Reece Shearsmith’s new book explores a lifelong fascination with horror
Reece Shearsmith, the 57-year-old co-creator of The League of Gentlemen and Inside No 9, has published a new book titled Things I Took from the Dark that combines dark mythology, personal memoir and his own illustrated artwork exploring his lifelong fascination with horror and the macabre. The book represents the culmination of a career built entirely on the childhood obsession with the uncanny that began when he overheard frightening ghost stories and subsequently immersed himself in Hammer horror films and gothic literature by Edgar Allan Poe.
The book is structured around an imaginary museum housing the legends and artefacts that have terrified Shearsmith throughout his life, including the Beast of Bodmin, the Highgate Vampire and the monster of Glamis Castle. It contains numerous childhood anecdotes—such as surviving a car crash in a Reliant Robin and his father's mishap with a burning toy fire engine—alongside evidence of his enduring creative practice: he maintains a collection of eerie ephemera in a hidden attic room in his north London home, and his television characters have consistently begun as drawings that he showed to makeup and costume departments.
- Reece Shearsmith publishes book exploring his lifelong fascination with horror and the macabre
- Things I Took from the Dark combines mythology, memoir and his own illustrations
- Career built entirely on childhood obsession with the uncanny and gothic stories
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Reece Shearsmith is a 57-year-old television writer and performer best known for creating the comedy-horror series The League of Gentlemen and Inside No 9. His career has been built on a childhood fascination with horror that began when he overheard frightening ghost stories and deepened through his immersion in Hammer horror films and gothic literature. This lifelong preoccupation with the uncanny has been the foundation of everything he has created.
His new book, Things I Took from the Dark, brings together personal memoir, dark mythology and his own illustrations to explore this enduring fascination with horror and the macabre. The book is structured around an imaginary museum housing the legends and artefacts that have frightened him throughout his life, such as the Beast of Bodmin, the Highgate Vampire and the monster of Glamis Castle. It contains childhood anecdotes that reveal how these fears took root and shaped his imagination.
The book offers direct insight into where Shearsmith's creative ideas originate, as his television characters typically begin as drawings before being developed with makeup and costume teams. He maintains a collection of eerie ephemera in a hidden attic room in his north London home, and this book represents the culmination of a creative practice that has always been rooted in his fascination with horror.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “Severed hands, crushed bones and a ‘monstrous mermaid with sharp teeth’: Reece Shearsmith on his dark obsessions”.