It began with Peter Cushing. Well, Peter Cushing and my grandfather. Those two men are responsible for my weirdness. The former for appearing on the television screen in Hammer’s Dracula, right in front of my five-year-old eyes, and transforming my life for ever. The latter for telling ghost stories to me from when I was about the same age, usually in a graveyard, introducing me to libraries and museums and turning me bookishly spooky. Really, there was never a chance of me growing up 'normal'.
When I was about nine years old, I was severely reprimanded by a teacher for telling spooky stories during break time. Apparently, it's not a good thing to terrify fellow pupils to the point where they refuse to enter the school's lavatories alone. I did explain that I was only carrying on a family tradition. After all, I'd been frightened out of my wits many a time since I was five years old, and it had never done me any harm… much.
In addition to all things spooky, I have always loved old books and history... and libraries, archives, museums and historic sites. I am a researcher by nature, and ferreting about for information about things long gone and people long dead is what I do best. Give me a room full of old books and I'm content for hours... days... maybe forever. Considering all of the above, it shouldn't come as any great surprise that I love a good, traditional ghost story.
I'm also a publisher, editor and writer. Nezu Press publishes supernatural fiction, predominantly by female writers that have been forgotten or long out of print (click here to visit the site). And Word Ferret offers writing/editing services (click here to visit that site).
That's me anyway... history nut, bibliophile, publisher of spooky tomes… lover of all places cobwebby.
Toodle pip!
PS - In the photo below, I'm the one on the left.
