City of Ghosts - The Canterbury Ghost Story Festival. 3 October 2026, St Gregory’s Centre for Music Canterbury.
Further information here: City of Ghosts [EXTERNAL LINK].
City of Ghosts: The Canterbury Ghost Story Festival takes place at St Gregory’s in Canterbury on Saturday 3 October, bringing together academics, writers, performers and folklorists for a day exploring the history of the ghost story and our continuing fascination with supernatural experience.
The festival marks the 320th anniversary of The Apparition of Mrs Veal, set in Canterbury and widely regarded as the first modern English ghost story.
One of the highlights of the event will be the rare opportunity to see the original manuscript of M. R. James’s Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, one of the most beloved English ghost stories, brought out of the archive specially for the day.
The programme also includes two live M. R. James performances from Robert Lloyd Parry; Dan Baines of Lebanon Circle, exploring cursed objects, folklore and the supernatural; biographer Brian J. Corrigan, discussing his studies and performances of M. R. James and Charles Dickens; and Mark Jones of The Haunted Archive, alongside a wider programme of academics, writers and creatives.