERE HEDGEHOG appears in a story recorded by the Brothers Grimm. A farmer's wife gives birth to a hedgehog boy and they give him a nest of straw behind the stove. He later rides off on a cockerel to find his fortune 🎨H.G. Ford 'The Green Fairy Book', 1892 #FairyTaleTuesday

WHITE RABBITS for the first of the month!! Goodbye January hello pre-spring! Fairies ride white rabbits from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by Edwin Henry Landseer 1847 #February2026 #FolkloreSunday

Ooh! Thank you. I will look this out!

THE VAMPIRE by Rudyard Kipling. A haunting & macabre poem in which a hapless young man is beguiled by a female #vampire who appears in a scarlet shroud. Striking bat motif, limited edition, Boston, 1898.

PSYCHIC VAMPIRE STORY The Parasite is an 1894 novella by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about a psychic #vampire Miss Penelosa, a small pale creature who practices mesmerism & the evil eye & transforms into a monstrous parasite who creeps into her victim’s form.

VAMPIRE GIG Excited to reveal that I have contributed to the programme notes for #CynthiaErivo’s stage version of #Dracula. A new adaptation by Kip Williams at the Noel Coward Theatre from February 7th. Such a cool gig for the new year draculawestend.com

ENCOUNTERING A FAIRY QUEEN Early poets saw MAB as the Queen of the Fae, she is usually pictured in white as if dressed for the bridal. Images by John Bauer, 1907 & Thomas Maybank, 1906 for Michael Drayton's 1627 fairy poem Nymphidia: Or The Court Of Fairy #MythologyMonday

BLAKE'S VAMPIRE ‘The Ghost of a Flea’, a miniature painting by visionary artist and poet William Blake, is an image of vampirism in action; the flea holds a cup for blood drinking and stares eagerly towards it. It was produced in 1819, the same year as Polidori’s Vampyre #FolkloreSunday

LILITH 1895 #Vampire novella by George MacDonald who inspired Tolkien & the Inklings. Mr Vane ventures through a mirror into another world where he encounters the uncanny desires of #vampire Lilith and the satantic shadow that manipulates her. #Booksky

STEAMPUNK FAIRIES Made from C19th clock-parts these tiny #fairy sculptures act as memento mori, reminding us of the shortness of life & the fairy's connection to the butterfly through its wings. As steampunk they creatively present an alternative future, imagined from a Victorian perspective.

WINGED MERFOLK Melusina, of French medieval legend, is associated with fountains and springs and her tail is of a serpent rather than a fish. Her husband famously denounces her shape as demonic. Thomas Keightley retells her tale in #Fairy Mythology, 1850 #Mermaid

DRACULA Stage Play Tie In (New York, 1927) Issued to coincide with the Broadway stage adaptation of Stoker’s novel in 1927. It is one of the most memorable editions of #Dracula. The play starred Bela Lugosi as the #vampire, a role which he reprised for the famous 1931 film version of the book.

THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S DREAM This Dulac painting makes the connection between insects and butterfly-winged #fairies. The cloud of butterflies escaping from their case also provides a link to Fitzgerald's The Artist's Dream 1906 in which imaginary or dead creatures come alive by supernatural means.

BECOMING A VAMPIRE It was thought that dying unmarried, unforgiven by one’s parents, through suicide or being murdered could all lead to a person returning as a #vampire. Beware leaving a mirror (a soul trap) not turned to the wall at this precarious time #mythologymonday

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE by Florence Marryat, published the same year as Dracula in 1897. There is something strange about Harriet, daughter of a mad scientist & a voodoo priestess, everyone she gets close to seems to sicken or die. The blood of the #vampire flows through Harriet's veins #BookWormSat

NETSUKE (根付) DRAGONS. These exquisite miniature sculptures, popular during the Edo period in Japan, reflect important aspects of Japanese #folklore. Supernatural animals & spirits inspired by the #Dragon King of the Sea are common #AppreciateADragonDay

NETSUKE (根付) DRAGONS. These exquisite miniature sculptures, popular during the Edo period in Japan, reflect important aspects of Japanese #folklore. Supernatural animals & spirits inspired by the #Dragon King of the Sea are common #AppreciateADragonDay

HENRY JUSTICE FORD'S DRAGONS Ford (1860-1941) excelled at illustrating #dragons for Andrew Lang. Amazingly they were developed by hand from wood blocks. Green Fairy Book 1892 #AppreciateADragonDay

Love this illustration and I have a research strand on gothic pipers!

RED HAIR is supposedly an indication of someone who is susceptible to becoming a #VAMPIRE after death. The myth originates in oral tales from Poland, Russia, Germany Sweden etc. Image: Yankelevitch, 1895. Munch's red-haired Vampire, 1895 perpetuates the myth!

DRACULA Bram Stoker found Wilkinson's book on Wallachia & Moldavia in Whitby Library in which he first located the name #Dracula. His typed research notes show it was the name's connection with the devil that interested him. This source is essentially Dracula's birth certificate.

STAGING FAIRYLAND British popular theatre from mid C19th onwards was inspired by fairyland. #Fairies became fixtures of pantomime, burlesque, musical extravaganza & Romantic ballet. Favourite stage fairies down the years: Vivien Leigh & Anna Pavlova🖤

VICTORIAN GOBLIN NOVELS ‘The Princess and the Goblin’, a fantasy novel by George MacDonald published in 1872, a key influence on Tolkien, and ‘Davy and the Goblin’, a novel by Charles Carryl, 1885. I feel lucky to have these beautiful books in my library #FairytaleTuesday

Fangs for the shout out. This looks great!

SKELETON FAIRIES Tessa Farmer makes remarkable #fairy sculptures less than 1 cm tall, painstakingly crafted from desiccated insect remains & dried plant roots; not the #fairies of children’s books, they are remarkable, skeletal #gothic creatures.

DECAYING DEMON SCULPTURE built in an abandoned mausoleum in Poland and left to rot in a place called Park W Maciejowej. A giant symbol of our fascination with the weird & macabre; also the fact that we live in gothic times #MythologyMonday

FAIRY TRANSPORT A crowned fairy king is seated on a hedgehog carriage which is drawn by a young girl holding a giant daisy, accompanied by dancing fairies. This remarkable painting is by Charles Altamont Doyle 1832-1893, father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle #FolkloreSunday

WINTER Mistletoe is said to provide #fairies with shelter from frosts but the fae don't seem to feel the cold much when compared to woodland animals. This is seen in Winter Frolic by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) & Fairies in the Snow by John Anster Fitzgerald (1819-1906) #FolkloreSunday

THE DEAD Snow was falling upon every part of the lonely churchyard where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns.

Very true....

'Onsen Cats' - Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1884. #Caturday #ukiyoe #JapaneseArt

Blow on, wild wind, thy solemn voice, However sad and drear, Is nothing to the gloomy silence I have had to bear.' -Anne Brontë @signemaene.com welcomes you to a sad and bleak #BookWormSat! And on that note, Happy belated New Year! 🎨J. W. Waterhouse

"The house was a sepulchre, our fear and suffering lay buried in the ruins. There would be no resurrection.” (Daphne du Maurier) 🎨 Ferdinand Knab #bookwormsat

VICTORIAN VAMPIRE BATS Dracula (1897) as bat scaling the walls of his castle (Constable Book Covers, 1901, 1916); a large #Vampire Bat in flight from Hooker’s Illustrated Natural History 1864; 1866 Vampire Bat, British Library, showing these gothic connections #Baturday

CULT OF PAN Household objects can be wonderfully folkloric; Wonderful Victorian bronze cigar lighter and wrought iron door knocker in celebration of goat god Pan!

SATURDAY is the best day of the week for staking #VAMPIRES in European lore. #Saturday is the time that vampires must sleep in their graves or tombs and thus they can be found and dispatched; persons born on a Saturday are said to possess powers against the undead.

My first Japanese folktale of 2026 is up on my Patreon! This is the first time this story has ever been translated into English. www.patreon.com/posts/147775...

A tragic Japanese ghost tale for #PhantomsFriday.

STAGING FAIRYLAND British popular theatre from mid C19th onwards was inspired by fairyland. #Fairies became fixtures of pantomime, burlesque, musical extravaganza & Romantic ballet. Favourite stage fairies down the years: Vivien Leigh & Anna Pavlova🖤

SKELETON FAIRIES Tessa Farmer makes remarkable #fairy sculptures less than 1 cm tall, painstakingly crafted from desiccated insect remains & dried plant roots; not the #fairies of children’s books, they are remarkable, skeletal #gothic creatures.

One of my favourite places....

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” (Shelley) 🎨 Wiktor Kriżanowski #wintersky

Looking forward to this!