December 2025
Well, the long warm days of Summer are now little more than a memory and we are firmly in the throes of cold Autumnal weather, which usually means wet and windy days and warmer clothing. Hence, the picture of me shown above, when, recently, I was sheltering from a heavy rainstorm, with a warm cup of coffee. I was visiting the magnificent Towneley Hall Museum & Art Gallery, in Lancashire.
Well, Christmas is fast approaching and so my mind has been turning towards what the subject should be for my end of the year talk for you. Over the last few years, I have offered a free live Christmas lecture on an appropriate theme. I have looked at well-established Christmas traditions, dating back to medieval times, such as the origins of Santa Claus, and even considered what presents we might wish for in our Christmas stockings. This year is a little different:
A Christmas Horror Story:
Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula
The BBC’s The Ghost Story for Christmas has become a long running tradition. It started in 1971 when the BBC launched the original series of short films which ran until 1978. The concept has been revived sporadically since 2005. The idea was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story that reflected the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas. Several were based on the spooky ghost stories of the Cambridge scholar M.R. James. These tales were originally recited as Christmas entertainments to friends and selected students. The director of the series Lawrence Clark noted that James gave him “a wonderful excuse to discover…places where you could best impart tension and atmosphere.” While the cloisters of a Cambridge College might be deemed atmospheric, Bournemouth is not the place to impart tension and atmosphere. Yet the seaside resort, which many celebrities visited to regain their health, is closely associated with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jeckell and Mr Hyde and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Oscar Wilde was staying in Bournemouth on the eve of the publication of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (April 1891).
Mary Shelley is buried in the graveyard of St Peter’s church, Bournemouth, alongside the ashes of her husband’s heart.
Stevenson, who wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde while living at Skerryvore on Alum Chine, Bournemouth, took the name of his character from a friend, Walter Jekyll, brother of horticulturalist and landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Stoker is said to have based Dracula on his long-time employer the famous actor Henry Irving. Often suffering from fatigue, caused by overwork, Irving was a regular guest at Bournemouth’s Royal Bath Hotel. Obviously Bournemouth was the place to be!
So, for my Christmas lecture this year I offer you a horror story rather than Ghostly apparitions!
If you would like to learn more about these spooky subjects, please join me for one of our two free Zoom talks on Friday 5th December at either 11.00am or 7.00pm BST.
| The Zoom entry codes are as follows: |
| Morning Session, 11.00am BST : |
| Anne Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Art History with Anne Time: Dec 5, 2025 11:00 AM London Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84193275992?pwd=0K3FR544CaReVYJ5iCBbq6ski3ancW.1Meeting ID: 841 9327 5992 Passcode: 125354— |
| Evening Session, 7.00pm BST : |
| Anne Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Art History with Anne Time: Dec 5, 2025 07:00 PM London Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82284139872?pwd=YMT1eTk2rbaT1rV6INjcb7kww8AQoX.1Meeting ID: 822 8413 9872 Passcode: 855172 |
| Alternatively, please email Susan Branfield at susanbranfield77@gmail.com to specify which time you would prefer, either 11.00am or 7.00pm BST, so that she can send you the relevant Zoom code. |
| Please ask her for the code by ‘time’ or for ‘Morning get-together’ or ‘Evening get-together’ as the sessions have different Zoom entry codes. |
| There are no charges for these sessions. |
I look forward to seeing many of you on 5th December.
If you are unable to attend either session, may I wish a very peaceful and enjoyable Christmas and a Happy New Year.
What’s New on the Channel
Recently released: Victorian Fantasies
Our Victorian castle and fantastical 19th-century house building video seems strangely related to the subject of this month’s Live Lecture. If you would like to view this video please click on the Watch Now button below.
Thanks to all of you who have watched films on the Anne Anderson Art and Design History Channel and particularly to those who have remembered to press the SUBSCRIBE button beneath the video window. It does not commit you to anything but helps with my stats. Thank you.
Anne Anderson 