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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 16h

New arrivals to the collection; From when Robert Stephens returned to the role of Holmes in 1975 in the revival of the William Gillette play, with his Private Life of Sherlock Holmes co-star, Clive Revill, as Moriarty at one stage of the run.

Two issues of Playbill from Broadhurst Theatre, both for the play Sherlock Holmes. One cover shows Robert Stephens as Holmes with Clive Revill as Moriarty pointing a gun at the detective's head. The other has Stephens alone as Holmes.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Commando issue 5999, 'Captain Starblaze', is in the shops today. Script by me, art by Paolo Ongaro, cover by Graeme Neil Reid.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Much appreciated. And I'm sure Dr Grace would be delighted that his stories are still finding an appreciative audience.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

When you're looking for some Hallowe'en reading...

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Will McKinley @willmckinley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

All 13 episodes of HOLLYWOOD are on Internet Archive if you’d like to celebrate #SilentMovieDay. Kevin Brownlow and David Gill wrote, directed, and produced this 1980 documentary series for Thames Television/ITV, featuring a score by maestro Carl Davis. archive.org/details/vol.... #FilmSky

The title card for Kevin Brownlow's HOLLYWOOD (1980)

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Hitting the shops next Thursday, my first non-horror Commando issue introduces the intrepid Captain Starblaze, star of comic books and movie serials, and the not quite so intrepid man behind the star-spangled hero's mask...

Cover of Commando issue 5999, shows a burning comic book lying among bullet shells, with a side panel showing a movie set with flying saucers dangling from wires. The comic is titled captain Starblaze, and its cover shows superheoes Captain Starblaze and Miss Miraculous flying through space, with the caption 'Can our heroes evade the deadly red menace?'

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Today's other piece of theatrical memorabilia was a Playbill from the Broadway run of Dracula with Frank Langella in the lead.

Programmes for The secret of Sherlock Holmes at Wyndham's Theatre and Dracula at Martin Beck Theatre.

Playbill programme for Dracula at Martin Beck Theatre, with a black and white cover photo of Frank Langella as Dracula.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A very welcome addition to my small but growing theatrical Holmes memorabilia collection, the programme for The Secret of Sherlock Holmes at Wyndhams Theatre, signed by Holmes and Watson themselves, Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke!

Cover of the programme for The Secret of Sherlock Holmes at Wyndhams Theatre. There is no illustration, just the text, and the price, 60p.

The centre spread of programme for The Secret of Sherlock Holmes by Jeremy Paul. One page gives the cast and production credits. The other is a photograph of Jeremy Brett as Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Watson. This is signed (as far as I can tell) 'Evelyn & Mark, Love, Jeremy Brett', and, 'Best wishes, Edward Hardwicke'.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

My story in this anthology is partly set in Dundee (my first ghost story to stray so close to home), and is inspired by a local legend said to have occurred only a few miles from my house.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I'm delighted to report that my story Hic Sunt Dracones will be appearing in A Second Ghosts & Scholars Book of Folk Horror, now up for pre-order from Sarob Press: sarobpress.blogspot.com/2026/09/new-...

sarobpress.blogspot.com

NEW TITLE NEWS: A SECOND GHOSTS & SCHOLARS BOOK OF FOLK HORROR

A SECOND GHOSTS & SCHOLARS BOOK OF FOLK HORROR For the ghostly season, Sarob Press is ‘announcing’ the publication of A Second Ghosts & Sc...

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Coming soon to Kickstarter, another ghost story graphic novel by the incredible Aly Fell, creator of 'A Trick of the Light' and 'The Kissing Gate'... www.kickstarter.com/projects/aly...

kickstarter.com

Coming soon: Candelstone: A Faery Tale

An original graphic novel of magical realism set against the insular world of an isolated 1920's Devon boarding school.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Just saw Edgar Wright refer to Used Cars as 'supremely underrated' in his post about Gerrit Graham on Twitter.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The perfect soundtrack to my current writing activities. One of them - Sherlock Holmes: Classic Themes From 221B Baker Street - has been serving that purpose for almost 30 years, having accompanied the writing of the play that eventually led to the novel, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Crown.

Six Sherlockian CDs. Compilation album, Sherlock Holmes: Classic Themes from 221B Baker Street, David Arnold & Michael Price's music for Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, John Addison's soundtrack to The Seven-Per-Cent-Solution, the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra recording of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Miklos Rozsa's soundtrack to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, and Patrick Gowers' music from the Granada Television Sherlock Holmes series.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Finally, after a certain massive online retailer completely messed up my pre-order, Blackwell's delivered.

My hand holding a copy of For the Dead Remember: The Life of M.R. James by Darryl Jones.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I suspect it would have been received differently if it had a different title. Expectations, as you say. I haven't revisited it in years, and certain aspects of it will make it a tough watch whenever I do.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I now have the song 'Single Bed' in my head.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Special delivery today. Author copies of the new, expanded editions. Hot off the presses... yet surprisingly chilling at the same time.

Hardback and paperback editions of Sherlock Holmes: The Impossible Cases, By No Mortal Hand, and They That Dwell in Dark Places by Daniel McGachey.

Spines of a stack of hardback and paperback editions of Sherlock Holmes: The Impossible Cases, They That Dwell in Dark Places, and By No Mortal Hand, by Daniel McGachey.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

With a bit of luck, it might be an extra treat for Christmas, alongside... well, that would be telling...

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Disappointingly, my Hallowe'en offering for this year is written but delayed due to circumstances beyond all control. I do have one next month, but not a horror one, so there will be a late Hallowe'en for the delayed issue. But horror isn't just for Hallowe'en, and other things are lurking still.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

One of these decades I'd like to get the collected works of Dr Grace reissued. Between them, the good Drs Grace, Lawrence, and Watson seem determined to keep me occupied in events far distant from these troubled times, so I welcome the distraction.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Sherlock Holmes: The Impossible Cases, now in an expanded edition containing a previously unpublished Afterword by Dr Watson. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HJFV4C4Z

Cover of Sherlock Holmes: The Impossible Cases by Daniel McGachey, now available in paperback, hardback, and on Kindle. Cover shows the silhouette of Holmes looking through a magnifying glass at a bloodstained Baker Street on a Victorian map.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Crown, available in hardback directly from Weird House Press, and in paperback and Kindle, here: www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Hol...

Cover of Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Crown by Daniel McGachey, available in hardback from Weird House Press, also available in paperback and on Kindle. Cover shows a veiled skull with a spider crawling from its eye socket, while an elaborate gold crown with rubies and diamonds sits atop the skull.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate a hidden world of deadly curses and shadowy seances, bizarre legends, dazzling treasures, and loathsome creatures in these two volumes: The Devil's Crown and The Impossible Cases.

Cover images of two books by Daniel McGachey. Sherlock Holmes: The Impossible Cases, available in hardback, paperback and on Kindle via Amazon, and whose cover shows a silhouette of Holmes looking through a magnifying glass at a bloodstained Baker Street on a Victorian map, and Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Crown, available in hardback from Weird House Press, also available in paperback and on Kindle. Cover shows a veiled skull with a spider crawling from its eye socket, while an elaborate gold crown with rubies and diamonds sits atop the skull.
Under the heading Sherlock Holmes versus Supernatural Horror, there are two review quotes. '...they are every inch Doyle's characters... Atmospheric, intriguing, suspenseful...' by Michael Galley, author of Dracula, Frankenstein and Friends, and ‘...deserves praise for honouring Holmes and respecting Watson’s writing.’ by Sheila Merritt in Hellnotes.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Much appreciated. I only hope that likeness of Dr Grace's tome is less prone to... shall we say 'activity', than the book itself. I had the devil's own job getting it to stay still long enough to scan the cover, and I still have to check the locks on the rare books cabinet as soon as night falls.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I bought that Halloween Party edition purely for Tom Adams' cover. The Hooded Gunman by John Curran is a huge illustrated tome showing the changing faces of crime fiction published by Collins over the decades. Some truly fantastic covers in there, particularly if you like your book covers retro.

Front cover of The Hooded Gunman: An Illustrated History of Collins Crime Club by John Curran. Cover shows a montage of classic crime fiction covers from across the decades.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Should be the B side to the vocal version of And Soon the Darkness... www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEOj...

youtube.com

James Royal And Soon The Darkness 1970

YouTube video by TheBudgie29

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Unexpected musical discovery: the vocal version of the theme to the Sherlock Holmes film 'A Study in Terror', that rather inappropriately turns a piece of music about the Ripper murders into a love ballad. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjuk...

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A Study In Terror Kathy Keegan

YouTube video by EdFonzo

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

As is customary on the day that marks both the great Freddie Jones's birth and the great Jeremy Brett's far too young death, I shall observe both occasions with a viewing of 'Wisteria Lodge' from Granada's 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes'.

Jeremy Brett as an amused Sherlock Holmes, and Freddie Jones as Inspector Baynes, who is taking a sweet from a paper bag, in a still from Wisteria Lodge.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

No idea how significant - if at all - these rankings are without context, but it's nice to see that after their first day out my two ghost story collections are in the Top 30 for Horror Collections & Anthologies, and The Impossible Cases is currently Number 1 in Sherlock Holmes Mysteries.

Amazon Best Seller rankings showing By No Mortal Hand at number 28 and They That Dwell in Dark Places at 29 in the Horror Collections & Anthologies category.

Amazon Best Sellers rankings showing Sherlock Holmes: The Impossible Cases at number 1 in the category of Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, with The Hound of the Baskervilles at 2 and The Sign of the Four at 3.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Feedback from readers and Amazon reviews, whether high praise or honest criticism, will be much appreciated, of course.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Meanwhile my Sherlock Holmes novel, The Devil’s Crown—a tale of adventure, intrigue, and terror on the trail of a cursed treasure—is still available in hardback from Weird House Press, and in paperback and Kindle, here: www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Hol...

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Sherlock Holmes ventures into the utterly irrational realms of the uncanny in these accounts. Unearthly creatures, seances in the smoke, long-buried horrors, and even an encounter with The King in Yellow await. This edition contains an unseen Afterword by Dr Watson. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HJFV4C4Z

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

More stories of scholars, scribes, and spectres, with antiquarian ghost hunter Dr Lawrence, sequels to M.R. James’s ghost stories, and tales by James’s ‘forgotten’ contemporary, Dr H.S. Grace. This release features a ‘newly discovered’ H.S. Grace ghost story. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HJFQ63KS

Cover of the new, expanded edition of By No Mortal Hand by Daniel McGachey, now available in paperback, hardback, and on Kindle. Cover shows a blue hand curled up like a spider in the centre of a web. The image is headed More Tales of Scholars, Scribes & Spectres, and features the review quotes, ‘…surely no fan of Jamesian fiction will want to be without By No Mortal Hand’, by Rosemary Pardoe in GHOSTS & SCHOLARS. ‘…an enviable imagination… some very interesting variations on the antiquarian ghost story,’ by David Longhorn in the SUPERNATURAL TALES BLOG, and ‘…sophisticated engagement with the tradition of the Jamesian ghost story,’ by Andy Sawyer in GHOSTS & SCHOLARS.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Ghost stories, and stories where the telling of ghost stories is the common theme. Newly expanded with two rarely seen stories and a new prelude. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HJFWK9Y5

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'm pleased to announce that today sees the reissue of my three supernatural story collections in newly revised and expanded editions, in hardback, paperback, and on Kindle. Jamesian tales of antiquarian dread, and Holmesian adventures in the shadowy realms of the uncanny await.

Cover images for three books by Daniel McGachey under the heading Scholars, Scribes, Spectres & Sleuths. The books are They That Dwell in Dark Places, whose cover shows a ghostly hand reaching out through red curtains, By No Mortal Hand, which shows a curled hand nestling like a spider in a web, and Sherlock Holmes: The Impossible Cases, whose cover shows a silhouette of Holmes looking through a magnifying glass at a bloodstained Baker Street on a Victorian map. All three books are now available in paperback, hardback, and on Kindle.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

RIP June Wyndham Davies. A great career, and with not only Granada's incredible Sherlock Holmes, but also Shades of Darkness and Cribb to her name, a tremendous legacy.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Amazon waited till the due delivery date to email and say they were experiencing delays in delivering 'For the Dead Remember': 'Now Arriving Tuesday, 29 September 2026 - Friday, 30 October 2026'. So thank goodness for Blackwell's instead.

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Robert Lloyd Parry @nunkie.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Starting from early October and running til Christmas, there's a tour of several solo M R James shows (comprising 17 stories if you catch 'em all) throughout the UK, and online. Details and ticket links here www.nunkie.co.uk I hope you can make it to something...

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Crown is also available in paperback and for Kindle... www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Hol...

amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Weird House Press are having a 72 hour flash sale with 25% off all books, including the M.R. James collection I compiled for their Weird House Classics range, and my Sherlock Holmes novel, The Devil's Crown Use the code FLASH. weirdhousepress.com/search?q=mcg...

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

This time last week I was writing something Sherlock Holmes related for one medium. This week I'm writing something Sherlock Holmes related for another medium. And this time next week, I expect to be writing something Sherlock Holmes related for a third medium.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

They also figured it was safe to fill some unexpected gaps with pop videos, though clearly hadn't remembered that the video for 'Walk Like an Egyptian' includes a clip of Charles and Diana with an animated arm attached.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It's a joyous series, for me, as it taps into so many things I love with clever mysteries and well realised characters and intriguing settings.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Two-thirds of my way through series two of 'Bookish', and it has an audaciousness to it - as well as a depth of heart and humanity - that puts me in mind of 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes', and given my love for that film, there's no higher compliment I could give.

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The Blu-ray has what exists of the deleted scenes (some only in sound, others in vision without audio, but all fascinating), and interviews. I also bought the French Blu-ray as it has a documentary on Wilder made as the film was being shot. This is now on YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zkM...

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Billy Wilder (1970) making of "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes"

YouTube video by oscary 1

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Daniel McGachey @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I consider myself very lucky to have seen Tim during the opening months of the West End run. Such energy, style, comic timing, and charisma. A devastating loss.

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