On a rather muddled day in early autumn, I decided to visit M.R. James. In recent years, I’ve become interested in the places that James frequented, usually because they have had clear and profound effects upon his ghost stories. Visiting them with a sense of curiosity seems to invert the man’s clichés back upon him; walking in search of the known as opposed to the … Continue reading Wanders: M.R. James’ Grave
“Serene, eternity waits at the crossroad of stars.” – Jorge Luis Borges The actress was due in the studio that morning. She was a star and so every one of the assistants, hairdressers and make-up artists for the shoot were more nervous than usual. This was not a regular star, so I thought, but someone genuinely important; a human vision of culture. This was the reason why … Continue reading Fictions: A Forever-Moment Of Glass
“Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi.” Looking at Eileen Agar’s Butterfly Bride (1938) is to look into the dreams of insects. Or perhaps these are our dreams of insects, where our waking moments are … Continue reading Responses: Eileen Agar’s Butterfly Bride (1938)
‘The notion that one day the red dawn will indeed break over Clapham,’ wrote Angela Carter in a letter to Lorna Sage, ‘is the one thing that keeps me going.’ From having read several of Carter’s works over the years, all of which have had a variety of profound effects upon my own writing, her relationship to London has since intrigued me. When first on the train down … Continue reading Wanders: Angela Carter’s House
This November sees the 50th anniversary of one of Hammer Studios’ strongest and most complex films: Roy Ward Baker’s Nigel Kneale adaptation, Quatermass And The Pit (1967). Sometimes known under the title of Five Million Years To Earth, the film takes Kneale’s BBC script from the original broadcast serial and turns it into something far more unnerving than the other films produced by the studio in … Continue reading Quatermass And The Pit (1967) @ 50
Note – Since the publication of this article, a publisher of Aickman’s has been in touch with more details surrounding the photographs. They were taken by his friend Jean Richardson on a number trips taking place in the mid 1970s and not on one singular trip (as Aickman’s limited wardrobe falsely suggests). The stone is King Doniert’s Stone in Cornwall whilst the coastline with the … Continue reading Responses: Robert Aickman’s Holiday Photos
Above is Greenteeth, my film adaptation of the short story by Gary Budden which can be read in his upcoming volume of short stories. It is currently up for a fantasy award and follows the pressures on a young woman in a struggling part of north London whose social worries begin manifest in more folkloric ways through the legend of Jenny Greenteeth. The film came … Continue reading Short Film – Greenteeth
Few events take place in the countryside as brutal as fox hunting. It is one that highlights the class divisions still present in this country, far more powerfully than most other country pursuits. Aside from obvious power on display by those who still, quite illegally, partake in it, even before its ban in 2004 it had become a symbol of the ultimate violence of the … Continue reading Fox Hunting in Wyrd Landscape Cinema
On a rock, there sits a man lost in thought. Or perhaps he is not thinking at all and is instead letting the landscape around him fill his thoughts unconsciously. Werner Herzog’s 1976 film, Heart of Glass (Herz aus Glas), has one of the director’s strongest opening set of images as the main character of the film sits in a foggy Bavarian landscape with life … Continue reading Heart Of Glass (1976) – Optimism in Destruction
Celluloid Wicker Man 