I’m very excited to teach a free online class on Robert Aickman and the art of the artifice ghost story as part of @romgothsam.bsky.social’s brilliant Romancing the Gothic series on 21 February!
Join me: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-aic...
“This year there was a net increase of about 90 shops in the UK selling significant numbers of second-hand books, taking the overall total to about 1,375, probably the highest number there has ever been.”
wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2025/12/seco...
Happy New Year! At midnight on Hogmanay, the Watch Stone will move from its position guarding the approach to the Ness of Brodgar to take a drink from Stenness loch. (Or so it is said!) Wishing you all a wonderful 2026, filled with folklore, fun and many a hike to an ancient site 💚🪨🎉
South Ythsie, a 27 feet diameter six stone circle on a levelled mound, with overcast sky and sun breaking through in the background.
Winter afternoon at South Ythsie stone circle.
#StoneCircle #StandingStone #aberdeenshire
When I first saw 'Strange Roads / With the Gods in Spring' I thought it was a single continuous story title, and still wish there was a story by that name!
From 2021: the setting #midwinter #solstice sun illuminates the interior of a 5,000-year-old tomb – Maeshowe chambered cairn on #Orkney
#archaeology #prehistory
2/5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IBI...
A book surrounded with postcards and bookmarks.
Placed a small order with @swanriverpress.bsky.social and it came with more bonus freebies than I know what to do with! Thanks, very generous. 📚
Hi, thanks so much! And same, my header is from the cover art! :)
Black & white illustration of a remote farmhouse on a hill, with a dark figure climbing towards it, and the text "Doarlish Cashen...is an ancient, bleak and remote farmhouse...". Artist: Felix Kelly.
"Doarlish Cashen...is an ancient, bleak and remote farmhouse..."
Felix Kelly's atmospheric illustration of the home of Gef the Talking Mongoose, from 'Haunted Houses' by Joseph Braddock (1956, Batsford).
#PhantomsFriday #ForteanFriday
Good morning! Today is the publication day of the 1927 occult novel POSSESSED by Rosalie and Edward Synton, discovered by me and reprinted by the British Library for their Tales of the Weird line.
There now follows a thread about the authors. If you buy a copy, use the hashtag #SYNTONSPOSSESSED
Cover of Faunus number 52, posed on a bookshelf.
Contents page of Faunus number 52.
Just arrived: latest issue of Faunus, the Journal of the Friends of Arthur Machen. Includes article by me about the recurring motif of Japanese bureaus in Machen's fiction. If that sounds appealing, probably join FOAM if you haven't already: arthurmachen.co.uk
Yo #chiptune crew! I'm running back Micro Music For Micro People, and I'd love to have your 30 second chiptune / #digifu or chip-adjacent tune involved! Please sign up if you're interested forms.gle/ZxmCmRkkiSq9...
Come to Scotland's oldest lending library tonight, the beautifully remote Innnerpeffray Library nr Crieff, to hear only the third ever performance of "Not Truly Dead - Three Ghost Stories by M R James"
Tickets here: innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk/whats-on/
We need your help.
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
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🛒 OUR NEW WEBSITE IS FINALLY HERE - 30% OFF ALL BOOKS UNTIL THE 17TH📚
After many years of making do with our clunky old Wordpress site we are thrilled to finally launch a bookshop site that we feel better represents the level of service we strive to offer.
🔗: argonautbooks.co.uk
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British Library Publishing have sent me a photo of POSSESSED - it EXISTS!!!
Am so proud to present this lost novel - nobody knew it existed until I came across it.
Includes an 8,000 word introduction with the first biographical essay on Rosalie and Edward.
An important work. Links to order below
A modest medieval, gothic church built of grey granite blocks.
In among the deciduous tress of a wood growing on a steep slope covered in a carpet of autumn leaves.
Mawnan Church and Woods in #Cornwall, scene of the mysterious 'Owlman' sightings in the 1970s: a #Fortean and #cryptozoology favourite. In 1993 I found it an atmospheric location with its ancient granite church. The wood wasn't as spooky as expected but it will have grown a lot thicker in 30 years!
New 'Hodgsoniana' post from me.
Near-symmetrical photo of autumnal treelines tapering into distance around loch edge, with blue sky and white clouds reflected in the water.
Autumn colours at Devilla Forest, Kincardine.
Scottish peeps! This is on at Innerpeffray Library on November 19th. What better venue could there possibly be? Be there or be, well, not haunted.
Hardback copy of 'Ritual & Other Stories' by Arthur Machen, stood on a bookshelf.
Eerily-lit figurine of Pan, in front of some Arthur Machen works on a bookshelf.
New addition to the Machen collection, watched over by Pan. 📚
📢 Weird Wears is here!
Custom tees, totes, hats & bags inspired by our Tales of the Weird series. Think bold prints, eerie vibes and cosmic dread. 😱
👉 shop.bl.uk/collections/weird-wear
Tall, densely decorated gravestone topped with moss, with carvings of an angel, stars, square and compasses, skull, crossbones and hourglass.
#MementoMoriMonday 💀
Scone Palace, Perthshire.
Any Edinburgh-adjacent weirdsters should pop into @argonautbooks.bsky.social to take advantage of their #TalesOfTheWeird ( @blpublishing.bsky.social ) sale and grab a spoooky tote to boot!
Photo of Cairnholy II, a Neolithic chambered tomb with two standing portal stones in front of it, on a green hill on a clear day.
Cairnholy II, Neolithic chambered tomb, Dumfries and Galloway.
#StandingStoneSunday
Weathered 18th century gravestone in an overgrown churchyard, showing (from top) an angel, initials, a crest, and Abraham offering Isaac for sacrifice while another angel looks on.
#MementoMoriMonday 💀
Spotted at St Mary's Chapel, Grandtully, Perthshire. 18thC stone depicting Abraham offering Isaac for sacrifice.
On this thing properly now, rather than just bridging from Mastodon. Still there too though: mastodon.scot/@shinMC
