I now declare this autumn… OPEN 🍾

Inspired by @roryisconfused.bsky.social, I can't help thinking of this headline as the premise for an MR James story: "The Professor lighted the candles, poured a measure of sherry and told Dr Standish about the day the bang bus came to Oxford. A most remarkable tale that haunts me to this day."

Great film, great episode!

I was also pleased to hear Jon extolling the virtues of clippy-cloppy shoes in horror again (see also: Stalls of Barchester).

Our Patreons just got a new podcast episode in their inbox this morning (smug lot).

If you’re not on board yet, grab yourself early, ad-free access to us chatting, arguing and laughing over #HammerHorror 's...

Plague of the Zombies 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️

Hop on here: www.patreon.com/posts/episod...

The Evolution of Horror presents... JAWS at 50 🦈
Join me and @mikemuncer.bsky.social at the beautiful HYDE PARK PICTURE HOUSE in Leeds on SAT 13 SEPT for this special screening of the greatest film ever made!
🎟️ hpph.co.uk/films/jaws?f...

Posterngate after the rain.

Posterngate after the rain.

#hull #yorkshire #travel #architecture #photography #eastcoastkin #photographersunited #photographersofbluesky #summer #rain

The central icon is a pencil drawing of Bigfoot with his fingers raised in a victory salute

And yes: We WILL be back! One more Writing the Occult for 2025, and this time we're hunting for cryptids. Join us?

Tickets already on sale; speaker announcements imminent: www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-th...

Just finished @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social book Twilight of the Godlings, a canny look at the British uncanny that makes a very good case that the various fairies, elves and pucks of folklore *probably* aren't vestiges of a pre-Roman tradition.

Ah, who’s the brains there (the hairy brains, I mean)?

The Uncommon Prayer-Book by M R James a ghost story

next month a pay-what-you-can livestream of "The Uncommon Prayer Book" by M R James. Register here:
uncommonprayer.eventbrite.co.uk

I read that as Rory Stewart, and thought hmmm, niche choice that one.

It’s on Prime, I think. (Says she, contributing to the multi-billionaire societal tier)

Have you seen the docu-film The Price of Everything, about art as a commodity? It’s brilliant. I mean, I knew big money was involved but the high-end art dealing world is truly crackers.

I’m in a Badedas bath with codeine, wine and Ben Machell. Friday night starts (and likely ends) here, lads.

A year ago this week, the church’s night watch guarded the graveyard on my bedtime walk. It flew up from behind a headstone, nearly gave me a heart attack, then stared at me from this gargoyle while I stared back. Unforgettable.

Or get pregnant. Swings and roundabouts.

ILLUSIONS OF PRESENCE has a cover!!

Really happy with how this one has turned out, it's going to be *THE* book to get this Christmas!!

Links to order below! Please share this one far and wide!

#christmasghoststories #santasshinyshiny

‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ will be published by Oxford University Press on 10 September 2026. Set your watches, mark your calendars, and spread the word!

I once gave a conference paper in which I gave a long reading of M. R. James’s ‘Mr Humphries and his Inheritance’ with this image behind me on PowerPoint. Nobody said anything.

You let JUSTIN do a CHRISTENING?!?!

Fucking awesome. With a few blasts of red spray paint you can turn the English flag into the Dead Kennedys logo

As the band said: Nazi punks, fuck off!

He wasn’t at college with us. Spiders/bands crowd. Not sure whose party this was, with Andy (Scorch) in drag and Linny in camo, circa 1993!

Oh, whistle and it’ll come to you, my lad
(Try it at your own peril)

I predict a huge rise in poltergeist activity across the land, too. They seem to proliferate in times of unrest. Looking forward to that. (As long as I don’t get one.)

The vision of Van hanging out in dustbins like Oscar the Grouch has made my day. And so romantic. Why is no one hiding in my wheelie bins?

Your dad was obviously a lot cooler than mine, unless you have a penchant for golf magazines.
His dad was a different beast: thank you Grandad for all those Unexplained partworks (FREE BINDER WITH FIRST ISSUE!!!)

Do you remember Max (the tall glam one from Cott)? He’s showing there. There’s all sorts of films etc over the week too, and I think there’s a Cosey Fanni Tutti exhibition too.

This is one of my favourite books, if you enjoyed reading about Cornell you’d like this.

Ha! I chose London Fields as my book token prize for English when I was 15 (get me), and on prize day the man giving out the stuff looked at it in horror, then at me, and said, “Bit rude, Amis, isn’t he?” A proud moment.

Poor Keith, I feel cruel laughing so much at this description of him. And finding Giles’s “…and one gin” so funny.