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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 12/09/2026

⁣ A face carved into stone, a third exit on a roundabout that has two, salt laid around a village boundary. New Maps of the Lost newsletter out in the fields, the woods and the edges. Plus news on the book, Ooser's back, and a rabbit hole of synchronicity & high strangeness.⁣ ⁣ tinyurl.com/494f74kb.

mapsofthelost.substack.com

Maps of the Lost 36

from the village in the circle

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 26/07/2026

A shadow that doesn't move, and the neighbour who talks to it. A woman in a red car who keeps passing on the motorway. An archive that records births and deaths that never happened. And a door that opens not into darkness, or space, but…nothing. mapsofthelost.substack.com/p/maps-of-the-lost-35

mapsofthelost.substack.com

Maps of the Lost 35

from the passenger seat

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 21/06/2026

A crow that leaves gifts, and what happens when you take them. A VHS tape of a street you almost recognise, with someone in it who looks like you. A bus making a stop it shouldn't. A man in a Christmas crowd tearing at the air, and then gone. Maps of the Lost 34 is out now.

mapsofthelost.substack.com

Maps of the Lost 34

from a fragment of a scrawl on a whiteboard

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Johnny Mains @johnnymains.co.uk · 23/05/2026

'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Tailor for You, My Lad'

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 04/05/2026

If you're in a particular launderette in Cardiff, watch for the machine at the far end, next to the vending machine that spits out black tar in flimsy plastic cups. No matter whose wash is, if you watch it go round you may see a small, hand-knitted child's mitten, navy blue. (🧵1/2)

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 03/05/2026

If you walk on the Isle of Sheppey, you may see an elderly woman, crying softly. She is holding a small copper tin in her hands. If you ask her what is wrong, she will look at you sadly, hold out the tin, and start to lift the lid for you to look inside. It’s best you don’t. You may fall in.

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 26/04/2026

A department store counter with something waiting behind it. A Holborn lift that knows about a floor that doesn't exist. A coach on the Pennines on the wrong night. Pan, the numinous, and some unsettling fiction recs. This month's Maps of the Lost newsletter is out now.

mapsofthelost.substack.com

Maps of the Lost 33

...from under the counter

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 28/03/2026

Delighted to have this new short collection from James Everington drop through the door. If you don’t know James’ work I can’t recommend it highly enough. Out today from Black Shuck Press.

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 25/03/2026

A toy owl in a charity shop that, of course, is not what it seems. A motorway corridor where geometry bends. A lost phone that changes everything. This month's Maps of the Lost newsletter: stories, the fiction of not-knowing, and the gaps between what's seen and what can be understood.

mapsofthelost.substack.com

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from inside the not-knowing

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 03/03/2026

Terrific time at the UK Ghost Story Festival this weekend. Three days of panels, workshops and performances, lots of inspiration and met some lovely people. favourite quote from any of the panels was maybe Will MacLean talking about the need to begin ‘reweirding your house’.

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John Reppion @johnreppion.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Myself and @gavcross.bsky.social have been blown away by the response to our first Haunted Book Club episode on The Signalman. Thanks so much to everyone who joined us live and who has watched or listened since. Please check it out on whatever podcast app you use, and please help spread the word.

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 21/02/2026

(text version in the alt text, or: substack.com/@mapsofthelo...)

NOTHING

It’s that strange hour when it’s not quite dusk but the day is fading away, and the blue of the fine autumn day has shaded from sky blue into something darker. You’ve been for a meeting somewhere in a part of town you don’t know that well, and decided to walk home as the air is crisp and you like to find new streets, quirky architecture, fading adverts from a hundred years ago just visible on a gable end like a ghost, the neon lines of modern graffiti.

You turn a corner down a side street because the big road you were on looks like it curves off in the wrong direction, and you know you need to head towards where the sun is setting. This thought pleases you, as if you are some kind of great explorer who can navigate by moss and the flight of geese.

The street you’re now on is a row of mews houses, the occasional car parked up on the pavement, an atmosphere of calm satisfaction and newly painted front doors.

There’s only one person on the street other than you. A little further down, a man has stopped in the middle of the road, and is waving his hands up towards the sky. You slow a little, think about turning. You don’t want to be judgmental, but you’ve had some bad experiences. He is smartly dressed, a dark mac over what looks like a blue suit, but all the same, you slow.

He gestures with his hands again, and a perfect circle is removed from the sky, as if a hole has been cut in it. The deepening blue is gone, and the blackness within the circle is darker than the dark of night, darker than anything that you have seen or will see again.

You stop, and maybe you cry out or maybe you scuff your shoe or maybe he just knows, and the man looks over his shoulder in alarm, sees you there, and quickly waves a hand again and the sky is back, uninterrupted blue. He hurries off, you stand there a little while until an Uber Eats moped swings round the corner on a short cut and nearly runs you over.

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 21/02/2026

Newsletter out now. An underpass that doesn’t behave, something learning how to be human a word at a time, an odd tune leaking through you into the world, strange labyrinths, thoughts on ghost stories and why it's best to never see the monsters. mapsofthelost.substack.com/p/maps-of-th...

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 01/02/2026

Tonight’s watch. No, never blow a whi- oh. Too late. Decent adaptation of Elizabeth Jane Howard‘s excellent “Three Miles Up”.

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 31/01/2026

Reading and watching over the last week, and up next for this weekend, The Turn Of The Screw/The Innocents, The Haunting Of Hill House/The Haunting. Up next for tomorrow, The Uninvited. Got to say though, Henry James, end a sentence once in a while, PLEASE. Shirley Jackson’s prose though 😘

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Alex Davis @alexdavis1981.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Not long to go now - the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE starts on Friday 6th Feb, with three days of talks, interviews, workshops and more! www.ticketsource.co.uk/ukghoststory... #ghost #ghosts #ghoststories #ghoststory #writing #writers #authors #darkfiction #supernaturalfiction

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Julie Phillips @julie-phillips.com · 22/01/2026

When I wrote this a year ago I had no idea how bad things would get. Today, eight years after she left us, I'm trying to follow Ursula's advice: write and worry. Write and act. Worry and keep writing. lithub.com/the-way-of-w...

lithub.com

The Way of Water: On the Quiet Power of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Activism

In the past two months, I’ve found myself thinking back to an essay Ursula K. Le Guin posted on her blog in November 2016. It was one of her last long essays, and she wrote it at a time when she—li…

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Alex Davis @alexdavis1981.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Three weeks to go until we present a packed line-up of ghost story goodness, all happening online so you can join us from the comfort of your own home! And some line-up we have incoming too... www.ticketsource.co.uk/ukghoststory... #onlineevent #onlineevents #onlinefestival #onlinefestivals

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 24/01/2026

A footpath best left alone, directions to places that don’t exist, gifts from birds who know too much, a man with far too many names, books that aren’t ghosts but haunt you anyway, a ghost story festival, and why you never want to meet Ash Francis. mapsofthelost.substack.com/p/maps-of-th...

mapsofthelost.substack.com

Maps of the Lost 30

...from the path to the deep dark woods

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Alex Davis @alexdavis1981.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Spooky season will be going into overtime in 2026, with the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE running from the weekend of 6th-8th February! Let us bring the hauntings to you for the weekend... www.ticketsource.co.uk/ukghoststory... #ghosts #ghoststory #ghoststories #hauntings #gothic #gothicfiction

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Pete Glastonbury @peteglastonbury.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Avebury Cove stones from a frosty tree. #StandingStoneSunday

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Hidden Britain @hiddenbritain.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

'SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES' CLOCK Huge thanks for all of yesterday's orders for our new 'Schools and Colleges' clock. Last few available in the shop for shipping in February. hiddenbritain.bigcartel.com/product/scho...

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Captain Pooky @captainpooky.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Timeline Cleanse: Please enjoy this photo of a praying mantis that was sitting on top of my car windshield, but the angling and lighting were so weird it looks like a giant praying mantis wandering a corn field in Iowa.

What appears to be a giant praying mantis wandering a corn field is actually a normal sized praying mantis that's actually sitting on my windshield

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 02/01/2026

Excavations at the Roman fort at Reculver found a number of skeletons of babies within the foundations and the walls. Local legend has it that the fort is haunted by the sounds of a crying baby. If you visit on the right night, you might hear it. (🧵1/2)

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 23/12/2025

The last Maps of the Lost newsletter of the year is out. Clouds showing you the way, evil on the 8:14, the edge of the map in a cul-de-sac, two great podcasts, getting more lost than lost can be, avoidance of the Christmas Bone Man and more. mapsofthelost.substack.com/p/maps-of-th...

mapsofthelost.substack.com

Maps of the Lost 29

from a quiet suburban cul-de-sac

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Maps of the Lost @mapsofthelost.com · 07/11/2025

Pay attention if wandering around Richmond. You might see a woman, in her early thirties. She wears a raincoat no matter what the weather, and has a frizz of blonde hair as if it has been raised by static. (🧵1/2)

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