Past Society Events in 2025

 

Click here for information about future events planned for the rest of this year and beyond.

 

Click here to see a timeline of the major Society events since our foundation in 1973!

 

The Christmas Party!

Tuesday 16th December 2025

 

Once again we met at the beautiful central London public house The Princess Louise.

The event was very well attended, and as always included our traditional caption competition, and our 'Santa's Sack' lucky dip, where genre-themed artefacts were swapped amongst the members!

 

The 50th Annual Bram Stoker Birthday Dinner

Saturday 8th November 2025

 

On Bram Stoker's 178th birthday, the Society gathered to mark its 50th Bram Stoker Birthday Dinner. The first such Dinner was held on the same date in 1975, and apart from in 2020 when no Dinner took place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been held in one form or another every year since.

 

Actress Claire Louise Amias received our Hamilton Deane Award for the stage show Haunted Shadows: the Gothic Tales of Edith Nesbit.

 

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Claire Louise Amias

 

Our special guest for the evening was actress Rosalyn Landor, whose work includes the 1968 Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, in which she played the part of Peggy Eaton.

 

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Rosalyn Landor

 

A special commemorative menu card, based on the one for the very first Bram Stoker Birthday Dinner in 1975, was given to all attendees, and our usual fiendish genre quiz was similarly based. A record-breaking attendance of over 60 members and guests made it an occasion to be remembered!

 

Readings Evening

Tuesday 28th October 2025

Hallowe'en Hauntings

 

An evening of spooky readings by members to mark the Hallowe'en season.
Fifteen members attended at the Green Man pub in Fitzrovia, and those present were regaled with readings of prose and poetry suitable for the occasion, many of which were original works by their readers.

 

Autumn Meeting

Saturday 4th October 2025

Lighting and Colour in Dracula: the Influence of Irving and the Lyceum Stage

A talk by Dr. Catherine Wynne

 

Bram Stoker's use of light and colour in Dracula is often overlooked. His descriptions of the constantly changing shadows from the moon and clouds for instance, are evocative and striking. This undoubtedly came from his association with the theatre, where Henry Irving at the Lyceum experimented with new lighting techniques, many of which are still used today. Stoker was present for many of these lighting tests, and his memories of them were undoubtedly very much in his mind when writing his descriptions of, for instance, the night scenes on the Whitby cliff-top and in the churchyard where Lucy's tomb stood.

Catherine's talk brought this all very much to life.

 

Summer Outing

Saturday 19th July 2025

An afternoon day out, following the trail of Hamilton Deane in Ealing and Gunnersbury, West London.

Led by our Society archivist Adrian Autton.

 

Fourteen members and guests were treated to a fascinating tour around sites connected with Hamilton Deane, and his actress wife Dora Mary Patrick. Fortunately the weather was fine when it mattered, after what had been a very wet start to the day! The sites visited included Ealing Studios, the couple's grave in South Ealing Cemetery, their former home, and the chapel where they were married.

 

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The group at the grave of Hamilton Deane and Dora Mary Patrick

 

Summer Meeting

Saturday 21st June 2025

The Gothic Genius of Mervyn Peake

A talk by Sue Gedge

 

Our very own Sue Gedge gave us an illustrated talk on the life and work of Mervyn Peake, whose Gormenghast novels were adapted by the BBC for television in 2000. They did not treat them as a Gothic work. Sue begged to differ!

 

Styrian Castles and Vampires

A six day Society trip to Hungary and Austria

Tuesday 10th June - Sunday 15th June 2025

 

A group of 24 Society members and guests explored the historical region of Styria, which is now in Hungary and Austria, on the trail of Vlad Tepeş connections, and more castles once owned by the so-called 'Blood Countess' Elizabeth Bathory. A wonderful trip, with fantastic weather. This included staying in Graz, the home city of the mysterious Countess Dolingen, of Dracula's Guest fame!

 

Spring Meeting and AGM

Saturday 26th April 2025

Mansion of Gloom

A talk on the influence of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, by Antony Clayton.

 

After the Society AGM business was done, this fascinating illustrated talk took us through the history of the many film productions of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, and the many other productions based on it. There have been around twenty film and television adaptations, and Roderick Usher has been played by actors as celebrated as Martin Landau, Denholm Elliott, Oliver Reed and, of course, Vincent Price. Musically, it has inspired an opera by Philip Glass, an unfinished opera by Debussy, and concept albums by The Alan Parsons Project, Peter Hammill, and Lou Reed.

 

March Literary Meeting

Saturday 8th March 2025

First Bite:

The earliest stage performances of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

An illustrated talk by Dr. Ann Featherstone.

 

Anne took us through the history of Count Dracula's first appearances on the stage, starting with Hamilton Deane's adaptation which premièred in Derby in May 1924.

After moving to London, it was later embellished for American audiences in 1927 by playwright and screenwriter John Balderston. On the New York stage, the title role was taken by the then relatively unknown Bela Lugosi. This version was what became the 1931 Universal Films classic, and the rest is history!

 

New Year Meeting

Saturday 25th January 2025

Film Evening

 

For our usual New Year film screening, this year we chose The Ghoul, starring Peter Cushing, along with a great supporting cast, including Veronica Carlson, and a young John Hurt.

 

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Although not a Hammer film, it is very much in that tradition, and in keeping with our tradition for recent screenings, the film had been released exactly 50 years ago!

 

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