Statement — Bishop Seán Manchester

          Statement — Bishop Seán Manchester

Statement issued on 13 December 2013 by Bishop Seán Manchester regarding his status altering from public figure to private person:.

“I find today's world, particularly the cyber-world, all too frenetic and reactive. This jars with my own desire for creative contemplation instead of the tumult I see around me which being a public figure only serves to exacerbate. This reflective approach to everyday existence is at odds with being under public scrutiny, somewhere I have found myself for the past forty-four years. What most brought me to public attention were the television and radio programmes I regularly appeared on and also the books and documentary films associated with topics which hold the public imagination in thrall. It is for that reason I have not submitted a book for publication since the beginning of the 21st century. Likewise, I scaled back my broadcasts in the media to a point where I no longer make them. I ceased giving interviews to the print media decades ago and only then in quality magazines. Moreover, it will soon be three years since I declared I am no longer prepared to provide interviews on matters relating to Highgate. What there was to say has been said many times over. I found myself answering the same questions over and over again; questions which invariably are already answered in my published accounts. One of the problems, I quickly came to realise many years ago, is that interviewers, regardless of the subject, simply do not know the right questions and the questions are every bit as important as the answers. Another problem in the new century has been one of trust. Seldom have I encountered an interviewer in recent years who keeps his or her word. Consequently, any condition I might have set for providing a contribution was frequently and almost immediately compromised. Without trust and a sense of honour there is nothing. I cannot interact in that way and would rather stay silent than witness yet another agreement broken. I am still having to regularly turn down television and radio interview requests, along with a plethora of other invitations to partake in projects that would maintain a perception of me remaining a public figure, which, I accept, is exactly what I have been for most of my life. What made me so, however, is very much in the past. The memoir I began to write a decade ago will probably never see the light of day. This is for the best if I wish my privacy to be respected. The concomitants of being a public figure have slowly eroded over the last thirteen years to a point where I stand at the threshhold of finally achieving meaningful privacy. Hence, I have now stepped over that threshhold and become a private individual. This will not affect my episcopal duties, sacerdotal ministry, art and music etc, but involvement in secular preoccupations and the expression of views on same in the public hemisphere is now at an end.”   † Seán Manchester

Official Statement — Isaac Ben Jacob

Official Statement sent on 15 April 2012 by Isaac Ben Jacob and his wife to Bishop Seán Manchester regarding David Robert Donovan Farrant and the person calling herself "Della Farrant":.

"Me and my wife have discovered with a lot of surprise the existence of several blogs where we are notably being associated with David Farrant and his wife or girlfriend (I don't know if she is his wife or his girlfriend), whereas we have absolutely no contact with him, and we absolutely do not share his ideas.
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"I wish to underline that my wife met David Farrant once or twice during meetings, and that it was David Farrant who started to talk to her, whereas she didn't know anything about him or his past. We recently found out that the reason why David Farrant initially made contact with my wife was in order to manipulate us, and to make you believe she was Della. If you look closely at the pictures of Della [posted in blogs], you will notice that the Della shown on the photos is always hiding her face, and that she always takes a posture which does not allow anyone to determine exactly how tall she is.
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"I have attended a meeting myself three months ago, and I have seen Della and David Farrant together at this occasion. And when I tried to take a picture of them, Della immediately threw herself at me and my wife in order to force us to delete the photo from our camera.
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"We do not have any relation or contact with Della and David Farrant, and we don't want to be associated with these two persons in any way, shape or form, because they have a sulfurous past, they have a reputation of being Satanists, and they are acquainted with people like Jean-Paul Bourre, whom I don't want to hear about.
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"I know you have done research about me, and consequently you know I am an earnest academic researcher who uses scientific methods. Therefore you also know that I reject and condemn all magical practices, heretical deviancies, and obviously people, such as David Farrant, who have practised Satanism.
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"I think that you and I have been manipulated in this case, and that you could help us reestablish the truth."
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Source:
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http://therightreverendseanmanchester.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/official-statement-from-isaac-ben-jacob.html

Coming Soon: The Vampire In Europe

A new edition of Montague Summers' The Vampire in Europe will be published later in 2012.

This will be a special edition with freshly contributed additional material. Watch this space ...

Shadows In The Nave

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Shadows In The Nave: A Guide to the Haunted Churches of England 

[Paperback]

Paul Adams, Eddie Brazil & Peter Underwood (Authors)

Publisher: The History Press (2011)

Co-written by Bishop Seán Manchester's friend and colleague of many years, Peter Underwood, this haunted history of England's churches and chapels is brought vividly to life in this comprehensive and beautifully illustrated modern guide. Here you will encounter the world of the unseen linked with a thousand years of worship — including the Tudor phantom of Rycote, the lonely monk of Minsden Chapel and the sinister ghosts of Clophill, to name but a few. From the authors of The Borley Rectory Companion comes this eerie book, which covers seventy-five of the most notorious and lesser known of our haunted ecclesiastical buildings. Combining a wealth of historical and paranormal information with stunning original and atmospheric photographs, this volume is perfect for researchers and armchair ghost hunters alike. Paranormal historian Paul Adams and writer and photographer Eddie Brazil join Peter Underwood, the UK's most experienced ghost hunter and author of fifty books on the supernatural, in another literary partnership that will chill all but the sturdiest of hearts. 

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Out Of The Shadows

The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows

[Paperback]

Bob McCabe (Author)

Publisher: Omnibus Press: Re-issue edition (1999)

Bob McCabe is a movie buff who has written books about the work of Seán Connery and Terry Gilliam. He has also produced a rough guide to the comedy film genre. The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows, however, concerns itself with something much darker: the three films made about demonic possession in The Exorcist trilogy, but principally the first and by far the best of the three movies.

The 1973 horror film The Exorcist is probably one of the most effective ever made about demonic possession. Movie patrons and critics alike praise the film which is still considered to be one of the scariest ever made. The film is based on a William Peter Blatty novel, but the novel found its inspirations from a source based in reality, the exorcism of Robbie Mannheim.

Released around the time of The Exorcist's cinema re-release in the UK in 1998, preceding its long-awaited release on home video formats, it's an excellent overview of the making and release of this classic about the possession of a young girl. McCabe also includes small sections on the sequels, including Exorcist II: The Heretic, which is definitely very bizarre, and, of course, The Exorcist III.

Bob McCabe's The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows is an entertaining book about an interesting set of films.

In The Shadow Of The Vampire

In the Shadow of the Vampire:
Reflections from the World of Anne Rice

[Paperback]

Bob McCabe (Author)

Publisher: Thunder Mouth Press: Re-issue edition (1997)

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Award-winning documentary photographer Jana Marcus has always been drawn to the fringe. One of her earlier collections was entitled Midnight in Manhattan: A Decade of Subcultures and the Alternative Scene. Staying with that theme,  In the Shadow of the Vampire assembles portraits of and interviews with the devotees and acolytes of Anne Rice. And who are these people? Office administrators, translators, shop owners, students, and the more flamboyant (blood drinking vampiroids, assorted perverts, role-players etc).
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"Her books allow people to think about their place in society and identify their feelings through her characters' exploration of unconventional lifestyles," she opines. "It is extraordinary how many people I've spoken to who had never read a book before they read an Anne Rice novel." It might come as a culture shock to think of Anne Rice as an inadvertent champion of literacy! As may be expected, the reflections are a mixture of the banal and the more provocative. The phenomenon of Anne Rice's celebrity is, after all, phenomenal. The enormity of her appeal has given birth to the annual Gathering of The Coven Ball in New Orleans, cinema films, an Anne Rice tour company, a perfume line, a Lestat wine, and T-shirts emblasoned with an MRI of Rice's brain. If all that leaves the reader colder than sleeping alone in a coffin, then Goth-types and vampiroids might want to pick up a copy for tips on wardrobe and make-up.  

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Its easy to have preconceptions about this book, obsessed individuals and excessive make up immediately spring to mind. But this book is not like that. In fact this book is very touching. The people who have contributed in interviews and photographic portraits within this book represent a fair cross section of society. Their stories are told with feeling and honesty. Most write in some way about the way Anne Rice's books have reflected or have helped in some way with their lives. Many feel parallels with the loneliness or isolation of her vampire characters, but the message is not depressing for many more seem to have found a sense of belonging or uplift from the Anne Rice books. This book presents a range of characters to the reader with glimpses into each of their lives and finishes with a pictorial overview of the Memnoch Ball, New Orleans, annually held by Anne Rice.

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This book also gives a partial glance into the world of Anne Rice fans. However, it may affirm or disprove the notion that her fans are all weirdos. The book features college students, accountants, writers, exotic dancers, make-up artists etc. While it features intriguing people from all walks of life, it is probably not an entirely accurate view of her fans. The book perpetuates a certain fan stereotype, as though reading Anne Rice makes you estranged from the rest of society.  
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It has been noted by others that Anne Rice is mainstream. Admitting you are a fan is not a taboo like declaring you are a dominatrix. There are fans who never made it to the infamous Balls when they were still in progress; there are fans who have no interest in exploring New Orleans outside of the books; and there are fans who detest Goth subculture, but still devour every single book Anne Rice releases. It would have been a far more representative book had it featured a larger diversity of fans.
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However, the book is still wonderfully constructed. The photographs are nothing short of superb, the fan accounts fascinating to read, and one really does walk away feeling that maybe those stereotypes are wrong.
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"Photojournalist Marcus compiles the thoughts and moody, moony photos of a hundred attendees at Rice's annual Gathering of the Coven Ball. For every partygoer who enthuses about blood-drinking rituals, ten more thoughtfully grapple with Rice's work, persona, and commercialism (they're not thrilled with her Lestat-themed restaurant). This passionate subculture comes, if not quite alive, then certainly undead on the page." — Entertainment Weekly

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Klinger's Annotated Dracula

The New Annotated Dracula 

[Hardback]


Bram Stoker (Author) - Leslie S Klinger (Editor)

Publisher: W W Norton & Co (2008)

Travelling through two hundred years of popular culture and myth as well as graveyards and the wilds of Transylvania, Leslie S Klinger illuminates aspects of Bram Stoker's gothic novel, including an examination of the original typescript with its shockingly different ending. He investigates the many subtexts - from the masochistic, necrophilic, homoerotic and dentophilic implications of the story to its political, economic, feminist, psychological and historical threads. Employing his literary detective skills, Klinger mines this 1897 masterpiece for nuggets that will surprise even the most die-hard Dracula student and enthusiast.

The New Annotated Dracula is a feature-packed presentation of Bram Stoker's original 1897 novel, presented in its unabridged version, together with 1500 notes, maps, illustrations, points of history and trivia, excerpts from Stoker's edited additional material. In brief, everything the Dracula acionado could want in a volume, including additional chapters on Stoker's life, information on TV and Film versions of the story etc.

The editor has applied his brand of detective work to the Victorian novel about vampires that has no equal, and his edition is an extension of Stoker's attempt to give a work of fiction authenticity by telling it in the form of letters, diaries and such like. Examining their often faulty chronology has given commentators much entertainment. The notes are quite informative. For example, the hair-raising arrival of the Russian ship Demeter in Whitby harbour with the dead Captain lashed to the wheel was based on a real-life (but less unpleasant) incident from 1885. Bram Stoker, who made little money from his vampire novel, would have been surprised, but surely pleased, if he could have known what an impact it has had on our culture.

The illustrations, though interesting in themselves, however, are very poorly reproduced. This is a hefty tome, and the notes are informative for any scholar of Victorian literature. Less impressive are the essays on vampire films and subsequent literature which are little more than Klinger's personal taste and biased opinion. 

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The editor's conceit of taking the text as a factual narrative is at first amusing, but for some will be found ultimately unsatisifying. Leonard Wolf's 1975 edition is vastly superior in this regard, and somehow has an impact and atmospheric effect which Klinger's more recent effort does not achieve.

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Bram Stoker deserves to be taken more seriously as a writer in the Anglo-Irish tradition and a more precise approach to this great cultural influence is deserved. Klinger's edition will still appeal to many collectors.

Wolf's Annotated Dracula



The Annotated Dracula 

[Hardback]


Bram Stoker (Author) - Leonard Wolf (Editor)

Publisher: Crown (1975)

Leonard Wolf has been described as the world's most revered Dracula scholar. A native of Transylvania who left "the land beyond the forest" as a child, Wolf has taught and written about Bram Stoker's gothic masterpiece for decades. In 1975, he published The Annotated Dracula, which remains to this day the most elaborately annotated edition of the novel and has been the version found in  Bishop Seán Manchester's extensive private library since its publication.

The Annotated Dracula is a large book whose many illustrations and interesting notes are a pleasure to peruse. The text of Bram Stoker's Dracula is taken from the second printing of the first edition, with typos in tact. The annotations include over one hundred illustrations, drawings and monochrome photographs. Fifteen full-page drawings by the artist Sätty (Wilfried Podreich) are also featured. These are captivating expressionist interpretations of scenes from Dracula. All the illustrations are black and white.

Sadly, The Annotated Dracula has been out of print for some considerable time. Its latest incarnation is The Essential Dracula, a handsome softcover edition released in 2004. The Essential Dracula retains and, in some cases, augments the footnotes found in The Annotated Dracula, but dispenses with most of its illustrations, all of the Sätty drawings, and the Appendixes. For those who simply want the information contained in the notes, The Essential Dracula will suffice; though the notes border on microscopic and can be difficult to read. The Annotated Dracula, with its maps, charts, and abundant illustrations, is a far more elaborate edition.

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Leonard Wolf was born in Vulcan, Transylvania. There are two villages named "Vulcan" in Transylvania. They are known in German as Wolkendorf bei Kronstadt (Vulcan near Braşov) and Wolkendorf bei Schäßburg (Vulcan near Sighişoara). Which, we must ponder, does Wolf hail from? Wolf is best known for his authoritative works on horror genre literature and film. He was the editor of The Essential Frankenstein and The Essential Dracula and technical advisor on the early 1990s films Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Wolf is also a much-published writer of poetry, fiction, social history, and biography, and a leading translator of literature. His writing in the horror genre has twice been honoured with the Anne Radcliffe Award for Literature. His most recent book as an editor is The World According to Itzik: Selected Prose and Poetry, a compilation of the works of folk writer Itzik Manger. Leonard Wolf lives in New York City.

A native of Transylvania who left "the land beyond the forest" as a child, Wolf has taught and written about Bram Stoker's immortal novel for decades. 

The Annotated Dracula is a large book whose many illustrations and fascinating notes are a sheer pleasure to peruse. In his introduction, the author takes the reader on a tour of the traditions and circumstances from which Dracula eventually emerged at the hand of Bram Stoker. He discusses Gothic Romance literature, the vampire literature that preceded Dracula, Eastern European vampire folklore, Vlad Tepes (the 15th century Wallachian Prince from whom Count Dracula takes his name), and, finally, the life of the novel's enigmatic author, Bram Stoker. Annotations in the form of margin notes are found on most pages of the novel. Wolf has included explanations for every imaginable allusion in the text, as well as interesting personal comments. The reader receives quite a history lesson just reading the notes. Some of the most intriguing notes include: recipes for the Romanian dishes on which Jonathan Harker dines, population demographics for Transylvania in the late 19th century, translations of old Mr Swales' dialect, explanations of Victorian figures of speech, and the particulars of Victorian typewriters that Mina employs so frequently. Reading straight through the abundant notes might prove a too much for the average reader because reading them while following the novel can prove distracting. They are nevertheless ideal for afcionados, enthusiasts and students concentrating on one chapter or passage at a time and ceratinly add to the enjoyment of the novel when absorbed in moderate doses.

The Appendixes contain maps of Transylvania, Europe, England and Wales, Whitby, London, and the Zoological Gardens in London, with places from the novel marked. A calendar of incidents charts the events of the novel from May to November 1887 (the year Dracula takes place) in coherent form. Students and aficionados may appreciate "Dracula Onstage," a chart of Count Dracula's appearances in the novel, with page numbers. There is a Selected Filmography that includes notable Dracula films, 1922-1974, including films featuring the Count Dracula character, not necessarily based on Stoker's novel. British, American, and foreign-language editions of Dracula from 1897 to 1973 are also listed. There is an Index for the novel that is helpful but not comprehensive. The marvelously sinister etchings by Satty (of Ramparts and the Berkeley Barb), this reprints Brain Stoker's deathless (undead?) story with copious annotations and informative illustrations make this an absolutely essential collector's item. Trivia such as what a yew branch looks like, or a trephining apparatus, or to know the Orient Express connections to Bulgaria before 1894, along with all the rest of the weird and wonderful additions, serve to make Leonard Wolf's The Annotated Dracula the best edition in existence.

A Vampire Tale

Carmel: A Vampire Tale  

[Paperback]

 Seán Manchester (Author)

Publisher: Gothic Press (2000)

"We are transported into that fearful realm of supernatural evil peculiar to vampires as the author skillfully restores those near-extinct elements from yestercentury. At the centre is a story painfully real. It is the story of the holder of the name of the book’s title. Is she an actual person? Or merely a novelistic embellishment? Just as the case of the Highgate Vampire inspired much of this sequel to Stoker's Victorian vampire tale, so the person of book title's name inspired the persona of the main character. Based on some real events, the effect of CARMEL as a vampire tale will chill your blood. Here is a terrifying exploration into the nether world of the undead where the reader is found wandering betwixt Victorian tombstones as the original contagion spreads its venom in 20th century England. Do not fret - Transylvania is not forgotten." — Katrina Garforth-Bles (National Secretary, V.R.S.)

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“Seán Manchester is the natural writer of any attempt to resume the story of DRACULA.” — Vincent Hillyer (author of Vampires)

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“There is but one person who can write the definitive sequel to Stoker’s original masterpiece . . . one person who will imbue it with the same eerie atmosphere and remain true to the tradition . . . that author is Seán Manchester.” — Devendra P Varma (author of The Gothic Flame)

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“This vampire tale is a most enchanting read. Seán Manchester’s style, imagination and sensibility makes CARMEL quite a jewel. Stoker has, at last, a literary heir worthy of writing a sequel.” — Sylvaine Charlet (authoress of Lits de Pierres)

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“I felt I had to say how much I enjoyed CARMEL - easily the best vampire novel I have read since the original DRACULA. Absolutely enthralling. Tremendous atmosphere and a mounting tension that in my experience has only been equalled by Bram Stoker’s masterpiece. Congratulations! Congratulations!” — Peter Underwood (author of Exorcism! and The Vampire's Bedside Companion)

From Demons To Dracula

From Demons To Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth 

[Paperback]


Matthew Beresford (Author)

Publisher: Reaktion Books Ltd (2008)

From Demons To Dracula  is structured around a number of key periods and important events that have driven the evolution of the vampire legend throughout history. Matthew Beresford considers the importance of real-life sightings and genuine belief, historical figures, literary and cinematic portrayals, and contemporary sub-cultures, all of which have had some influence on the emergence of the instantly recognisable contemporary vampire, and the conventions we associate with it, like living in darkness, drinking blood, and aversion to religious items, particularly Christian symbols.

This exploration begins with the antiquity’s obsession with death rituals that include excarnation (the de-fleshing of the body), mummification, the building of cairns, placing coins on the eyes or in the mouth, and communal burial chambers. These practices, being closely linked with spiritual beliefs in existence after death, opened the way for the superstition that an improper or incomplete ritual may lead to a person becoming un-dead or a vampire. Beresford goes on discuss the vampire throughout the Middle Ages, focusing on the link between the vampire and the Devil since the evolution of Christianity as the dominant European religion. At this time, according to Beresford, conceptions of vampirism were closely related to issues of morality, and in repressing and undermining pagan and occult practices. Here then, the vampire becomes a symbol of evil and a heretical scapegoat of Christianity, linked to Judas Iscariot and his betrayal of Christ and immoral behaviour including aberrant sexual activities. This can be seen in the common belief that living an evil life or being excommunicated by the Church could lead to an exceedingly wicke person becoming a vampire.

The chronicle goes on to explore the emergence of the vampire in literature and cinema, and accounts for the most famous and impacting works in relation to our continuing enthralment of the vampire legend. Dracula, of course, is given significant attention, as is Vlad Tepes, the historical figure on whom Bram Stoker apparently based his demonic Count. Beresford is rigorous in showing a chronology of fictional development, looking at early poetry such as Dante’s Inferno and Beowulf, the first fictional depictions such as James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney the Vampire, then moving on to Stoker’s Dracula, and Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Cinematic portrayals are also duly considered. Beresford's emphasis that cinema has played a key, if not the key role in the development of our modern conception of vampires, is central to his approach. He explores this cinematic evolution through Murnau’s Nosferatu, Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee’s portrayals of Dracula, through to The Lost Boys and the Blade franchise. Through these examples, Beresford illustrates how the vampire legend has been transformed over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, reflecting social and cultural conditions that allowed the vampire to evolve from a grotesque Victorian monster, as is the case in Nosferatu, to a beautiful, erotic and tragic being in Interview with a Vampire, to an action figure in Underworld.

While Beresford suggests that our modern day conception of the vampire has dissipated any real belief or fear of vampires as real threats, he goes on to explore contemporary examples of vampiristic activity such as sanguinarians who actively drink blood — though usually from a willing donor — and instances of genuine modern vampire fears as in the case of the Highgate Vampire. He asks whether it is "coincidence that both the Rev'd Montague Summers, who wrote two important works on the vampire in the 1920s, and the priest Seán Manchester, the self-proclaimed exorcist of the Highgate Vampire, the only modern case of a vampire scare in England, are or were devout believers in the vampire?" What he does not ask is why these two Catholics became "devout believers in the vampire," and whether this had anything to do with them each being personally confronted by such supernatural manifestations of demonic evil? Later he refers to Bishop Seán Manchester's and other people's assertion that "both Eastern and Western churches accepted the existence of vampires ... supported by the fifteenth century book Malleus Maleficarum" where vampirism is considered to be "one of the worst manifestations of the Devil."

An entire chapter is devoted to the bare bones of the Highgate Vampire case which is largely gleaned from Seán Manchester's bestselling account from which a quoted extract appropriately heads Beresford's offering. There is also some mention of interloping bandwagoneers, including "a gang of youths" arrested two days after "the Wessex Association for the Study of Unexplained Phenomena announced they would hold a vigil at the tomb of a suspected vampire" in September 1978 — four years after the vampire had been successfully exorcised! — and, unsurprisingly, David Farrant in whom Matthew Beresford constantly discovered "further contradictions in his story," that he "was arrested and jailed for five years in 1974 for tomb vandalism" and "the fact that Manchester was never in trouble with the police, even though according to his accounts it was he who performed exorcisms, gained entry to graves and tombs on several occasions and ultimately destroyed the vampire," concluding "it is therefore difficult not to take Manchester's side in the proceedings." 

The Browning Version

The Vampire: His Kith & Kin | A Critical Edition 

[Paperback]


Montague Summers (Author) - John Edgar Browning (Editor)

Publisher: Apocryphile Press (2011)

In all the dark pages of the supernatural there is no more terrible tradition than that of the Vampire, a pariah even among demons. Foul are his ravages; gruesome and seemingly barbaric are the ancient and approved methods by which folk rid themselves of this hideous pest. The tradition is world-wide and of the greatest antiquity. How did it arise? How did it spread? Does it indeed contain some vestige of truth, some memory of savage practice, some trace of cannibalism or worse? These and similar problems inevitably suggested by a consideration of Vampirism in its various aspects are fully discussed in this work which may not unfairly claim to be the first serious and fully documented study of a subject that in its details is of absorbing interest, although the circumstances are of necessity macabre and ghastly in the highest degree. Included in this critical edition are the authoritative text, rare contextual and source materials, correspondence, illustrations, as well as Greek and Latin translations. A biographical note and chronology are also included. The latest edition of Montague Summers' very first literary foray into the world of the undead (published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner in 1928)  is edited by John Edgar Browning with an Introduction from Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Vampires Among Us, 1991; The Complete Vampire Companion, 1994; The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters, 2004/2011; Vampires, 2008), and an Afterword by Carol A Senf (The Vampire in Nineteenth Century English Literature, 1988). A Foreword is offered by J Gordon Melton (The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, 1994/1999/2011).

John Edgar Browning (born 14 October 1980 in Nashville, USA) is a PhD. student and Arthur A Schomburg Fellow in the American Studies Department at The State University of New York at Buffalo. He has contracted and co-written eight books, including Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms: Essays on Gender, Race, and Culture (Scarecrow, 2009); Dracula in Visual Media: Film, Television, Comic Book and Electronic Game Appearances, 1921–2010 (McFarland, 2010), The Vampire, His Kith and Kin: A Critical Edition (Apocryphile Press, 2011), and Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology (Palgrave Macmillan, contracted and forthcoming); chapters for Asian Gothic: Essays on Literature, Film, and Anime (McFarland, 2008), The Encyclopedia of the Vampire (Greenwood, 2010), Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore and Religion in the PC and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series (SmartPop, 2011), and Schooling Ghouls: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Pedagogy of Horror (accepted and forthcoming); plus articles for various journals, including Film & History, Horror Studies, Studies in the Fantastic, and Dead Reckonings: A Review Magazine for the Horror Field. Additionally, he has spent nearly two years conducting an ethnographic study of persons living in New Orleans who self-identify as vampire, a project that has become the focal point of his doctoral dissertation.
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"Although published too late to help Professor Van Helsing defeat Dracula, every modern vampire-hunter needs Summers's seminal compendium of folklore and mythology. Browning's critical edition, with commentary by leading vampirologists and rich biographical material, is a treasure-trove for students and scholars alike!"   — Leslie S Klinger, editor, The New Annotated Dracula

"Summers's extensive albeit curious research on vampires has long been a classic in the field, and it's exciting to see it being rescued from oblivion, as well as framed by such a renowned yet diverse group of scholars."    — Katherine Ramsland, The Science of Vampires

"This new edition cannot be recommended too highly to anyone with the faintest interest in Montague Summers or the origin of vampires."   — Nigel Suckling, Book of the Vampire

Exorcism! 

[Hardback]


Peter Underwood (Author)

Publisher: Robert Hale (1990)

Exorcism!  is an investigation of the truths and myths behind an age-old ceremony. Throughout history, the practice of exorcism has been used for the purpose of driving out evil spirits and demons thought to possess human beings and the places they inhabit. But there are more startling instances where exorcism has been used: to cure a trawler that seemed to be cursed; to expel demons from Bram Stoker's black "vampire" dog; even to rid Loch Ness and the Bermuda Trinagle of their evil ambience. Peter Underwood explores this frightening ritual in relation to witches, vampires and animals, while his far-flung researches have unearthed dramatic cases in Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and the United States, as well as the British Isles where chapter six returns to the familiar case of the Highgate Vampire. Peter Underwood explains on page 139:

"When I was researching The Vampire's Bedside Companion in 1974, Seán Manchester, president of the British Occult Society [dissolved two year's prior to the publication of Exorcism!] and something of an expert on present-day vampires was kind enough to contribute a chapter and I will paraphrase his remarkable story of the Highgate Vampire [up to and including the failed exorcism attempt in the summer of 1970]." 

The book contains a striking full-page photograph of Seán Manchester wearing a Transylvanian fur hat and accompanying Eastern European attire suitable for a cold winter's night with an array of crucifixes spread out before him.

The photograph on the dust jacket (see above) shows an exorcism in Grimsby in 1981.

Peter Underwood had been president of the Ghost Club (latterly known as the Ghost Club Society) since 1960 and has probably heard more first-hand ghost stories than any man alive. Long-standing member of the Society for Psychical Research, the British Occult Society (1860-1988) and Vampire Research Society, he had lectured, written and broadcast extensively. He took part in the first official investigation into a haunting and was present at numerous exorcisms. Peter Underwood (born 1923) sadly died in the winter of 2014.

Exorcism! offers some thought-provoking insights into a mysterious and powerful phenomenon, and the book's nine chapters covering this topic make for some fascinating reading.

Infernal World Of The Undead

 The Highgate Vampire: The Infernal World of the Undead Unearthed at London's Highgate Cemetery and Environs  

[Hardback]

 Seán Manchester (Author)

Publisher: Gothic Press (1991)

This is the definitive account of the UK’s best documented contemporary vampire case written by the man who led the only investigation into the spectral hauntings, nightly visitations, demonic disturbances and blood-lettings at Highgate Cemetery and environs. Spectres rising from tombs, ghostly manifestations in moonlit lanes, nocturnal attacks on people and animals, corpses drained of blood — almost everyone has heard tales of the Highgate Vampire. Only this book offers the full and unexpurgated account written by the man who was at the epicentre of the official investigation into these mysterious and terrifying happenings. Illustrated with case file photographs from the author's own archive plus line drawings inspired by the recorded history, this revised and handsomely updated edition in hardback has already become a collectors' item. Copies are signed by the author. This enlarged edition stands as the last word on the case by the man who investigated it from start to finish.

“Ever since I became aware that Highgate Cemetery was the reputed haunt of a vampire, the investigations and activities of Seán Manchester commanded my attention. I became convinced that, more than anyone else, he knew the full story of the Highgate Vampire.” — Peter Underwood, ghost hunter & author, The Ghost Club Society, London, England

“I am very impressed by the body of scholarship you have created. Seán Manchester is undoubtedly the father of modern vampirological research.” — John Godl, paranormal researcher and writer, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

“Seán Manchester is to be congratulated on this fine piece of research work which I confess to enjoying to the extreme.” — Professor Devendra P Varma, vampirologist & author, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

“Seán Manchester is the most celebrated vampirologist of the twentieth century.” — Shaun Marin, reviewer and sub-editor, Encounters magazine, England

“A most interesting and useful addition to the literature of the subject.” — Reverend Basil Youdell, Literary Editor of Orthodox News, Christ the Saviour, Woolwich, England

“This book will certainly be read in a hundred years time, two hundred years time, three hundred years time — in short, for as long as mankind is interested in the supernatural. It has the most genuine power to grip. Once you have started to read it, it is virtually impossible to put it down.” — Lyndall Mack, Udolpho magazine, Chislehurst, England

Elizabeth and Barbara, two sixteen-year-old students of La Sainte Union Convent, were walking home late at night after visiting friends in Highgate Village in early 1967. Their journey took them down Swains Lane which intersects Highgate Cemetery, a Victorian graveyard in two halves on a steep hill. These intelligent students could not believe their eyes as they passed the cemetery's north gate at the beginning of their downward path between the two graveyards. For there before them, amongst the jutting tombstones and stone vaults, the dead seemed to be emerging from their graves. The two schoolgirls walked in eerie silence until they reached the bottom of the lane. Here they spoke for the first time, having finally found their voice, and confirmed they had both experienced the same terrifying scene. So frightening was their experience that Barbara would not talk about it again. Elizabeth, however, gave the author her account some months later. It was tape-recorded and can be heard in a television film documentary about the Highgate Vampire case. Elizabeth recounted: "We both saw this scene of graves directly in front of us. And the graves were opening up; and the people were rising. We were not conscious of walking down the lane. We were only conscious of this graveyard scene." Demonry later took hold on Elizabeth where her elocuted and very attractive feminine voice would suddenly erupt into a distorted masculine sound, deep and harsh, that issued threats. Her boyfriend, Keith, recalled this phenomenon in an interview he gave for a documentary (True Horror: Vampires distributed by Discovery Channel) which DVD also includes archive recordings of Elizabeth speaking about her vision and the punctures on her neck.

The revised and updated edition was preceded by the first edition in 1985, which was published in paperback by the British Occult Society. Rare new copies can be obtained from Amazon. Its front and rear covers appear below:
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Amazing World of Vampires

The Vampire's Bedside Companion: The Amazing World of Vampires in Fact and Fiction   

[Hardback]


Peter Underwood (Author & Editor)

Publisher: Leslie Frewin Books (1975)

The Vampire's Bedside Companion is a riveting compendium of new facts and fiction on the undying' theme of vampirism.

Here is a new theory on the genesis of Dracula (surely literature's most compelling and macabre figure?); thoughts on allusions to vampirism in Wuthering Heights; first-hand experience of vampires in Highgate and Hampstead, London, by Seán Manchester who renders the first account of the Highgate Vampire in print up to and including his attempted exorcism in the summer of 1970; publication for the first time of the story of a fifteenth-century vampire protection medallion that Montague Summers presented to the author; an account by Professor Devendra P Varma, Dalhousie University, of a visit to Transylvania  — The Vampire's Bedside Companion contains these and a wealth of other hitherto unpublished material on a subject that is of enduring interest: the vampire legend.

To many people, vampires are creatures only of legend and fantasy with no reality outside the pages of books. Others, who have studied the folklore of many countries and the continuing reports of vampirism, maintain that there is extensive evidence not only that vampires once existed but that, in fact, they still do exist. In this fascinating book the author, himself an acknowledged expert on these occult matters, presents true accounts of vampire infestation in England, America, Ireland, Hungary, China and France. Records of vampires and vampirism are, he claims, as old as the world and as recent as yesterday.

Four new, exciting and authentic vampire fictional stories by Peter Allan, Crispin Derby, Richard Howard and James Turner complete this compelling companion for dark nights, solitude and howling winds!

Illustrated with many striking photographs, The Vampire's Bedside Companion also con­tains original and evocative drawings by Geoffrey Bourne-Taylor.

In the following year, Coronet published a paperback edition. Its front cover appears below:

Vampirological Guide

 

The Vampire Hunter's Handbook: A Concise Vampirological Guide   

[Paperback]

Seán Manchester (Author)

Publisher: Gothic Press (1997)

"This book is not about fictional vampires of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula genre, but real life blood sucking monsters. It should also be pointed out that there is a long tradition of people who hunt down and kill vampires. This book is not for the faint-hearted, or those people who live alone in rambling houses located on deserted moors." — Shaun Marin (Encounters magazine)

"Seán Manchester is, unsurprisingly, very well read in both classical and more recent sources on vampires and vampirism, and cites them with great authority while taking the reader through a brief tour of vampire lore and mythology. This is a book I’d recommend to anybody with an interest in the author or vampires. The parts which deal with vampires are obviously based on years of substantial research and personal experience." — Joe McNally (Fortean Times magazine)

The vampire has been defined down the ages as an accursed body which cannot rest in the kindly earth, but nightly leaves its grave to prey on sleeping men and women through whom they are believed to maintain a semblance of life by sucking thence the warm blood of such victims while they sleep. Sir James Frazer in the second volume of his work The Fear of the Dead in Primitive Religions (1934) is in no doubt that vampires are “malicious ghosts who issue from their graves to suck the blood of the living, and stringent measures are deemed necessary to hinder or arrest this horrible proceeding.”

They are, of course, demonic. In certain circumstances (though these are few and far between) those who expire from the parasitic undead's visitations and quaffing of their life-blood will themselves be at risk of becoming undead in their turn. This does not occur where the person is in a state of grace; where any mortal sin that stains their soul has been absolved. And by no means are the great majority of victims destined to return as undead. It would seem that those who become undead in this way are fewer than might be imagined. This nevertheless remains an enigma where probable candidates are those who have led a life of more than ordinary immorality and unbridled wickedness; where the individual has possessed a surfeit of selfish passions, evil ambitions and cruelty. Such undead, however, are thought to be those who have delighted in blood and devoted themselves during their life to the practice of diabolism and the black arts. Thus an undead is more likely to result from exceedingly base and cruel actions; especially where devil worship and devotion to the black arts has occurred.

The supernatural agency is demonic and, whilst human beings cannot actually transform into demons themselves, they may be possessed by them, and thus appear transformed. In the case of contamination followed by expiry of a candidate there exists the possibility that their malevolence sets in action forces which might prove powerful for terror and destruction even beyond the grave. It is hardly to be supposed that such persons would rest undisturbed while it is less difficult to contemplate the existence of this hideous life in death where the demonic is extant and seemingly manifests itself as a corporeal form. The smallest drop of blood can be employed by a demonic entity, enabling the wraith to form in a tangible manner. Such revenants are attracted to blood which allows them to effect their purpose. The ancient Israelites would not eat the blood of any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood. The Hebrew word that translates as “life” in Deuteronomy 12: 23 (“Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life”) also signifies “soul.”

The undead partakes of the dark nature and mysterious qualities of both revenant and demon. The exorcist must always be mindful of these alarming characteristics - not least the undead's terrible blood lust — and must never go unprotected when putting himself at risk during operative field work. Manifestation via the blood is the undead’s means of metamorphosis into a form often indistiguishable from a corpse. Since the undead do not exist in time — they dwell in what is described as "anti-time" - they will cast no shadow, nor will their reflection be seen in a mirror or water’s surface. The crucifix symbol itself is utterly abhorred by them, and indeed all forms of evil. The object and what it is made of does not possess any power, yet it is so strongly symbolic of the triumph of good over evil that it alone repels evil and whatever is an emissary of evil. However, when employed by a person the intent and faith of the person employing it is paramount. This might seem like a paradox. Christian items and holy places utterly repel evil people who oftentimes delight in their sacrilege. Likewise supernatural evil shuns these holy items.

It is indubitably unwise for these sacred symbols to be adopted as mere fashion accesories. Similarly, of course, it is unwise in the extreme for diabolical symbols to be adopted and worn. So the power of the crucifix exists, but will be magnified one thousandfold when supported by faith. Exorcism does not "kill" the demonic agent. It rids our sphere or dimension of the supernatural predatory wraith. The corporeal host once exorcised obviously returns to its true state and is no longer plagued by the apparent supernatural ability to manifest as though it were living.

“Whether we are justified in supposing that cases of vampirism are less frequent today than in past centuries, I am far from certain. But one thing is plain — not that they do not occur, but that they are carefully hushed up and stifled.” — Montague Summers (The Vampire in Europe, 1929).

BBC's "24 Hours" - 15 October 1970

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WBBwNa4CA
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Seán Manchester - Cimitero di Highgate (Storia di un Vampiro)

www.youtube.com

An alarmingly abridged version of BBC television's 24 Hours programme has been uploaded onto YouTube by David Farrant. It reveals the bandwagoneer contradicting virtually everything he nowadays claims about his arrest at Highgate Cemetery while he was prowling amongst the tombs on the night of 17 August 1970 and exposes him as a revisionist at best and a liar at worst. His addiction to publicity makes anything which includes him to be suitable for dissemination, even when it exposes his contradictory claims. The bulk of the original programme focussed, of course, on Bishop Seán Manchester's investigation into the mysterious case of the Highgate Vampire at its inception. Mr Farrant obviously does not want anyone seeing this material and has therefore deleted all the footage where Bishop Seán Manchester features and also all reference to the British Occult Society, an organisation to which Mr Farrant owed no connection whatsoever despite his fraudulent claim to the contrary in the years that followed. Some of the material showing Bishop Seán Manchester deleted by Mr Farrant appears above in the Italian language version of a Discovery Channel programme's inclusion of the original 1970 television footage. Mr Farrant's highly selective version of the programme appears below.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VcUq-ohXVY

David Farrant - BBC "24 Hours" Oct 1970 (expurgated)

www.youtube.com
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Post Script

“I have spent most of my life studying accounts of vampirism, and have indeed visited Highgate Cemetery on numerous occasions. How it has changed over the years! I am interested in research into any accounts of actual vampirism, from the writings of Dom Augustine Calmet through to modern day accounts. I have a copy of The Highgate Vampire [by Seán Manchester] which I found very interesting. I remember the events at the time they happened and the various newspaper reports. It was then that I first came across the name ‘David Farrant.’ I met him once in a pub near Highgate and found him to be a compulsive liar and there was something shifty about his mannerism. I have since warned many people to stay clear of him.” — Andy Pryce, Paranormal Researcher, (19 February 2001)

"Mr P J Bucknell, prosecuting, said Mr Farant had painted circles on the ground, lit with candles, and had told reporters and possibly the police of what he was doing. 'This appears to be a sordid attempt to obtain publicity,' he said." — Hampstead & Highgate Express, 24 November 1972

“But for the results of his actions, this scruffy little witch could be laughed at. But no one can laugh at a man who admits slitting the throat of a live cat before launching a blood-smeared orgy. Or at a man who has helped reduce at least two women to frightened misery.” —  Sue Kentish, News of the World, 23 September 1973

“The wife of self-styled occult priest David Farrant told yesterday of giggles in the graveyard when the pubs had closed. ‘We would go in, frighten ourselves to death and come out again,’ she told an Old Bailey jury. Attractive Mary Farrant — she is separated from her husband and lives in Southampton — said they had often gone to London’s Highgate Cemetery with friends ‘for a bit of a laugh.’ But they never caused any damage. ‘It was just a silly sort of thing that you do after the pubs shut,’ she said. Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult. She had been called as a defence witness by her 28-year-old husband. They have not lived together for three years.” — The Sun, 21 June 1974

“All he talked about was his witchcraft. He was very vain.” — Julia Batsford (ex-girlfriend quoted in the Daily Mail) 26 June 1974

“I cannot believe for one moment that he is a serious student of the occult. In fact I believe him to be evil and entirely to be deplored.” — Dennis Wheatley, Daily Express, 26 June 1974

“I think he’s crazy.” — Canon John Pearce Higgins, Daily Express, 26 June 1974
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“The jury were shown folders of pictures of naked girls and corpses, and told about a black-clothed altar in Farrant's flat with a large drawing of a vampire's face. When questioned, Farrant said: 'A corpse was needed to talk to spirits of another world'.” — George Hunter & Richard Wright, Daily Express, 26 June 1974

“The judge [Michael Argyle QC] said any interference with a corpse during black magic rituals could properly be regarded as a ‘great scandal and a disgrace to religion, decency and morality’.”  — The Sun, 26 June 1974

“Judge Michael Argyle QC passed sentence after reading medical and mental reports. He said that Farrant — self-styled High Priest of the British Occult Society [sic] — had acted ‘quite regardless of the feelings of ordinary people,’ by messing about at Highgate Cemetery.” — Hornsey Journal, 19 July 1974

“The programme [for the Fortean Times Convention 1996] came up with ‘His investigations had far reaching and disturbing consequences’ which I said meant he’d been arrested a lot. Strangely enough, this is more or less what he said. God, I felt old being the only member of [my] group who could remember this nutter being arrested every few weeks.” — Maureen Speller (April 1996)

"Our enemies should not be the people of this world, but rather the spirits of evil that have entered this world. He is a lost soul who has very likely attracted something spiritually malevolent early in his life which has ever since influenced him and darkened his thoughts. I first met him four decades ago when he contacted his local newspaper after making vague claims about an apparition he had sighted. It soon became clear he was more interested in the limelight than anything genuinely paranormal. He also developed a fascination with me which quickly turned into an obsession — by which time he had taken to emulating me to no small degree. When I distanced myself a few months later, he turned unpleasant and court cases ensued. This was followed by his fraudulent adoption of my title and the name of the research society I then presided over. Things began to spiral downwards at an alarming rate as he turned to what ostensibly appeared to be diabolism, but in truth was just further attention-seeking for the sake of the media. I prefer to deny this man the oxygen of publicity where I am concerned and advise others to do the same. Those who feel enraged by his behaviour should remember he is still one of God's creatures, and if possible they should pray for him. Pray for his state of mind and endangered soul. Otherwise, please just ignore him." — Bishop Seán Manchester (November 2009)