Gothic Study, 2008

This full moon shines down on an isolated country Manor house. There are mysterious goings-on: a young woman in harm's way, a cruel & disdainful aristocrat with a secret, an unctuous Italian Count of questionable pedigree with a stiletto concealed in his boot, debts that need settling & surreptitiously administered doses of chloral hydrate or laudanum ~ all in close proximity to the ruins of some abbey or a desolate moor. There is the frisson of anticipation; the hair on the back of your neck is standing up. There is someone out there; you can sense it ~ out behind those yew trees by the gate or crouching in the inky shadow of the stables, patiently waiting for one of those clouds to obscure the moon…

OK… We all know that my moon is not really above a drafty, fog-shrouded Elizabethan Manor house but rather the double-glazed, brick & vinyl clad suburban homes I've shown you so many times.

Still, it's very Wilkie Collins, yes?