A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about how the internet wasn't as much fun as it used to be. I stand by the remarks I made back then, though I still make use of Facebook, (largely because I have real-life family and friends who use that site and it's an easy way to to keep in touch). My views in that old blog post are echoed in the video below, which I stumbled over when randomly websurfing - or as random as any algorithm-controlled websurfing ever truly is these-days. Have a listen:- I often pass a lovely old house. It was probably a vicarage once, as it stands beside an ornate and similarly old church, the sort which has carved gargoyles for gutter spouts and a towering, needle-thin spire. The house is a sturdy square, its main entrance door set between two large windows. A walled garden wraps around all four sides of the house. Its roof boasts chimney pots like mini castles sprouting from its lofty heights. From the outside, it looks delightful, and it came up for sal...

Thea Prothero reviews  Black Magick: 13 Tales of Darkness, Horror and the Occult , which is edited by Raven Digitalis and published by Moon Books, here on Substack .

This article was first published in 2009 on Hubpages. I'm transferring my articles from there to here. Let's go for a walk! Well, almost... Looking at photographs is hardly the same as experiencing a place for yourself, but it can be a good starting point. So pull on your imaginary hiking boots and walk along the beach at West Kirby, Wirral, until you see the steep steps created up the side of the sand dunes. Up there, you can hear the low rumble of the Irish Sea, the lyrical fluting of skylarks and the occasional expletive from the golf course just over the wire mesh fence. As you pass over the lofty summit of the grass-covered dunes, you'll have a sweeping view of the beach - with its horse-riders, sand-yachters and kite-flyers and the distant sails of surf-boarders and apprentice sailors scooting along the marina - and on the horizon you'll see the three small islands of Little Eye, Middle Eye and Hilbre. You'll see butterflies and moths, which help feed the vast...