Looking forward to a big weekend of spooky sessions and ghoulish goings-on here in Derby this Feb and March - the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL is back at QUAD for three days of talks, interviews, panels, workshops and more! www.derbyquad.co.uk/ukgsf/ #derby #derbyshire #festival #festivals

Today's my birthday, which is as good an excuse as any to remind you that I have four #RomancingTheGothic talks available to watch for free. Links below, but first! A shameless plug for my fifth talk, also free, coming in March 👇 bsky.app/profile/romg...

Start your new year by getting some science dropped on you, BOOM. @elizacosta24.bsky.social & @davidsears.bsky.social look at the cognitive basis for the jump-scare reaction, using *THAT* scene from THE DESCENT. Their new report is #openaccess from #FrontiersinPsychology. doi.org/10.3389/fpsy...

Our journey to find the best gothic novel ever continues... The Monk - Matthew Gregory Lewis Vs Icarus Girl - Helen Oyeyemi Vote in the comments!

I think @annetheriault.bsky.social posted another video from this account a few days ago, but this is the type of socal media God intended. www.instagram.com/reel/DTa9vm0...

I missed out on MLA, yes, but I’ll be damned if I miss out on MLA book sales (Minn UP’s discount code is good through Feb 1) www.upress.umn.edu/mla/

It's online! It's open to anyone, anywhere in the world! We'll be reading the texts below but we'll be diving into the history of romance well beyond them! I'm really excited to have the possibility to run a popular romance course... let's make sure it runs!

🚨 CALL FOR SPEAKERS 🚨 I'm looking for speakers for EDGEWAYS from May onwards. Get yourself involved and on the schedule for our 6th year! 🖤

Help please! I'm putting together a big research proposal that will involve investigating C19th-early C20th burials in Liverpool, Dublin and NYC. If anyone knows of anyone in Dublin & NY who would be helpful for me to talk to/work with, or specific locations of interest, pls drop them here?! 🪦

Okay my loves. I need your help here with a local thing! I’m currently putting together a series of talks relating to East Sussex. If you could share with your fellow lovelies it would be incredible! @overslizzie.bsky.social @reblambert.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social @lazaruscorporation.co.uk

We’re all just in the same reenactor book club, apparently.

This isn’t a critique; this is solidly my plan for as many days of the week as I can get away with.

Having time before work at the school starts, I’m devoting some time to digging deeper into British televisual horror via anthology series—Play for Today, Journey to the Unknown, Against the Crowd, Shades of Darkness, Hammer House of Horror. With 350+ episodes to choose from, which do you recommend?

Less than six weeks to go till our Folk Horror show rolls into Leeds @oldwoollen.bsky.social like a sinister fog! Join me and @bobfischer.bsky.social as we talk about rural spookiness, witchcraft, and suburban sex orgies! Tickets: bit.ly/483H8JA

Fascinating look at bits of London 45 years ago, and how many have changed. The redevelopment of the Docklands was ongoing in 1988, and I remember sauntering from Limehouse through Wapping to Marble Arch one Saturday (@slipperyjack.bsky.social - seems up your alley). www.bfi.org.uk/features/dav...

First up, I have a whole year course! 1 book a month. We're reading our way through the long-eighteenth century, concentrating entirely on women's writing. The course is through the Regency academe and costs only $55 for non-members! For a whole year! regencyfictionwriters.org/academe/12-b...

It's here: the annual round-up of my favorite folk horror media! As always, these are not strictly 2025 releases but rather the movies I watched for the first time (mostly) throughout the year. What were your favorites?

Beatles? More like

While I’m opposed to the obviously extremely illegal actions carried out in Venezuela by Trump and his forces, I’ll admit I’m selectively open to the precedent of another country being able to snatch a country’s president and charge him with crimes.

Oh, for the innocent days of 2024–when talk of Slab Cake was the height of interest.

Work in progress. I'm slightly obsessed with turn-of-the-(19th)century theatre/pantomime/circus playbills at the moment, so I'm re-creating posters and ads for more recent productions (and products) in that style. #graphics #movies #davidlynch #victorian

Entering 2026 like Pandora’s Box—with naught but hope. Happy New Year!

As a light snow falls on this eve of the new year, I’m rewatching “The Terror,” as our Lord intended. Happy New Year to all—in Illinois, that’s still just under seven hours away.

All canonical Ghost Stories for Christmas can be found here—barring the most recent one.

“Jack will show you to your room. I have given you the room in the tower.”

Reposting for anyone outside the UK who is unable to view the most recent “Ghost Story for Christmas.” Happy New Year!

My UK friends will have to attest to the veracity of The Royal Mile and the Tower of London—neither seemed as horrible as Times Square.

First day of 2025 vs last day of 2025.

“Jack will show you to your room. I have given you the room in the tower.”

As an American, I have to get my “Ghost Story for Christmas” fix via dodgy Russian sites; The Room in the Tower was very good - until it wasn’t. Echoing the criticisms of others, I’d say cut the last scene, but—judge for yourself. m.ok.ru/dk?st.cmd=mo...

Energy I'm bringing into 2026

I wish I knew who I stole this from

Same, Lincoln Castle. Same.

I think they’re great, Ray.

It's the end of the year so it's time for the top ten new talks from Romancing the Gothic for 2025! I'll start with 10 and build up to 1. Hopefully something for everyone! Gather round, Goths!

A Romancing the Gothic first! I have put the whole schedule for 2026 up in advance! You can already book tickets through March but you can see what's coming (and note it in your diary!) for the whole year! What a talk schedule! romancingthegothic.com/class-schedu...

‘The Room in the Tower’ was a pretty decent effort but we didn't need to see some of that stuff head on, in clear focus. It should be all glimpses, hints, shadows, indistinct figures, and so on.

For those of us outside the UK: youtu.be/bjJb9UhP-UY?...

Not listened to this yet but this looks like a fascinating history of Christmas ghost stories www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Did you miss this weekend's absolutely cracking talk? We were joined by the marvellous Cat Irving again for a fascinating talk on the Afterlives of Cadavers. So many wild, wonderful and fascinating things to explore! youtu.be/imxZx62XHAw

I’m not one to flog YouTube videos, but this one on the origins and history of “Christmas ghost stories” is fascinating! youtu.be/5n6oSoEatJQ?...

Once again, the Gavle Goat is in danger of not combusting. www.youtube.com/live/P1VOrSo...

A favorite tale of the holiday season.

help

With the Ghost Stories for Christmas season edging ever closer, here's a list of my FAVOURITE BRIT TELLY HORROR THINGS that I put together last year...

Respect the classics, Christmas edition John Carpenter’s Rudolph’s The Thing

Last chance for tickets! I'm very excited for this show and hope to drum up an enthusiastic crowd. Edinburgh folks: 'Horror Films as Therapy' workshop, Saturday 8:15pm at Banshee Labyrinth. See you there! @madelinepotter.bsky.social @gnofhorror.com www.noisyghost.co.uk/event-detail...

It's very exciting to say that Coastal Gothic, 1719–2020 has just been published in @universitypress.cambridge.org's Elements in the Gothic series – and it's currently open access and *free* to download until the end of December! doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Are you a lover of Gothic literature? Reader, author, blogger? Then you must join us for International Gothic Reading Month (IGRM) in January 2026. Visit website for details americangothicsociety.com/internationa... #booksky #blueskybooks #readersky #blueskyreaders #Gothic #share #Gothgirl #Goth