Haunted Book Club with Gav Cross & John Reppion

NOTE: at the beginning there is a technical blip where the camera we intended to use gave up the ghost… the ‘vision’ element disappears for a short while. So it was filmed on the backup laptop camera throughout. A reference and ready recording of a delightful evening! What a treat it was to be joined by Haunted Book Clubbers in person and online. But a special big thanks to Richard MacDonald the k...

Scores are getting even higher as this turned out to be very popular Story. And for very good reason. We scored it: Scare Factor: 4/5 Creep Factor: 4/5 Satisfaction: 4/5 The fact that it is still vaguely unknown that she did baffles us. It is always a treat to come together on a Tuesday with the book clubbers and we can’t wait to bring the book club to life live at The Portico & Bloomimh Skull Cof...

We are back on the Tuesday train. Tuesday 14th of April is when we will have the chat for the next haunted book club. And of course it is: The Red Room by H.G. Wells If you click the title above it will take you through to a free version online for you to read all of course course you can listen to Gav read it to you. Not just here but also on the podcast apps. A hugely popular story and the genre...

One of the highest rated of the stories so far. There there is a reason that Edith Nesbitt is so highly regarded as a writer of weird and supernatural fiction. We scored it: Scare Factor: 3/5 Creep Factor: 4/5 Satisfaction: 4/5 The fact that it is still vaguely unknown that she did baffles us. It is always a treat to come together on a Tuesday with the book clubbers and we can't wait to bring the...

We are back on the Tuesday train. Tuesday 14th of April is when we will have the chat for the next haunted book club. And of course it is: Man Sized in Marble by Edith Nesbit If you click the title above it will take you through to a free version online for you to read all of course course you can listen to Gav read it to you. A hugely popular story and the genre I bet it is in the collection you...

The fourth Haunted Book Club and we threw ourselves into the horror horn stew and dumplings* that is ‘Spinach’ by E.F. Benson. It is fair to say from the gecko that both of us are fans of Benson. And hedging our bets it was an easy one to include him in our first run. Featuring recurring themes of cousins and the such like this seemed to be a favoured story. We aggregated the scores. Oh yeah. We s...

Spinach By E.F. Benson We genuinely look forward to the conversation that we have with you Book Clubbers. We look forward to knowing that you will tell us straight if you think the story is ‘Woo Hoo!’ or ‘Boo Hoo…’ REMINDER: The chat will take place on Monday the 30th at 9 pm instead of the usual Tuesday. Put it in your diary now with a reminder, we wouldn’t want to miss you. You can close your ey...

The third Haunted Book Club and we dipped out toe in the crossover World between ghost and weird fiction and legit literature. The Pulitzer Prize winning Edith Wharton and The Eyes. Featuring a wide range of responses and a shocking moment when a cork self pops… The haunted book club continues into the darkness. We aggregated the scores. Oh yeah. We scored it. Scare Factor: 0.9/10 - not generally...

The Eyes By Edith Wharton We genuinely look forward to the conversation that we have with you Book Clubbers. We look forward to knowing that you will tell us straight if you think the story is ‘Woo Hoo!’ or ‘Boo Hoo…’ It was boo-hoo tonight as the full recording made fresh failed… So this is a use of a live reading of the story by Gav from last year on his Phantastic Stories thread. So there are s...

The second Haunted Book Club and we haven’t even started haemorrhaging too many stories yet! The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe Harry Clarke’s iconic illustration to accompany a very non pockect sized edition… Thank you to every one that joined in especially if your name was Claire/Clare. Never too many Claire/Clare’s. Lots to say about this one - we didn’t find it scary. Some of us ge...

We had such fun at the first Haunted Book Club. Who knew that such a classic tail could throw up so much new thinking? That is of the value of a good conversation with good people and we hope we can keep that rolling with this dark red classic… The Masque of the Red Death By Edgar Allan Poe You can close your eyes and hopefully enjoy this reading by Gav. Or you can take your copy off the shelf. He...

The first Haunted Book Club lands with a screech! The Signalman by Charles Dickens Thank you to every one that joined in and I thinke we all went on a git of a journey with this story… It’s definite that we think differently now. We aggregated the scores. Oh yeah. We scored it. Scare Factor: 3/10 - Not so scary but THAT description of going down into the cutting… Creep Factor: 4/5 - This one linge...

Welcome to Part One of our very first Haunted Book Club. The story itself. The Signalman by Charles Dickens. (1866) With so many Short supernatural stories to choose from we have picked the first few for the book club. And we thought we would start with a humdinger. With something that has its own brand recognition. With something that is always being read, adapted, performed and feared… You can c...

A Book Club you don’t ‘ have ’ to do the reading for. We’ll read it to you… For enjoyers of eerie tales, curious to know more about the stories that make their skin crawl. Join Norton’s Narrator Gav Cross and author John Reppion as they delve into the stories behind some of your favourite spine-tingling tales. Whether you’re a seasoned ghost story expert or a newcomer to the realm of creepy fictio...