Enjoying another true crime story of old New York, Edgar Allan Poe and the Murder of Mary Rogers by the brilliant Daniel Stashower
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Enjoying another true crime story of old New York, Edgar Allan Poe and the Murder of Mary Rogers by the brilliant Daniel Stashower
Yes, saw it when it came out out and the audience was split between quivering wrecks and people who were fuming that the movie didn’t live up to the ‘scariest film ever’ hype! I loved it and enjoy it more every time I see it!
Yikes! Better get hiking!
We had a great time at the Silver Screams screening of The Blair Witch Project at Ashford Cinema, presented by @manoghosts.bsky.social with a post-film Q&A with @bunnydarke.bsky.social - unnerving to find that one of the twig charms has followed us home!
I picked this up in NYC and tore through it on the flight home. Blood and Ink by Joe Pompeo, a fascinating true crime story about an infamous double murder in New Jersey, and the tabloid press frenzy that followed in jazz-age New York. Highly recommended!
McSorley’s Old Alehouse - founded in 1854 and New York City’s oldest continuously operating saloon. Cash only and there are only two drinks on the menu - light and dark ale. This was my favourite bar from our NYC visit, loadsa character!
My trip to NYC would not have been complete without a visit to The Mysterious Bookshop! Picked up a couple of Sherlockian titles - a signed copy of The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr and The Gospel of Sheba by Lyndsay Faye (part of the Mysterious Bookshop’s Bibliomysteries series)
Haha! Excellent!
Cleopatra’s Needle, Central Park
Alice in Wonderland by José de Creeft, Central Park
Look at this creepy bit of business - from the Bergdorf Goodman window display on 5th Avenue, NYC
Yankee Stadium in the sunshine today!
25 West 45th Street in New York, original offices of Black Mask magazine - pioneers of the hardboiled school of crime fiction!
Popped into The Landmark Tavern in Hell’s Kitchen for a nightcap! The bar dates from 1868 & is haunted by at least 3 ghosts - a murdered civil war vet, a young Irish cholera victim & Hollywood actor George Raft (!) who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen & starred in gangster films throughout the 30s & 40s.
The Fiji Mermaid at Coney Island Museum
The Spook-A-Rama at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, Coney Island. Seventy years old!
Coney Island!
NYC reading material! The Alienist by Caleb Carr, a thrilling detective story set in late 19th Century Manhattan.
I’ve always loved the movie so made a beeline for the Broadway musical version of Death Becomes Her and we had a blast! Camp, macabre and very funny!
Little Italy and Chinatown in the rain
The site of Nero Wolfe’s brownstone from the detective stories by Rex Stout, at 454 West 35th Street!
Some of the treasures on display at the New York Public Library - a Houdini water escape poster, Christopher Robin’s original Winnie the Pooh toys, a First Folio & Charles Dickens writing desk
There’s still room for the classics. From the latest issue….
No problems there, if anything things just keep getting weirder.
Pleased to see Pluckley on the cover of @forteantimes.bsky.social - a lifetime ago, we used to visit the Black Horse on a Saturday night and then go ghost hunting in the churchyard or the Screaming Woods. Happy memories!
Yes, it’s marvellous!
Today we attended a farewell lunch for the EF Benson Society, wrapping up after 40 years! We had a wonderful lunch at the Mermaid Inn in Rye, followed by speeches & a Benson reading. A previously unpublished spook story was presented to each attendee to mark the occasion. Lots of fun & a bit sad!
Nine years after its creation, Nunkie and ThomThom Films' documentary "Wits in Felixstowe" about M R James's masterpiece "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad" is available free to view on Youtube Checkidoot! youtu.be/iYq-MS1790Y
We visited Smallhythe Place, Ellen Terry’s home, yesterday! Her famous Lady Macbeth gowns are on display (the ‘beetlewing dress’, as painted by Sargent, and the ‘banqueting dress’). Also good to see a caricature of Bram Stoker by Pamela Colman Smith, who designed the original Rider-Waite Tarot!
Three new titles now up for pre-order in special editions! ShoreZone – David Rudkin's first collection of strange tales. Atomic Albion – Tom Bolton tours the UK's nuclear power stations. The Decadent Bestiary - over 40 animal tales of decadence, mystery & the uncanny. strangeattractor.co.uk
Medieval manuscript news www.popsci.com/science/chau...
Bagging a fifth day ticket for the Lord’s test has paid off!
New preorder! Totally forgotten today, Australian pulp writer Lionel Sparrow (1867-1936) was a prolific contributor of Gothic horror to late-Victorian Australian magazines. This new volume collects 24 rare tales, originally published between 1887 and 1910. www.valancourtbooks.com/the-jewelled...
Great stuff!
Yep! Indeed we did!
Yes, indeed! Interesting how some have gone on to be massive cult favourites and others have disappeared without a trace (Grim Prairie Tales springs to mind!)
Yes, nice touch!
Moviedrome night on BBC4 tonight. So many great memories of watching this show with my brother as teenagers!
Up town at the BFI for a screening of The Fly (1958), part of the Moviedrome season.
More snaps from Portsmouth & Southsea yesterday. We were there planning the Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s autumn trip, lots of great stuff planned!
Some snaps from the Richard Lancelyn Green collection cabinets at Portsmouth Museum & Art Gallery. Only a selection from the collection is on display but the museum have done a great job representing the vast breadth of the items and documents available!
Solid gold entertainment!
The Snakecatcher pub in Brockenhurst
Superb.
The splendid inn sign at Minstead’s Trusty Servant
We paid our respects at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s grave yesterday in Minstead. The church here is fundraising to restore their lovely old lychgate, I believe that any donations would be welcome! www.newforestparishes.com/minstead-lyc...
Great to receive the Summer edition of The Sherlock Holmes Journal through the post today. It’s the first edition with @drmjones.bsky.social as editor and he has done a fantastic job!
I’ve often referred to Frederick Forsythe as the king of logistics porn. To mark his passing and to explain what I mean by that, check out my Substack newsletter from a while ago on Fred Zinnerman’s 1973 film adaptation of Forsythe’s THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. andrewnette.substack.com/p/the-day-of...
Moriarty and me, channeling Dr Nikola and Apollyon
Benson month begins in earnest on Sunday with a livestreamed telling of "The Horror Horn" by E F Benson. Stare into the abyss with us, live at 8pm, and available anytime after. Free to view. Just click here: youtube.com/live/KRQ6RQi...
Absolutely!
I went straight to the Warwick & Peter Dennis stories but I’m intrigued to read the earlier efforts from Hutchinson’s and The Novel Magazine!
How cool is this? Tommy is *exactly* the kind of reader I did this book for - we're small in number 😂
Superb saturday afternoon reading material - His Beautiful Hands: The Short Fiction of Oscar Cook, edited & introduced by @johnnymains.co.uk A thrilling publication for those of us who had enjoyed odd Cook stories in the Pan Books of Horror Stories & searched in vain for a collection of his work!
WORLDWIDE DOYLE 2025 - You can now book for the annual online lecture series provided by Portsmouth City Council. #1/4 - 05 June 2025 7pm - Burt Wolder: “Conan Doyle: Adventurous Life, Enduring Memories“ wegottickets.com/event/660551
Amazing! A collection of 1400 pictures apparently!
The Britten memorial window in Aldeburgh church by John Piper
Animal masks used in the original Orford production of Britten’s Noyes’s Fludde in the 1950s
The Red House, the Aldeburgh home of Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears
It’s amazing! So much to look at in there.
Southwold Sailors’ Reading Room appreciation post
It's Christopher Lee's Birthday - I gift your timeline this slice of sheer glamour Christopher and Gitte Lee. Los Angeles, 1985
I will definitely check them out one day!
I have read about it but never been! Such a great story!
The Scallop by Maggi Hambling on Aldeburgh beach
Brass figures on a monument in Aldeburgh church
View from the marshes south of Aldeburgh. The bump on the horizon is the Martello Tower mentioned in ‘A Warning to the Curious.’
I’m particularly pleased with the Christie as it was only ever published in the US!
Secondhand book haul from the last few days in Suffolk
Whenever we visit Aldeburgh I always have a shufti at Patricia Highsmith’s King Street digs!
Such a cool place!
Thanks Jim!
Agreed, I was happy to take a picture and leave it on the shelf haha!
It is, Jon! Marvellous!
Kicking off a week in Suffolk with a trip to the amazing Orford Ness today
A few favourites from the Victor Hugo drawings exhibition at The Royal Academy
“There has always been a belief in these parts in the three holy crowns.”
London Particular by Christianna Brand. This is a great detective story, a murder mystery set during one of the Great London Fogs of yesteryear with an excellent twisty courtroom climax. Originally published in 1952, this is a new edition from British Library Crime Classics.
Always, Jim
The Cat’s Cradle Book by Sylvia Townsend Warner. This has been on my wish list for a while, very pleased to track down an affordable copy!
Thanks Moonchild!
Phantom monk news from Hull www.bbc.com/news/article...
MURDER MOST WEIRD! From the FT archives comes a new collection exploring the strangest and most macabre cases in the annals of crime, from the London Monster to the BTK Killer – with added commentary from novelist Cathi Unsworth. In shops now, or order online: shop.forteantimes.com/product/weir...
Thank you!
We were up before dawn for a visit to Stonehenge! We were lucky enough to be in a really small group and to see a fantastic sunrise. Magic!
Some snaps of Avebury & Silbury Hill in the sunshine yesterday!
Yess! ENDLESS NIGHT, one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels, is being adapted by the BBC! www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
Next-level post box topper action down in Avebury
Great shout, a pair of crinoline creepers!
A goth-moth classic
Afternoon trip to the Coldrum Long Barrow, very windy up on the downs with a beautiful dramatic sky!
Thanks, very pleased with them!
Some snaps from the wonderful Sweeps Festival in Rochester this afternoon!
Secondhand book haul!
“He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans.”
#nowreading
