This morning I was called up by radio presenter Jonathan Miles to dicuss all things "horror". We talked about horror cinema's broad scope, from ghostly tales of suspense, to torture porn and DVD sequels. I also talked a lot about contemporary British horror cinema and the future of the genre. 

The show airs today on BBC Radio Newcastle between 10 and 12.

You can listen to the show here.

The beginning of January is turning out to be very busy indeed. As well as the publication of my first co-edited volume Cinema, Television and History, I am "jetting off" to sunny Bournemouth to speak at this year's MeCCSA conference.

My paper is featured on the panel "Censorship and Shock", which takes place from 9am on Friday 10th. The title of my paper is "New British Horror and Informal Distribution".

A new book, co-edited by myself and Laura Mee, is now available for pre-order. Cinema, Television and History: New Approaches features essays based on papers delivered at the conference Rethinking Cinema and Television History, held at De Montfort University in April 2012.

The book can be pre-ordered at this link. The table of contents is below:

Introduction 1
Cinema, Television and History
Laura Mee and Johnny Walker

Part I: New Meanings, New Methods

Chapter One 12
TV and Cinema: What Forms of History Do We Need?
John Ellis

Part II: Recontextualising Cinema and Television History

Chapter Two 26
“We Must Go About it in Our Own Way and Have Complete Control”: The British Film Industry and the Metropolitan Police Press Bureau,
1919-1938
Alex Rock

Chapter Three 47
From Cathy “Queen of the Mods” to Paula “Pop Princess”:
Women, Music Television and Adolescent Female Identity
Hazel Collie

Chapter Four 67
The Polish TV Fictionscape: From Programme Importation to Domestic Revival
Sylwia Szostak

Chapter Five 85
Maintaining a Critical Eye: The Political Avant-garde on Channel 4
in the 1990s
Steve Presence

Part III: Rethinking Histories of Cinema and Television

Chapter Six 104
“These People Are the Enemy!”: The Moral Responsibilities of Film
and Television History within the Humanities
Dieter Declercq

Chapter Seven 121
The Trans/national Divide: Towards a Typology of “Transatlantic
British Cinema” During the 1930s and 1940s
Nathan Townsend

Chapter Eight 142
“Marvellous, Awesome, True-to-life, Epoch-making, a New Dimension”: Reconsidering the Early History of Colour Television in Britain
Helen Wheatley

Part IV: Rethinking History through Cinema and Television

Chapter Nine 164
Known Pleasures: Nostalgia and Joy Division Mythology in 24 Hour Party People and Control
Caitlin Shaw

Chapter Ten 182
“Media Virgins vs. Political Lions”: Historicising the Gender Politics
of Question Time
Jilly Boyce Kay

Chapter Eleven 200
Rethinking History through Documentary: Paradise Lost
and the Documented Case of “The West Memphis Three”
Thomas Joseph Watson

Part V: The Impact of New Technologies

Chapter Twelve 222
DVDs, Streams, Comment Threads and Developing a Television Canon
Abby Waysdorf

Chapter Thirteen 239
Using Social Media to Build Hidden Screen Histories: A Case Study
of the Pebble Mill Project
Vanessa Jackson

Chapter Fourteen 260
Historical Subjectivity and Film Style: Re-enactment and Digital Technologies in Contemporary Historical Cinema
Adam Gallimore