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In the summer of 1960, American International Pictures released a little gothic number called The Fall of the House of Usher based on the strange and phantasmagoric short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in 1839. AIP was a low-budget, independent outfit that banged out cheap… Read More

‘Whatever you do, sir, lock the door early on All Saints’ Eve, and make the blessed cross-sign over the doorstep and on the windows.’ Halloween season, in common with Christmas, is the time of year many an avid reader will reach for a ghostly tale. Whilst sitting comfortably by the fireside hopefully the story will… Read More

David Ellis finds fault with ‘The Swan of Avon’ Shakespeare’s Titles As anyone who has ever put pen to paper will know, finding titles for what you have written can be difficult.  Reading a book on Shakespeare’s treatment of old age I was struck recently by the felicity of its title.  The author had taken… Read More

David Stuart Davies looks at Charles Dickens’s last, unfinished, novel The real mystery of Edwin Drood concerns his sudden disappearance, which raises the question of whether he is dead or alive, for no body is discovered. If dead, has he been murdered and if so, by whom? Sadly, Charles Dickens died before he was able… Read More