Fun | Gothic Book Title Generator

Fancy penning a spooky novel but can’t quite get going with it? Let us start you off by coming up with a title for your book.

Simply select from the lists below the first letter of your first name, the month you were born and the first letter of your surname and find out what your Gothic novel should be called. So, for example, If you were called Jane Robinson and you were born in June your book would be called ‘The Trees of Fearful Waters’. There. You’re planning your Booker Prize acceptance speech already, aren’t you?

First pick your opening noun using the first letter of your first name:

a- The Castle. b - The Woman. c - The Curse. d - The Mystery. e - The Darkness. f - The Devil. g - The Man.
h - The Caves. i - The Bridge. j - The Trees. k - The Legend. l - The Tale. m - The Skulls. n - The Secret.
o - The Rats. p - The Vampire. q - The Monster. r - The Ghost. s - The Murmuring. t - The Clouds. u - The Birds. v - The Hounds. w - The Dagger. x - The Heart. y - The Cloak. z - The Creature.

Next pick your adjective by the month of your birth:

January - of Everlasting. February - of Dark. March - of Eerie. April - of Howling. May - of Terrible. June - of Fearful. July - of Satanic. August - of Bloody. September - of Haunted. October - of Cold. November - of Ancient. December - of Murderous.

Finally, pick your closing noun using the first letter of your surname:

a - Horror. b - Crows. c- Hollow. d - Terror. e - Churches. f - Spirits. g - Fear. h - Mists. i - Memories.
j - Sobs. k - Screams. l - Books. m - Dungeons. n - Runes. o - Moors. p - Valley. q - Forest. r - Waters.
s - Dreams. t - Fires. u - Spells. v - Rituals. w - House. x - Manor. y - Grave. z - History.

Why we all love a scary story

There’s nothing new about spooky tales of course. Ghost stories have been an important part of folklore for as long as stories have been told and our oldest myths contain monsters. The act of sharing a story and getting scared together is an age-old bonding experience, a way of being afraid but also having fun. Fear isn’t always an unpleasant emotion, especially if we can see it through and reach a resolution. When we experience fear, we get a surge of adrenaline and endorphins which awaken all our senses and give us a rush of energy. After the moment has passed and we’re no longer afraid, we relax and experience a flood of post-horror calm.

Read more about why scary stories are good for us in our Wellbeing feature, Little Shot of Horror in our October issue. And if you pen that spooky story, please do share it with us so we can enjoy being vicariously frightened!

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A few more things to scare your socks off (in a good way)

Top ten National Trust ghosts

Spooks, spirits and scones: the National Trust boasts a cast of hundreds of ghosts

In our September issue, we’ve taken a look at national treasure, The National Trust, in its 125th year, and delved into some of the houses’ lesser known residents. So we thought we should also celebrate some of the properties’ former residents who are still hanging around the hallowed halls and creepy corridors of NT properties. Here are our top ten favourite National Trust Ghosts:

1 The Roman Soldiers at Treasurer’s House

A legion of weary soldiers has been spotted a couple of times in the cellars at Treasurer’s House in York, the most interesting being in 1953 when a chap installing boilers in the cellar saw a line of filthy, weary soldiers emerge from the wall. They wore green tunics and had round shields - both facts were dismissed as incorrect at the time - these soldiers were thought to wear red and have rectangular shields. And they were visible only from the knees up. Later, it was discovered that in fact there was a legion based here who used round shields and wore green. Later still, an old Roman road was discovered about 18 inches below the cellar floor. The soldiers had been walking on the original road. 

2 Francis Drake, Buckland Abbey

One of the Trust’s more famous residents who has outstayed his welcome is Sir Francis Drake who settled at Buckland Abbey in Devon when his days on the Golden Hind were over. His ghost is said to ride across Dartmoor in a black coach, driven by headless horses. 

3 Dripping Man, Scotney Castle

A dripping wet man is said to haunt Scotney Castle in Kent, allegedly a Revenue Officer, murdered by smugglers and thrown into the moat, who returns regularly, seeking revenge on his assailant. 

4 St Cuthbert, Lindisfarne

Holy Island in Northumberland provided sanctuary for St Cuthbert and the monk’s spirit is said to still wander near the priory to this day when the moon is full and the tide is high. 

5 Anne Boleyn, Blickling Hall

Blickling Hall in Norfolk is home to several spirit squatters but the most famous of them must be Anne Boleyn. Blickling is built on her birthplace and it’s said that every year on May 19th, the anniversary of her execution, her ghost, holding her head in her own lap, is driven by ghostly coach up to the door of Blickling Hall by a headless coachman. As it nears the entrance, the coach vanishes.  

6 Seven-foot skeleton, Dunster Castle

A proper, spooky, rattler of chains, this one… Dogs refuse to enter the room under the Gatehouse at Dunster in Somerset, where a giant skeleton was found manacled to several others. 

7 Mr Windham the book lover, Felbrigg Hall

Bookworm William Windham loved books so much he risked his life to save the library of a friend when it caught fire and died of his injuries a short while later. But staff at his former home, Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, often report seeing him sitting in a chair or table in the library, catching up on his reading. Apparently he only visits when a certain combination of books are left on the library table. 

8 The floorboard-tampering poltergeist, Sizergh

A spirited poltergeist is said to create ‘happenings’ at Sizergh in Cumbria. Several times it has torn floorboards from the floor and flung them about the place; a sort of spirited 60-minute Makeover, if you will.

9 The White Lady, Washington Old Hall

Washington is home to many a ghost (there’s also a grey lady and a crying child) but the white lady wanders the corridors, wringing her hands. It’s said the smell of lavender pervades the place, too. We conclude that she can only be rubbing in some calming hand lotion. 

10 Tutting gent, Penrhyn Castle

At Penryhn Castle, pictured above, a volunteer encountered a short gentleman in a brown suit, who entered the room, tutted, raised his eyebrows and then disappeared around the corner and vanished completely. Suggestions were that it might be the third Earl of Penrhyn, unimpressed with the new layout of his furniture. 

If you’d like to go National Trust ghost-hunting near you, visit the NT’s page of their most haunted houses. Read our feature on the National Trust in the September issue starting on p70.

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Autumn tipple | pomegranate and rosemary gin fizz

For a bonfire night gathering or just a dinner with a spooky or autumnal feel, this cocktail is a winner

Ingredients

1 bottle of gin
1 bottle of elderflower tonic water
1 litre fresh pomegranate juice
1 lemon, cut into wedges
6 sprigs of rosemary
1 fresh pomegranate

How to make

1 Mix together 1/3 gin to 1/3 tonic and 1/3 pomegranate juice.
2 Add a twist of lemon and stir with the rosemary sprig (then add the lemon wedge and rosemary to the glass for garnish).
3 Cut the fresh pomegranate in half and scoop out the seeds. Add 1 tsp of seeds to each cocktail.

This cocktail recipe by Kay Prestney is in our November issue, as part of our menu for a murder mystery party, which also includes brie and cranberry bites, apple and celeriac soup, chicken, chorizo and pepper bake and poached pears in red wine. A menu to die for. Find it on p32.

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Build your own spooky story

Frighten friends and freak out family with your own spooky story

If you love a scary tale, especially at this time of year, why not try penning your own? How hard can it be, after all*? To show you just how easy it is, we asked author and creative writing tutor Susan Elliot Wright to help us put together this Spooky Story Kit. Simply choose one beginning, one ending and five scary elements from below, string them together with a few verbs and conjunctions and Bob’s your Uncle (and The Bride of Frankenstein’s your Aunt). Go!

Beginnings (choose one)

1. She had thought the house was empty as she pushed open the creaking door…

2. Four hundred years after her death, Esmerelda sat up in her coffin…

3. A mile or two into the forest road, Roger Peebles’ car choked to a halt. He had run out of petrol…

Endings (choose one)

1. And that would be the last the town saw of those vampires, for now at least.

2. He put the knife back where he had found it. No one would ever know he had been there at all.

3. But the rats continued to run.

Scary Elements to add to your story’s sandwich filling

1. An electric light that doesn’t work. Characters may pull on it frantically and pointlessly. 

2. A crow. Particularly one with beady eyes or a malformed foot or two.

3. A rocking chair that rocks of its own accord. Just a little bit too quickly and silently to have been set off by a human.

4. A clown. Not a funny one though. A malign-looking, silent one, preferably seen from a distance. 

5. Long corridors (they really should be <very> long, and also shadowy to allow plenty of opportunity for evil to skulk in their corners).

6. The distant sound of a weeping woman that can’t be located. The listener should ideally dash from room to room, with the noise of weeping becoming  louder and quieter again at random. 

7. A face at the window of a house. The protagonist should not be able to locate the room the face appeared in once inside the property. 

8. Some things that ‘go’ when no one has set them off: a television, a gramophone, a slightly manic-looking wind-up toy monkey bashing cymbals together.

9. Something seen from the corner of one’s eye, only fleetingly. It should move swiftly and be gone when the protagonist whirls round (one never simply turns in spooky stories).

10. A deserted institution. An asylum is ideal but hospitals, churches and prisons are all good. Any building that would once have been bustling and may hide dark secrets. 

11. Any child’s toy in the wrong context. A rag doll that appears in someone’s home and has never been seen before. A doll’s house in an abandoned home. Any mechanical toy that moves of its own accord. 

*It’s quite a bit harder than we have made this sound, actually.

Susan Elliot Wright loves a spooky story. Her latest novel, The Flight of Cornelia Blackwood (Simon and Schuster) features some rather spooky crows, of which she is a big fan. For more of her writing tips and advice on getting published visit susanelliotwright.co.uk.  For some more spooky inspiration, have a read of our feature Dare To Be Scared for ideas on paranormal outings you can do in a day (p80).

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If you enjoy a good mystery, don’t miss our November issue, in which we will be announcing the winner of our competition to write the ending for a murder mystery penned by Sophie Hannah. We'll be publishing Sophie’s own ending to the story (and the rest of it too, so you can enjoy it all in one go) here on the blog later in the month.

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Mythology | How the spider got eight legs

A little legend about one of our favourite creepy crawlies

There’s no doubt there’s something a bit special about spiders. In our October issue (in shops now), we are celebrating our eight-legged friends on our Magical Creatures page. But why did Mother Nature decide they needed quite so many legs? We suspect there’s a very scientific evolutionary answer, but we quite like this one...

The Greek myth of Arachne has several versions but Ovid told a slightly terrifying story about how the spider got eight legs.  

Arachne was a mortal woman, the daughter of a shepherd, and a top-notch weaver, but more than a little boastful regarding her skill. Foolishly, she began to boast that her weaving was better than that of the Goddess Athena, who overheard (as Gods are wont to) and popped to earth, disguised as an old lady to urge her to retract her claims in hopes the Gods would forgive her. 

Bumptious Arachne refused to say that her weaving was inferior to that of Athena’s and went one step further, in fact, saying that if Athena thought her weaving was so spectacular she should come to earth herself and join her in a weaving competition. Athena cast aside her old lady costume and they both began to weave. 

Athena’s weaving depicted contests between mortals and the Gods in which mortals were harshly punished for daring to set themselves against the Gods (an unsubtle hint of what was to come, but one Arachne chose to ignore). Arachne, meanwhile, ill-advisedly wove a picture showing the ways in which the Gods had abused mortals over the years. More inadvisedly still, her weaving turned out to be far superior than Athena’s.

Furious at both Arachne’s cheek and her talent, Athena struck her about the head three times and tore her work to pieces. Shamed and fearful, Arachne hanged herself.

Athena, who shows a frightening lack of moral compassion here, we must say, even for a Goddess, told her: "Live on then, and yet hang, condemned one, but, lest you are careless in future, this same condition is declared, in punishment, against your descendants, to the last generation!" She sprinkled her with some of Hecate’s poisonous herbs, at which point Arachne’s hair fell out, her nose fell off and her head and body shrank. Her talented weaver’s fingers stuck to her sides and became legs, which would spin thread from her belly for ever. 

The moral of the story? Keep your light under a bushel… unless you’re a Goddess with a bit of an anger problem. 

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