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Meetings before 2007
For details of our more recent past meetings, from the current year and
from last year, use the relevant links under the Events link on the
left.
Christmas Gathering December 13, 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 Annual Birthday Dinner November 11, 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 for Century and
Hamilton Deane Award winner Lesley Sharp for
Afterlife.
Bela Lugosi Film Evening August 12, 2006 A splendid buffet supper and film evening in central London was enjoyed by over 20 members, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passing of the actor Bela Lugosi. His life and films were discussed, ranging from his early days in his native Hungary through to his final years in Hollywood. Particular analysis was made of his Universal films and his time in the UK. We then had a screening of one of Lugosi's classic films from the 1930s - Murders in the Rue Morgue - followed by a toast to the memory of the most enigmatic and mysterious Dracula ever to grace the silver screen.
Stephen Volk Evening October 7, 2006 Stephen Volk, screenwriter of supernatural dramas such as
Gothic, The Guardian, Ghostwatch, Ghosts, and Afterlife, gave an interview about his career at a well-attended meeting in the cellar bar of the Cittee of Yorke pub in London's Holborn. He also read a short story called
The Latin Master from his horror anthology Dark Corners.
Literary Evening July 18, 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.
Summer Meeting: Tales on the Heath June 2006 Our summer meeting this year was a picnic on Hampstead Heath, followed by a talk on London legends by our resident folk-lore expert , Dr Jacqueline Simpson, co-author of The Lore of the Land (Penguin £30) . We sat under the trees, sipped our wine and listened to the stirring legends of Spring Heeled Jack, Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper and the Highgate Vampire, amongst others. Another lovely Dracula Society event.
An Evening with Christopher Neame April 8, 2006 Christopher Neame entertained and informed us with recollections of his experiences at Hammer in the 1960s and 1970s, where he eventually rose to the position of Production Manager. A capacity crowd asked many questions and gained an insight into what it was like working with 'legends' such as Christopher Lee, Terence Fisher and Bette Davis.
Film Evening February 4, 2006 This year, the February meeting centred around a screening of the Amicus classic
From Beyond the Grave, plus some delightful 'extras' including a short on a subject dear to the Society's heart, touring Romania. A successful, enjoyable evening, with the buffet at the Barley Mow was well up to the usual, excellent standard.
Christmas Party December 15, 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!
AGM & Auction Saturday April 9, 2005 A new meeting venue, the Devereaux pub in Holborn, proved to be excellent surroundings for our Annual General Meeting, and a Grand Auction of Society Archive artefacts, and items brought by members. A very profitable night was had by all, and many went home with new treasures, while others had the satisfaction of seeing duplicate or unwanted items in their collections going to new good homes.
Film Evening - The Mummy (1959) Saturday February 5, 2005
This year's annual film screening was the much loved Hammer version of The Mummy starring, of course, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Committee member Adrian Winchester presented the film "on the big screen" from an excellent 16mm print. The Barley Mow pub provided its usual excellent supper for us.
Library Evening - Wilkie Collins Saturday January 9, 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.
Summer Meeting
Travelling with the Dracula Society 19th June 2004 Our Summer meeting, held again at the Spaniard's Inn on Hampstead Heath, London.
Once again we took over Turpin's Bar, and had a guest speaker, author Marcus
Sedgwick. Amongst other stories, Marcus had written The Book of Dead Days which is one of the nominations for this year's
Children of the Night Award. He specialises in children's writing. He proved to be a fascinating guest, showing us the book he kept all his thoughts and ideas in: full of scribblings. Questions for him kept coming from members, including the would-be and existing authors in the audience.
 Spring Meeting/AGM
Incorporating book launch 3rd April 2004 We were delighted to host the launch of the new Second Edition of the
Mammoth Book of Vampires at our AGM on April 3, 2004. Many thanks to Steve Jones, and guests Tina Rath, Sidney J. Bounds, Christopher Fowler, Brian Stableford, and Kim Newman.
New Year Meeting
A Film Evening 7th February 2004
The Barley Mow in Victoria, London, provided us with our venue for a film
screening. This year it was a 16mm showing of the classic Hammer film
Brides of Dracula, supplied and shown by member Adrian Winchester. A good turnout ensured a successful night, along with the good food and wine! Our
annual film evenings provide an ideal event for new members to come along.
AUGUST MEETING OF THE DRACULA SOCIETY
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.
SUMMER MEETING OF THE DRACULA SOCIETY
Mummies at the Victoria Pub, Paddington 21st June 2003 This is rapidly becoming the headquarters of the Dracula Society! This time we gathered to mark the Centenary of Bram Stoker's book The Jewel of Seven Stars. Dracula Society member Katherine Haynes gave a brief summary of the book and introduced the film chosen for the occasion
Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy. A modern version of the story, yet quite faithful to the book. We had a cold buffet and enjoyed the convivial atmosphere of both the Theatre Bar and the Library Bar above our favourite pub!
SPRING MEETING OF THE DRACULA SOCIETY
Jill Morley, and our AGM 12th April 2003 Held at
The Theatre Bar - now our regular venue, in the Victoria pub in Paddington - we had our AGM. A hot buffet was provided - wholesome Sausages and Mash and a vegetarian alternative, which took a little time to arrive - but met with great approval by all. After a brief run-through of the business, including the fact that there will be a small increase in subscriptions next year, we welcomed our guest for the evening: Jill Morley. Jill, as well as being my landlady in the 1980s, used to do film doubling and stand-in work. We invited her along mainly because of her work in Hammer films. She has stood in for the likes of Ingrid Pitt, Judy Geeson, and Martine Beswick. Not being a subject most people know a lot about, she fielded a number of questions from the audience. The kind of things Jill would be asked to do would vary from close up work of make-up being applied, some actresses' complexions did not stand up to close-up scrutiny, or valuable time and money could be saved if they got Jill in to do the work. Standing by a bedroom window as a shadowy figure getting undressed as the killer prowled around the house outside was a regular occurrence for Jill. Lighting tests, making cups of tea, speaking parts as a hat-check girl, a street prostitute in Hammers Hands of the Ripper, driving fast cars, horse-riding, close-up shots of pulling a garter up her leg, were just some of the things Jill got called upon to do in the few years she was in the business. She worked on Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Horror of Frankenstein, and Fear in the Night, as well as many others. She worked on "Carry On" movies, TV spin-offs such as On the Buses and lots of TV shows such as The Protectors. She has worked for Ken Russell on the notorious film The Devils, and shared a bit of gossip about that one! "What gossip?" I hear you say, ah, well, you needed to have been there!
AUTUMN MEETING OF THE DRACULA SOCIETY 5th October 2002 This was our first visit to a pub in Paddington called
"The Fountains Abbey". We hired the large upstairs room for our film screening of
City of the Dead - a new copy on DVD. We also had a special guest writer, Jonathan Southcot, who was interviewed by our Chairman, Julia Kruk. Jonathan has written a book called
The Cult Films of Christopher Lee, and brought copies of this out-of-print book, which he signed for members, and spoke of his experience of collaborating with Christopher Lee on this book, as well as telling us about some of the documentaries he has made about Hammer horror films. He has also done some commentaries for DVD releases of classic horror films.
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 is just a drop in evening with a small door entrance fee to pay for the rental of the room.
ALAN JONES AT THE SPANIARDS INN 2nd June 2002 This was our Summer Meeting, which we now hold regularly at this fine pub on Hampstead Heath. Our guest was Alan Jones, who is a film reviewer for magazines such as
Shivers, and regularly organises the Frightfest festival held at the Prince Charles Cinema in London every year. Alan has a good insight into the film business and has unique access to stars and casts of many of the latest genre films. He was "in conversation" with our Chairman, Julia Kruk, who also happened to be a school chum when they were younger! Alan had great gossip about the stars, much of which he shared with us, and many members asked questions about the people whom Alan has met, as well as how to get a job like his! We had a full house for this event, and Alan was well-received by our membership.
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 last 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.
AGM, with TANITH LEE AT THE CITTIE OF YORKE 6th April 2002 The Society's very own Tina Rath was "in conversation" with writer Tanith Lee at the Cittie Of Yorke pub, near Chancery Lane tube station. Tanith is an established writer who has contributed greatly to the genre with titles like
Silver Metal Lover, for which the film rights had recently been sold, the
Lionwolf Trilogy and her new book A Bed of Earth. Tanith has also written for television in the past, including episodes of the BBC production
Blake's 7. Again, a hot buffet was provided, which is always particularly good at the Cittie of Yorke.
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. |