Freelance writer; prize-winning gothic/magical-realist fiction; Amazon #1 bestseller of non-fic (Shire/Bloomsbury). Folklore, graveyards, weird history, myth.
North-East England
Joined June 2016
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My new book 'Atlas Gothica' (Hachette) is out now! A guide to 50 Gothic destinations around the world, including vampire-plagued graveyards, mummy-stuffed catacombs, haunted English libraries, Dracula's Whitby & more. amazon.co.uk/Atlas-Gothica-A… #folklore #gothic #history #mythology
Trick or treating may have evolved from 'souling', a custom in which poor people would go around the neighbouring houses on holy days asking for food & drink. Many soulers were masked - a way to, literally, save face when asking for charity. #MythologyMonday #folklore #Halloween
Ornate Saxon cross shaft, in All Saints' Churchyard, Bakewell, Derbyshire. I doubt the smiley face at the top was intended to look that way. #folklore #history #churches #architecture #gothic #medieval #Derbyshire
Mother Shipton was a #Yorkshire witch & prophetess said to have predicted the Reformation, Anne Boleyn's beheading & iron ships & railways. Her cave had a spring that turned objects to stone. Read more in my book Atlas Gothica: mybook.to/atlasgothica #folklore #gothic #Halloween
An infamous London witch was Mother Damnable, whose cottage allegedly stood on the site of Camden Town Tube. She's said to have poisoned one lover & baked another in an oven. On the day of her death, locals witnessed the Devil strolling into her house. #WyrdWednesday #folklore
The Cumbrian village of Dent had its own #vampire. After dying at the age of 94, a man was spotted returning to his house & feasting on sheep's blood. A metal stake was driven through him, part of which is still embedded in his tombstone. #FairytaleTuesday #folklore #gothic
The poet & artist William Blake claimed to have witnessed a fairy funeral in his garden: "I saw a procession of creatures ... bearing a body laid out on a roseleaf, which they buried with sings & then disappeared" #MythologyMonday #folklore #gothic #poets #weird #Romanticism #art
Yorkshire's Stocksbridge Bypass is allegedly haunted by a monk-like figure who appears suddenly in front of cars & even grabs drivers' legs. In 1987, 2 security guards encountered the apparition - police investigating 2 days later had a similar experience. #spookysunday #folklore
White Lady statute at Glasgow's Southern Necropolis. #Folklore says her gaze turns people to stone, but you can protect yourself by running round the figure chanting 'White Lady'. One of the many tales in my book Atlas Gothica: mybook.to/atlasgothica #gothic #history #Halloween
David Castleton (Author) retweeted
DRACULA NOTEBOOKS Stoker’s handwritten #Dracula notebooks were sold to Sotheby's in 1913 ( now held in the Rosenbach Museum). The novel is the result of 7 years research. The page where he works out the attributes of his #vampire is endlessly fascinating for writers & scholars #31daysofHalloween
"I am thy father's spirit, doomed for a certain time to walk the night." William Shakespeare, Hamlet. (Art by William Blake) #WyrdWednesday #folklore #Shakespeare #literature #art #gothic #theatre
Looking for a spooky #Halloween read? My book Atlas Gothica explores 50 #gothic destinations around the world, including vampiric graveyards, magical museums, mummy-stuffed catacombs & eerie libraries. Get it here: mybook.to/atlasgothica #folklore #history #weird #wyrdwednesday
Statue of the journalist Victor Noir on his tomb in Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. #Folklore asserts that if a woman kisses Victor's lips, rubs his crotch and leaves flowers in his hat, she'll conceive a child. #FairytaleTuesday #gothic #31DaysofHalloween #Halloween #graveyard
A phantom black dog is said to haunt Tring, Hertfordshire. Some claim it's the spirit of a man hung then gibbetted for drowning a woman he accused of being a witch. The dog appears in a flash of flame, accompanied by the sounds of chains dragging. #folklore #spookysunday #gothic
A superstition states that if you count all the seeds within a pumpkin, you will see a ghost on Halloween night. #FairytaleTuesday #folklore #weird #mythology
David Castleton (Author) retweeted
BOOK OF DREAMS & GHOSTS 1897
Andrew Lang, best known for the coloured fairy books, was President of the Society for Psychical Research. The book poses some fundamental questions: Do you believe in ghosts? How do you define a ghost? One of the best looking ghost books!
The Abbey Steps, leading up to the clifftop St Mary's Churchyard, Whitby. The 'benches' at the side were originally coffin rests, where weary pallbearers could lay down their caskets. Whitby Abbey is haunted by a white lady, who appears in a window #spookysunday #folklore #gothic
