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Sheridan Le Fanu – ghost writer

Time for a revival

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.

Sir, – I see Dublin is holding a series of events to mark Halloween this year. One such is the Bram Stoker Festival. Now don’t get me wrong. Dracula was a wonderful creation. In fairness, though, Stoker was something of a “one-hit wonder”. Sheridan Le Fanu created a much more substantial body of work in the genre and, in my opinion, was far more readable. Has his native city forgotten him at this time of year? The great English ghost-story writer MR James was an admirer of Sheridan Le Fanu, and was responsible for editing an edition of some of his stories about a century ago. Another revival is now overdue. – Yours, etc,

PAUL GRIFFIN,

St Helens,

Merseyside, UK.