Monthly Archives: June 2016

Folk Horror: Blood Sucking Vampire Goat Terrorises Village

Following my recent post on folk horror and the appearance earlier this year of the Hull Werewolf Old Stinker, who sparked a folk panic in the UK, stories are breaking that a legendary Chupacabra has been caught and killed in the Ukraine … Continue reading

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Who’s Afraid of the Big, Black Cat?

On Saturday my partner and I adopted two kittens from Mitcham Cats Protection league. On our arrival we were asked if we had any preference to the appearance of the cats we were going to adopt. Our answer was no. … Continue reading

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Summer of 1816: Creativity and Turmoil

What a fabulous conference Summer of 1816: Creativity and Turmoil at the University of Sheffield was! Brilliant organisation by the wonderful Angela Wright and Madeleine Callaghan. I’m feeling that post-conference melancholy. Met some great new people and caught up with … Continue reading

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Folk Horror for Beginners

I am increasingly intrigued by ‘folk horror’ and it was one of the sections in the British Library’s Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination exhibition  that I spent longest pondering over. The BFI’s recent article is a must read therefore, … Continue reading

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Marcus Sedgwick’s new novel: Saint Death

The marvellous Marcus Sedgwick, prize-winning YA and children’s novelist, has a new novel, Saint Death; an extract features here. I’m not sure whether this is in the  Gothic or fantastic mode (though the title suggests Gothic undertones) like many of … Continue reading

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China Miéville: Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton and the ‘pictureskew’

A very interesting essay by China Miéville on the dark side of the picturesque and English landscape in children’s literature.

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Tessa Farmer’s fairy taxidermy

A piece on Tessa Farmer’s grotesquely Gothic tableaux of some very unpleasant fairies, constructed from insect parts. I find this fascinating and darkly humorous–but very creepy!

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CFP: Damsels in Redress: Women in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Reimaginings, Queen’s University Belfast, 7-8 April 2017

This looks a great conference, with themes very much at the heart of OGOM research (I’m particularly interested in contemporary reworkings of fairy tale, and Sam’s modules explore this too): Call for papers for a conference at Queen’s University Belfast: … Continue reading

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Fairy tales and contemporary fiction

An interesting article, ‘Follow the breadcrumbs: why fairytales are magic for modern fiction‘, by Lincoln Michel (author of Upright Beasts). It discusses  from a writer’s perspective the opportunities that modern reworkings of fairy tales have as an alternative to straightforward … Continue reading

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The Future of Gothic Studies, Centre for the History of the Gothic, University of Sheffield, 8 July 2016

This networking day at the University of Sheffield’s Centre for the History of the Gothic looks well worth attending: The Centre for the History of the Gothic is pleased to host a networking day for postgraduates, early career researchers, and academic … Continue reading

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