I’d just stopped in The Kings Arms in Keswick for pint. I’d been in town to see an outdoor theatre production in Crow Park, a worthy thing with be-clogged actors in wearing braces and caps of a century ago it was Ok, but as I say, a bit “worthy”. It had been an unseasonably warm day and it had brought on something of a thirst. I’d been there ten minutes or so and a young chap came in and I took him to be one the performers, ordered a double whisky and sat down opposite me. He was in an Continue reading LAMPERS. A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS→

This story contains adult language and is not suitable for minors We were all sitting around the table in the small room alongside the kitchen of our home for our long weekend in Skipness, “Kilbrannon Cottage” which sits by the road that runs along the shore. The road was fifteen feet from where we were sitting, the sea forty and Arran four miles further. Four of us the good Ladymarra Karen,  Laurence who’d rented it for us, Aidan the birthday boy and myself. Outside the wind and rain crashed gently against the windowpane bringing with it a biting cold. So Continue reading Like me… A ghost story for Christmas.→

If you have not done so read Part 1: The Whitechapel Horror. First. The sun was shining, though most of London didn’t notice as Asphyxius Markham and Dr Jonathon Wylie-Minogue walked down the Strand towards Charing Cross. “…and the bodies were all found to have puncture marks on the neck and the symptoms of Curare poisoning?” “Indeed Markham, When we’d properly cleaned them up we also found that they didn’t just have terrible haircuts, they had all been partially scalped too, hair skin and all. So we now know the full horror of the crimes, but we still don’t know Continue reading Asphyxius Markham and The Book of Evil. Part 2: Charing Cross to Undercroft.→

If you’ve been to any folk festival of note then there’s a good chance that you’ve seen a tallish wiry fellow standing behind a tripod. That’s Simmo, Peter Simmonds to be precise and it’s been his passion for some years now to make high quality video recordings of the great and the good and the bright new things on the English folk music scene. His YouTube site has now over ten thousand videos that are there to be enjoyed free of charge by anyone. He makes no charge to anyone funding everything from his own pocket and each act he Continue reading Simmo, a contemporary Cecil Sharp?→