Melissa Edmundson

A black cat with white bib sitting next to a sign that says “Hobbs Lane.”

Saturday Simone #caturday (sign by @hiddenbritain.bsky.social)

Dust jacket to Margery Lawrence's MASTER OF SHADOWS (1959). It shows a moon to the left, a bat, and a skull.

Wrapping up #31days31books with Margery Lawrence's MASTER OF SHADOWS (1959). One of the best djs out there, designed by Val Biro.

Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻

Dust jacket to Rosemary Timperley’s Child in the Dark: Three Haunting Novelettes (1956).

For day 30 of #31days31books, here is Rosemary Timperley’s Child in the Dark (1956). Jacket design by Biro.

It’s a great one!

New Writing Scotland Submission Manager New Writing Scotland publishes works by writers resident in Scotland or Scots by birth, upbringing, or inclination. Prose (fiction and nonfiction); poetry; drama; screenplays; and graphic artwork (mon...

#WritingCommunity!
Submissions invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 44! We want poetry & prose in English, #Gaelic, & #Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 31 Oct!

Submit free via Submittable 👇
nws.submittable.com/submit

Comical illustrations of three different options to describe a group of noctules. Option 1: a chorus of noctules showing three bats dressed in a traditional white choir dress. Option 2: a screech of noctules showing two bats ‘shouting’ and one covering its ears. Option 3: a thunder of noctules, showing three bats and a dark cloud with thunder lightning.

Comical illustrations of three different options to describe a group of common pipistrelles. Option 1: a reliance of common pipistrelles showing three bats, one of which has a ‘bat spotting’ checklist with ‘common pipistrelle’ ticked off. Option 2: a flicker of common pipistrelles showing three bats around a lit candle. Option 3: a shimmer of common pipistrelles, showing three bats with a flick of light on their wings.

(1/2) 🦇 A group of bats can be called a colony, a cauldron, a cloud or even a camp but with 1,500 bat species worldwide (and 18 right here in the UK!), we think it’s time to get a little more imaginative.

Surely our brilliant bat species deserve some names as unique as they are?

#NameThatBat

My students always find this story interesting when we discuss the painting at the beginning of my Polar Gothic course. 🐻‍❄️

The cover image of Victoriographies journal volume 15, number 3, 2025, titled Marie Corelli Reconsidered. The image of an ornate’V’ is paired with a collage picture that includes an image of Marie Corelli with representations of ancient Egypt, mesmerism, provincial newspaper mastheads, Japanese text, and subtle references to twins.

Coming very, very soon…
Eleanor Dobson and I have co-edited a special issue of @edinburghup.bsky.social Victoriographies - titled Marie Corelli Reconsidered. There are clues to its contents in the beautiful cover image, below… we can’t wait for the work of our contributors to be out in the world!

Black and white photo of Shirley Jackson.

Front cover of The Lottery and Other Stories. The cover shows a woman’s face in several different pieces.

Shirley Jackson's "The Daemon Lover," from The Lottery (1949). An interesting twist on the demon lover motif.

Black and white photo of Joan Aiken.

Dust jacket to The Windscreen Weepers.

Joan Aiken's “The Windscreen Weepers,” from The Windscreen Weepers and Other Tales of Horror and Suspense (1969). Artist colony, a demon lover, and a reincarnation of Coleridge. All in one story!

Front cover to Weird Tales magazine from April 1939, showing a man holding a woman who has fainted.

Frances Garfield's “The High Places,” from Weird Tales (April 1939). A woman takes an airplane flight and discovers the pilot is a former fiancé who has previously died in a crash.

Black and white photo of Margery Lawrence.

Front cover of Nights of the Round Table. Showing a scared woman and a large brown table.

Margery Lawrence’s “Robin’s Rath,” from Nights of the Round Table (1926). Demon Lover + Green Man! A woman who plans to "improve" the wooded area around an estate gets more than she bargains for after meeting a mysterious man in those woods. Spoiler: it doesn't end well for her.

Painting of Christina Rossetti sitting with a book.

Illustration of a man and woman being approached by a ghostly hooded figure in white. From Rossetti’s “The Hour and the Ghost.”

Christina Rossetti's "The Hour and the Ghost," from Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862). One of her most haunting ghost poems about a spectral visit from beyond the grave.

"Come with me, fair and false,
To our home, come home..."

Black and white photo of Elizabeth Bowen.

Front cover of The Demon Lover and Other Stories.

For #WyrdWednesday here's a thread of demon lovers! Elizabeth Bowen’s “The Demon Lover,” from The Demon Lover and Other Stories (1945). During WWII, a woman is haunted by a former love from WWI who keeps his promise to come back for her...

Front cover to Louisa Baldwin's THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND (1895). It shows a woman holding a book.

Day 29 of #31days31books brings Louisa Baldwin's THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND (1895).

Wyrdlings! With Halloween looming large over us this week, it's time for our annual #WyrdWednesday Spooky Spectacular!

Bring us ghosts, goblins, and ghouls; witches, werewolves, and will-o'-the-wisps!👻🧙‍♀️🧟‍♂️👿

Those illustrations are lovely (and the last one is macabre!). They served as an inspiration for the cover of my Handheld Press edition of Nesbit’s ghost stories. It’s so nice that you have original copies!

Three books by Margaret Irwin. Left: Madame Fears the Dark (1935) Center: Still She Wished for Company (1924) Right: Bloodstock (1953), a blue dust jacket featuring a man in a red coat riding a white horse.

For days 26, 27, and 28 of #31days31books here’s a trio of Margaret Irwin.

📘 Madame Fears the Dark (1935)
📙 Still She Wished for Company (1924)
📕 Bloodstock (1953)

Sadly, I don’t own a copy of Shudders, but here’s my copy of Asquith’s The Ghost Book (1926).

A black cat with a super curly tail looking at shelves of old books.

It’s #caturday and less than a week until Halloween, so here’s Simone perusing some shelves of supernatural fiction. 👻🐈‍⬛🎃

Dust jacket to This Mortal Coil (1947). A man’s face looks from behind the title.

For day 25 of #31days31books we have Cynthia Asquith’s THIS MORTAL COIL (1947).

Black and white photo of Elizabeth Bowen. She is sitting with her arms crossed.

Front cover to The Second Ghost Book showing a graveyard.

Elizabeth Bowen's "Hand in Glove" is included in Asquith's SECOND GHOST BOOK (1952). Two sisters learn the hard way that when your aunt tells you to leave her clothes alone, she means it.

Cover of New Ghost Stories showing two men to the left being frightened by a ghostly man to the right.

Lettice Galbraith's "In the Seance Room" appeared in her collection NEW GHOST STORIES (1893). A talented young doctor attends a seance and gets more than he bargained for when someone appears from his past.

Black and white photo of Bithia Mary Croker.

Cover for “If You See Her Face” showing an Indian woman looking from behind a curtain.

B. M. Croker’s “If You See Her Face,” published in TO LET (1893). In this Anglo-Indian story a ghostly temple dancer enacts revenge on an oppressive British colonial official.

Sepia-toned photo of Charlotte Riddell.

Front cover of The Collected Ghost Stories of Mrs. J. H. Riddell.

Charlotte Riddell's "A Terrible Vengeance," from PRINCESS SUNSHINE AND OTHER STORIES (1889). A tale of love gone wrong and plenty of secrets are revealed. (Also an entry in the “disembodied feet enact revenge” subgenre).

Painting of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, standing and wearing a black dress against a dark red background.

Cover to The Face in the Glass. A ghostly face is seen in a mirror.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon's "Eveline's Visitant" was published in Belgravia in January 1867 and tells the tale of a feud, a curse, and a haunting from beyond the grave.

Black and white photo of Cynthia Asquith.

Orange cover with black bats of Shudders.

For this spectral #BookWormSat here’s a thread of ghostly revenge stories! Cynthia Asquith's "The Playfellow" first appeared in SHUDDERS (1929). A family inherits an ancestral house, and the malevolent ghostly child who comes with it.

To the left is the blue and white dust jacket for Ferry Over Jordan, published by Robert Hale in 1944. To the right is the tan two volume paper edition published by the Psychic Book Club (1944).

A pair of Margery Lawrence books for days 23 and 24 of #31days31books. To the left is Ferry Over Jordan, published by Robert Hale in 1944. To the right is the two volume paper edition published by the Psychic Book Club (1944).

Yes indeed. Goldsmith had a fascinating life. And so glad to find you here on Bluesky!

Treadwell’s is here!