TOMBS The poet Shelley was drawn to young Mary Godwin due to her melancholy habit of reading on her mother's grave; the site of their courtship & where they consummated their passion🎨This tomb features in our GOTHIC AFTERLIVES TOUR on 18 July join us in London at the booking link below

MERROW or Murdhuacha are the Irish equivalent of #mermaids with fishes' tails and webbed fingers. You can read about them in Croker's Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland, 1882. Said to appear before storms, they can couple with humans but their offspring are covered in scales! #FairyTaleTuesday

TOADSTOOL CAKES from our Breaking Through to Faery event for @beinghumanfest.bsky.social @folkloretodmorden.bsky.social The theme was re-enchantment and the cakes were made by Thyme for Tiffin and decorated using locally sourced fungi and flowers. #MythologyMonday

YEAR of the FAIRY Enchanting summer reading for those who like to reside in faery. You might like to dip into our @ogomproject.bsky.social issue of Gramarye on the gothic fairy and my piece in Hellebore on 'Fairy Lepidoptera'

TOMBS from my visit to Heptonstall, Yorkshire, UK. 'Each passing gale shall mourn, each tree shall bend its heavy head, in sorrow o'er their tombs' (Brackenridge).

THE FAMILY OF VOURDALAK early #vampire story predating Dracula; written by Aleksei Tolstoy in 1894. It cites Calmet's Hungarian vourdalaks who return from their graves to prey upon their own families. This classic vampire tale introduced Slavic folklore on the undead into Western literature.

📢Delighted to reveal that The Legacy of John Polidori has been shortlisted for a Justin D. Edwards prize for advancing the field of gothic studies. Join us for a Gothic Graveyard Tour in London on 18 July to celebrate & get 30% discount off the paperback @igagoths.bsky.social. Ticket link below!!

PUCK Joseph Noel Paton's Puck Amongst the #Fairies c.1850 shows the familiar hobgoblin with butterfly wings. He is notable for his size, when compared to the other diminutive fairies. Check out the uncanny fairy band in the foreground!

She is buried in Heptonstall, yes, but in an adjacent graveyard that has newer graves. Pic below.

DRACULA PAINTING The Prince of Darkness throws shade on Mina who represents light; 'There are darknesses in life, and there are lights; you are one of the lights' (Van Helsing on Mina). Contemporary Spanish artist Arantzazu Martinez #Dracula #FolkloreSunday

TOMBS of the dead I visited in the stunning setting of Heptonstall, Yorkshire UK. 'The human heart has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed' (Charlotte Bronte, 1846)

SAMURAI CATS who even knew these were a thing! Japanese artists Utagawa Yoshiiku (歌川 芳幾, 1833-1904) & Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (1798-1861) depict stunning Samurai cats including a Samurai cat picnic #Caturday

VARNEY THE #VAMPIRE Victorian Penny Dreadful serialised 1845-1847. Varney is often pictured as a monstrous skeletal bat and in later editions as a rather dashing Victorian gent with bat wings! I recommend the 2 vol Dover edition ed. by E.F. Bleiler

OLD FAIRY TALE BOOKS One of my guilty pleasures is reading old fairy tale books, holding them in my hands & surrendering to their wonders & enchantments. Today's are Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, ed. by W. B. Yeats (A. L. Burt Co. c.1905) & Joseph Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales (A. L. Burt Co. 1899)

THE EVIL GARDEN by Edward Gorey 1965 A party of unsuspecting gentlefolk fight to survive an afternoon stroll in The Evil Garden. Gorey leads us through the nefarious garden, where nothing is as it seems, with an uncanny step. A #BotanicalGothic masterpiece complete with board game!

CORPSE CANDLE known as ignis Fatuus or Will o’ the Wisp. Haunts pathways through forests with a flickering light. This phenomenon is seen by Harker on his journey through the wolf-infested forest to Castle Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel #MythologyMonday

FAIRY HUNTING The Cottingley Fairies were pinned into place using hat pins, connecting them to taxidermy & butterfly collecting. In 1917 they suggested that one may hunt for a #fairy as an entomologist hunts for a butterfly #FolkloreSunday

MOURNING CATS has a long history. Members of a household would shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when their cat passed away in Ancient Egypt (Herodotus); image 1 the earliest feline Egyptian goddess recorded MAFDET image 2 BASTET #Caturday

OUT IN PAPERBACK this month from @GothicMUP A moving tribute to the author of the first #vampire tale in English and examining the bloodline of the Romantic vampire; there's plenty for readers to get their teeth into! It was a labour of love working on this book!

HUMANS ENCOUNTER FAIRIES in the paintings of Henry Meynell Rheam (1859 – 1920), an artist who indulged his taste in medievalism and enchantment in English forest settings #InternationalFairyDay

THE WORD #FAIRY has many gothic overtones for those who believe in second sight & other worlds. According to some sources it comes via Old French feie, fée from Latin fatua = (female) seer, and fatum = fate, destiny!! 🎨Maybank #InternationalFairyDay

THE WEDDING OF THE ROSE I have a small collection of original fairy paintings bought at auction and I wanted to share this one for #InternationalFairyDay from the little-known artist, miniaturist & calligrapher, Enid Sybil Mills (née Smith, 1901-1985). She created this fairy wedding in 1933

KING DAVID Folk hero David Hartley was hung for leading the Cragg Vale Coiniers who clipped and reproduced gold coins when they could no longer earn a living from the land. Coins are left on his grave in tribute in Heptonstall, Yorkshire, Uk

SHADOWLANDS #Fairies are said to reside in a shadow world; in 1918 Lotte Reiniger's uncanny film making process, involving the art of paper cutting & silhouette puppetry, cemented the link between fairytale, cinema & the land of shadows forever

THE SANDMAN once threw sand into sleepless children's eyes; now he sends good dreams. Illustration by Hans Tegner, 1900 #MythologyMonday

TITANIA iconic images of Vivien Leigh as Titania in A #Midsummer Night's Dream, Old Vic Theatre, 1937. She was born to play the fae. #Midsummer is when spirits and #fairies could contact humans, when humans could exceed the usual limitations of their world (Hutton)

This brilliant story can be found in Michael Sims's handsome collection of Victorian Vampire Stories (Bloomsbury, 2010). Easy to find in used hardback or newer paperback copies. Fangtastic!

LUELLA MILLER A stunning #vampire story written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, c.1902. Luella drains everyone she comes into contact with, whilst retaining a youthful vitality herself. Psychic vampires steal souls rather than blood, & energy, ideas & creativity!

VAMPIRE GRAVES show signs of disturbance that suggests a #Vampire is lying within. According to folklore, Vampire hunters must look for deep holes around the headstones, sunken graves, crooked crosses & leaning tombstones St Martin's Churchyard, Cwmyoy; St Albans Abbey, UK. #FolkloreThursday

ABRACADABRA A magical medieval spell used for banishing demons. The word should be written out in an inverted triangle. One letter of the word is dropped with each line, until nothing is left. The idea is that the evil fades along with the words #WyrdWednesday