14. My Favourite Short Stories
30th August 2017 Having just published The Librarian & other strange tales I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to list my ten favourite short stories in the mystery/detective/horror/ghost forms, and what they bring to their respective genres. A totally subjective and self-indulgent exercise but fun nevertheless, but would welcome comments. In no particular […]
13. Detective Fiction and The Ghost Story and beyond …
4th August A long time since my last post – have been preoccupied with the completion and production of Detective Fiction and The Ghost Story which has now been published by Palgrave Macmillan. It represents the first extended work to examine the symbiosis between the two genres – it includes, for instance, a new look […]
12. Conan Doyle and the double narrative
26th March It is amazing how writing absorbs one’s time – it is quite a few months since my last post but the new book seems to have taken up all my every spare moment. I have just finished a chapter containing a textual analysis of M. R. James’s ‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’ and […]
11. My New Book on Themes in Conan Doyle and M R James
6th October My first post for a few months – have been working hard finalizing the outline for my new book. I’m pleased to say that I have now signed a contract with Palgrave Macmillan with a view to publishing later next year. I have already alluded to some of the ideas in previous posts […]
10. Conan Doyle, Laurie King, Michael Jecks and Dartmoor
June 10th My new book on the relationship between detective fiction and the ghost story will surface next year. I am thoroughly enjoying the research and as indicated in my previous blogs one of the chapters will be a reading of The Hound of the Baskervilles as an exercise in the supernatural. I have been […]
9. The Titanic and Jacques Futrelle … and a footnote on The Hound of the Baskervilles
Funny how events jog the memory – this week has seen considerable coverage of the Titanic disaster centenary. It was a timely reminder to me that one of the passengers who perished on that fateful voyage was detective story writer, Jacques Futrelle. Futrelle was just 37 when he died but he left behind a distinct […]
8. The Hound of the Baskervilles – a ghost story?
I am going to include a chapter on The Hound of the Baskervilles in my second book. Despite being one of the most written about stories of the last hundred years or so like all great texts it seems to have an endless capacity as a subject for literary analysis. The more I study it […]
7. ‘The Woman in Black’ and my second book – The Haunted Text: Detective Fiction & The Ghost Story
Well, I am now actively pursuing my next book, which will consider the relative positions of detective fiction and the ghost story, and in particular how they engage with each other. I was, then, especially intrigued to read about the release of The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe, which I am looking forward to seeing soon. […]
6. The Death of Josef Skvorecky
A sad event to record since my last blog – the death has been annouced from Canada of Josef Skvorecky. Coming so soon after the death of former President, Václav Havel, these have been especially poignant days in recent Czech history. Skvorecky was one of the instigators of the Prague spring in 1968 and had to flee […]
5. Torquemada, Crosswords and Detective Fiction
I have had a recent win on the AZED crossword in The Observer which has nicely coincided with my continuing research into my next book on the Golden Age of detective fiction. Yes, there is a link and it’s not even tenuous! From 1926 onwards until his death in 1939, The Observer’s setter was Edward Powys Mathers, known as ‘Torquemada’, the creator […]