Shock! Horror!

Who do you think of when you hear about books of horror? Stephen King? Mary Shelley? Bram Stoker? What about Horace Walpole?

Born today, 24th September in 1717, Horace was nothing like his Dad, Sir Robert. Robert Walpole was the first and longest-serving Prime Minister and probably the most corrupt. He had even moved a whole village in Norfolk as it spoilt the view from his grandiose home, Houghton Hall. Horace wanted nothing to do with him and moved to Strawberry Hill in Twickenham, where he rebuilt the house into which he had moved. Not only was his house in the Gothic style, which he helped to develop but it was there that he wrote his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto.

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Described as “a fearsome supernatural tale” and published in 1764, the story begins on the wedding day of Conrad who is crushed to death by a giant helmet, moments before the service is due to begin. Nice eh?

Don’t have nightmares....