Chris Woodyard
LightNews LightNews
banner
chriswoodyard.bsky.social
Chris Woodyard
@chriswoodyard.bsky.social
1.9K followers 210 following 1.7K posts
Author A is for Arsenic: An ABC of Victorian Death, The Victorian Book of the Dead, 10 books on ghosts in Ohio and elsewhere. Death, mourning, costume, ghosts, Forteana. Podcast: Boggart and Banshee https://thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com: Blog
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
chriswoodyard.bsky.social
Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 21d
It's been 50 glorious episodes of nattering and squabbling and dramatic readings about all forms of the supernatural. Chris and Simon answer readers' questions about how they met, their favorite episodes, personal supernatural encounters, and why Simon hates Gef.
www.buzzsprout.com/1859647/epis...
Chicken-headed monster with wings and claws chases a child, covering its face with its hands, down the hall.
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
npr.org
Two scientists who are fast friends, one Nigerian and one American, have won the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition for their network to catch the next disease with pandemic potential.
$100 million prize goes to dynamic duo aiming to stop next pandemic before it starts
Two scientists who are fast friends, one Nigerian and one American, have won the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition for their network to catch the next disease with pandemic potential.
n.pr
November 22, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
Maria of Orange, making so many dreadful fashion errors in assembling her hunting gear, 1665. Hunting! The mind boggles. By Jan Mijtens, whose day is also today.
November 22, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
hookland.bsky.social
Goodnight from Faith Milbury, noticing the Dark Glam night at The Shambala Rooms is more akin to Murky Garishness. Goodnight from Sadie Ringrose, wishing yet again that her second sight wasn’t interfering with her attempts to enjoy first dates. Goodnight from Hookland.
November 22, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
landisblair.bsky.social
💀🪦📚 All Pocket Cemeteries are 20% off through the end of the month, along with everything else in my shop. #CemeterySaturday www.etsy.com/shop/LandisB...
November 22, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
isabellarosner.bsky.social
I’m thrilled to be giving this year’s Kelmscott Lecture, the annual lecture hosted by the William Morris Society. I’m excited to be dipping my toe into the world of the Arts and Crafts movement. Join us in person or online! Tickets are here: williammorrissociety.org/events/the-k...
November 12, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
katestrasdin.bsky.social
All this bright red silk chiffon cocktail dress needs is an egg nog and a high heel. Ceil Chapman liked to ruche her gowns and this mid #1950s gown gathers the fabric around the body then lets it flow with a matching shoulder stole #goldsteinmuseum #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡
Three quarter view of a mannequin wearing a sleeveless red chiffon dress ruched asymmetrically across the bust an falling in folds down the skirt. The matching shoulder stole is draped over one side Back view of the red chiffon cocktail dress showing the low dip and a pleat of fabric centre back. The stole is draped over one shoulder Back view of the red chiffon cocktail dress showing the low dip and a pleat of fabric centre back. The stole is draped over one shoulder Close up of the centre back of the sleeveless red chiffon dress with the pleat of fabric
November 22, 2025 at 7:45 PM
chriswoodyard.bsky.social
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead With the holiday season coming up, let me tout one of my books on Victorian mourning: "Long-lost tales of the morbid, mournful, and macabre from the Victorian era." Available worldwide. Please ask your local bookstore or library to order it.
Black and white cover of The Victorian Book of the Dead showing a skeletal angel and a "human" angel holding a large book in front of some Gothic arches. Back cover of The Victorian Book of the Dead showing two urns and weeping trees flanking the cover blurb, with a dove flying overhead
November 22, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
folkloretwitcher.bsky.social
Daughter'd be interested in these as Anything Agatha Christie and the Mr Men books are her Thing ....
tobyontv.bsky.social Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · 1d
this, *this*, is the greatest crossover of all time
Mr Men x Agatha Christie crossover with Mr Poirot in Mischief on the Nile SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSHOP Mr Men x Agatha Christie crossover with Little Kiss Marple in Muddle at the Vicarage SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSHOP
November 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
chriswoodyard.bsky.social
For a pre- #Thanksgiving #ForteanFriday The Gobblers’ll Git You, If You Don’t Watch Out!
Ghostly gobblers who tap at your windows and gobble in the garret…
hauntedohiobooks.com/news/animal-...
Black and white illustration of a turkey skeleton, labeled with different parts of the bones.
November 21, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
icysedgwick.bsky.social
Ooh @odavies9.bsky.social and @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social talking about legend tripping at #HauntedLandscapes at @conwayhall.bsky.social for @forteanlondon.bsky.social
A man wearing glasses and a woman in glasses behind a lectern.
November 22, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
lizaadamczewski.bsky.social
Here in Pembrokeshire, overnight, the snow has nearly vanished. It clings on in the small places where the sun hasn’t reached. Like clumps of sea campions making a patchwork of white beneath our toes. Out at sea, do the puffins dream of warmer calmer days on Skomer Island speckled with campions?
A triptych of Three puffins with sea campions and a background of gold
November 22, 2025 at 10:39 AM
chriswoodyard.bsky.social
Zeppelin Cats soaring high on #Caturday.
1914 illustration from "American Cookery"
Two kittens in clothes in a toy zeppelin surrounded by a border of stars
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
hookland.bsky.social
Above the high tide mark the shore was a confusion of rope scraps, nets beyond mending and broken boats. To go omen hunting in this zone could only produce prophecies of woe. The augury walker had to go beyond this and search the sand for wave-gifted signs. – #DAKilroy
November 22, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
hellohistoria.bsky.social
🪦 lunch with the locals 🪦
November 22, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
lichfieldlore.bsky.social
Three strange deaths linked to the same field in Staffordshire. Grass that doesn’t grow where a deadman’s feet rested. Will o’the wisps flickering.

Full story via my post ‘And Then Another’ here >> lichfieldlore.co.uk/2025/11/22/a...

Any explanations welcome, be they supernatural or scientific.
And Then Another
Three men, three deaths all seemingly linked. Somewhere in the story there must be a clue to tell us whether it was coincidence or if something creepier was at play here. Engraving. An Ignis Fatuus…
lichfieldlore.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
hellohistoria.bsky.social
#SkullSaturday 💀

📍St Tydfil's Church • Llysworney ⛪️

#Wales #History
November 22, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
hookland.bsky.social
Goodnight from the abandoned Rocket Test Centre at RAF Nook, where police have yet again been called about a group of teens indulging in Scooby-Dooing trespass. Goodnight from Samantha Rendell, gripping her cave wolf snow globe as talisman against the dark. Goodnight from Hookland.
November 21, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
landisblair.bsky.social
Frazzled.
November 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
chriswoodyard.bsky.social
For a pre- #Thanksgiving #ForteanFriday The Gobblers’ll Git You, If You Don’t Watch Out!
Ghostly gobblers who tap at your windows and gobble in the garret…
hauntedohiobooks.com/news/animal-...
Black and white illustration of a turkey skeleton, labeled with different parts of the bones.
November 21, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
drfrancisyoung.bsky.social
Just got this from @blpublishing.bsky.social by @tanyakirk.bsky.social! 📚👻 shop.bl.uk/products/the...
November 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
chriswoodyard.bsky.social
#PhantomsFriday A giant ghost at Benton, Indiana, 1896. "The Weird Visitor is Eight Feet High and Wears White Robes Shooting Parties Fill It With Buckshot With Harmless Results Carries a Club and Haunts the Cemetery"
"Killed by a Specter" chapter in The Ghost Wore Black, available worldwide.
Ghost in long robe, holding a club, standing before a church, holding up at hand, while a horse balks in the road. Cover of The Ghost Wore Black Ghastly Tales from the Past, Chris Woodyard, skeletal figure seen through a sheer black veil.
November 21, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
Ghost is sorrow in Wordsworth's 'Lucy Gray', 1799.

William heard the story from his sister: Near Halifax, a young girl lost her way in a snow-storm. The parents traced her footsteps in the snow to the middle of the lock of a canal, where they stopped.

#PhantomsFriday #poetry #romanticism #booksky
Two last stanzas from the poem: —Yet some maintain that to this day She is a living child; That you may see sweet Lucy Gray Upon the lonesome wild. O'er rough and smooth she trips along, And never looks behind; And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind. Painting: 'Im tiefen Winter' by Richard Freiherr von Drasche-Wartinberg (1850-1923). A black river winds through a snowy landscape.
November 21, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
karsloan.bsky.social
John Dee and Edward Kelley invoking the spirit of a deceased person whilst safe inside their magic circle. 🪄 👻 #Ghost #PhantomsFriday

🎨 Engraving by Ebenezer Sibly, ca 1806
November 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
warksfolklore.bsky.social
A spectral nun in a brown habit has been seen a number of times in Nun’s Wood and Wappenbury Woods. On one occasion she actually approached one eyewitness and walked straight through him.
#PhantomsFriday
Woodland path covered in leaves seen through tangled branches
November 21, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Chris Woodyard
theghostmonk.bsky.social
One of the creepiest illustrations among the many by Felix Kelly that enhance Joseph Braddock's classic 1956 book 'Haunted Houses'.
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts #haunted #illustration
A gloomy staircase in a creepy old house. A dark shape, perhaps a woman in a long veil, descends the staircase, observed by a man at an open doorway holding up a candlestick.
November 21, 2025 at 9:17 AM