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Miscellaneous Events
This is a record of some notable Society events before
2009 which do not actually fall
under the Meetings or
Trips categories, such as our Annual Dinners and other social events.
For past
meetings and trips before 2009 use the dedicated Archive links on the left. For
a record of more recent 2009 and 2010 past events use the dedicated
sections under the Events link on the left.
The Bram Stoker Birthday Dinner
Saturday 8th November 2008
Our annual Society Dinner was held at The George in the Strand to
celebrate Bram Stoker's 161st birthday.
After the meal, we came to our annual awards. Robert Lloyd Parry, the
winner of the Hamilton Deane Award for his first one-man show as M.
R. James, Oh Whistle..., was unavailable due to his commitments
performing his second, also critically acclaimed, one-man show of M. R.
James's spine-chilling stories, A Pleasing Terror.
(The award was presented in person to Robert Lloyd Parry a few weeks
later, after we attended one of his performances.)
The winner of the Children of the Night Award was F. G. Cottam,
for his debut novel The House of Lost Souls. He revealed that he
had never won anything before except swimming trophies, and was therefore
especially pleased to at last receive an award for his writing work!
The traditional after-Dinner quiz was centred around the many film and
stage productions featuring Count Dracula. Perhaps due to the company having
had a little too much wine and food by then, the eventual winner won with only
three correct answers!
The 2007 Christmas Social
Wednesday 12th December 2007
In November we put our hair up for the Bram Stoker
Birthday Dinner, but in December it all comes tumbling down for the ever
popular Christmas Social. Many members and guests
gathered for an evening of festive fun at The Victoria in Paddington.
Santa's Sack and the raffle provided opportunities for the redistribution of
Gothic memorabilia, and the caption competition once again produced a very
mixed bag of wit, erudition and smut - a good time was had by all.
The Christmas raffle prizes this time included items of our
Society merchandise, such as
Society T-shirts and DVDs.
The event helped to raise funds for the Society, which will go towards improving facilities at our
events, and help with the promotion of future trips and our merchandise.
The Bram Stoker Birthday Dinner
Saturday 10th November 2007
Our annual night of
celebration, a formal evening of dinner, drinks and fine company, was this
year enhanced by two special guests. Carol Marsh, who played Lucy in the 1958
film version of Dracula was in attendance, reunited with the little
girl in the film who nearly fell victim to her blood lust, Tania, as played by
Janina Faye.
The weekend marked 50 years since the classic Hammer Horror first began
production, and we were fortunate to have both these actors in attendance.
Also in attendance was our Children
of the Night Award winner, John L. Probert, who after receiving
his award for
The Faculty of Terror, gave a hugely entertaining and enthusiastic
acceptance speech. The Hamilton Deane
Award winner, Guillermo del Toro, was unable to be with us in
person to accept his award for Pan's Labyrinth, but the award was
accepted on his behalf by our good Society friend, writer Alan Jones, who
later delivered the award to Guillermo, pictured with the award.
The evening was held at "The Lounge Bar" in Holborn, London, a short walk from
the tube station. This is our second year at this venue, which proved to be a
great success once again. Our private upstairs bar showed clips
from our special Society 30th anniversary DVD, and also from the 1958 Hammer
Dracula. The downstairs atmospheric restaurant had candlelit
tables, moody music, our portrait of Bram Stoker on the wall, and our famous
cloak, as worn by Christopher Lee in those classic Hammer films, on display.
Library Evening
Dracula
Readings
Friday 26th October 2007
Following up on our 'Back to the Book' question and answer
panel evening, a group of Society members met at our usual Library Evening
venue, the "Library" room at the Victoria pub in Paddington.
This time it was to enjoy members' readings from "The Book".
An enjoyable evening as always. Events such as this serve to remind us of our
literary roots.
Sunday Lunch at "Le Gothique" Restaurant
Sunday July 8th 2007
This Gothic pile, formerly an asylum for the
physically, rather than mentally ill, was the location in South London for an
addition to our calendar of events. Lunch was taken in the courtyard by a
large number of members who had gathered to imbibe the Victorian atmosphere
and splendour of this marvellous building. An excellent lunch was served on
this rare hot summers day.
Library Evening
A Winter's Tale
Thursday 25th January 2007
Thirteen DS members and guests gathered around the fireplace in The Victoria’s wonderful library on Burns’ Night to read or simply listen to seasonal ghostly tales. We had a most pleasing evening with a variety of spine-chilling stories that turned the blood to ice.
These were:
A Long Way From Elsinore
by Sue Gedge The Snow Came Softly Down
by Brian J. Showers
The Pond
by Nigel Kneale
The Judge’s House
by Bram Stoker
The Drifting Snow
by August Derleth
Christmas Gathering
13th December 2006 The lovely lounge bar of The Victoria near Lancaster Gate once again provided the private venue for the ever-popular Christmas party, which has become one of the Society's most loved events over the years.
A very good turnout enabled friends to swap cards and presents, take their
chances with the Society's raffle, and pit their wits in the fiendish and
always competitive caption competition.
The Bram Stoker Birthday Dinner
Saturday November 11th 2006 The Lounge Bar in Holborn provided the setting for the Dracula Society's Annual Dinner and very good it was too - excellent food, suitable lighting, a welcome drink at the door, friendly and attentive staff, and a lovely bar upstairs with a DVD screening showing footage of the Society's trip to Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland in 2001.
Our guests included
Children of the Night Award winner Sarah Singleton
who received her award for Century and
Hamilton Deane Award winner Lesley Sharp
who received her award for
Afterlife.
Library Evening
18th July 2006 On Tuesday July 18th, members of The Dracula Society met at the Victoria Pub, Lancaster Gate, where, to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of the great nineteenth-century engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, we read ghost stories with a railway connection. These included a real-life haunting, an extract from The Ghost Downstairs by Leon Garfield, two stories by Walter de la Mare, and, of course, The Signalman by Charles Dickens. Our President, Bernard Davies, reminisced on when Arnold Ridley, author of the play The Ghost Train, was a guest of the Society. As a very small child, Ridley had attended an event where Henry Irving was present, and could remember seeing both the great actor and Bram Stoker.
Christmas Party
15th December 2005 Our annual Christmas party was held at The Victoria on Thursday 15th Dec and featured all the usual fun of 'Santa's sack' and the caption competition. Once again, a highly enjoyable occasion for everyone. As one of our members commented, the Dracula Society's Christmas fest is her favourite party of the season!
Library Evening
Wilkie
Collins
Saturday
9th January 2005 On a dark January evening, over a dozen Society members met in the cosy and atmospheric surroundings of the upstairs "library" room at the Victoria public house in Paddington. We were treated to readings from the Gothic works of Wilkie Collins, read by several of those present, on the anniversary of his birth.
The Dracula Society Convention
This was one of our most ambitious events ever, mounted to
celebrate the Society's 30th birthday!
The event, held at Halloween 2003, was a huge success.
See all the details here.
Library Evening
A "Bring & Buy" Gothic Story Evening
24th August 2003
Despite its title, this was not to be taken too literally! Basically, we decided to have an evening where members brought along their favourite book and "sold" it to the gathered membership, persuade folks to go out and search out the title for themselves.
The library is a small venue, so the fourteen who turned up amply filled the room. Many people brought along books and read from their favourite tale.
Library Evening
Vampires at the "Victoria"
4th August 2002
A welcome return to
The Library, a wonderful fake library/room above The "Victoria" pub in Paddington, to gather and read vampiric tales to each other. Some just came to listen. But we had a record number of people. The room is very small, the temptation would be to look for bigger premises, but the atmosphere of the room is so unique it would be a shame to leave, so we just cram in as best we can.
It was amazing how many people brought their own stories, which was so impressive, and the quality was very good. So good we hope to have the stories in our programme for the convention next year (see elsewhere on the site for details of the convention).
This
was just a drop in evening with a small door entrance fee to pay for the rental of the room.
Elizabeth Miller at the
"Bram
Stoker Tavern"
Saturday 18th May 2002
This was another of our "extra" evenings, organised to present Dr. Miller
with her award which she was unable to receive the previous year at our Bram Stoker Birthday Dinner. Elizabeth had just returned from Romania (presenting at the Annual Dracula Congress) and on her way back to Canada was stopping by between flights. All a bit busy for her, but members had a great chance to meet Elizabeth. She also conducted some interviews with members herself to establish what attracted us to the Dracula Society.
She signed copies of her book
Dracula - Sense and Nonsense, for which she won our Children of the Night
award, and the evening was completed by dinner at a good local Polish restaurant.
Elizabeth is one of the foremost authorities on the subject of vampire folklore and Gothic history.
Library Evening
Ghost Stories at the "Victoria"
9th March 2002
The first of our evenings at
The Library above The Victoria pub in Paddington for 2002. Having done this event last year, which was a great success, we felt we would try this event again, and once again, members came to tell their tales of dread! For the first time we had new contributions from members, which was very impressive.
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