The editor of The New Annotated Dracula by Bram Stoker acknowledges that the vampire story has been told hundreds of times in movies and on television. But Klinger is an advocate of that quaint activity known as reading.

"The book works far better than film because, like all books, it leaves much to the imagination," Klinger said in a recent e-mail interview.

"Even the physical act of sucking blood: How does it work, to bite with canines and then replace your lips over the wound? The canines are pretty far apart and wouldn't make for the two neat little holes always found on movie victims. It works so much better in the mind!

"The book builds slowly, which is great for the horror."

Klinger, who also edited the acclaimed The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (2005), answered more questions.

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A BID to set up the UK’s first official Wiccan temple in Reddish is living on a prayer after the Government refused to recognise the building as a genuine place of worship.

Sandra Davis, high priestess at the Crystal Cauldron, on Gorton Road, is appealing the decision she claims is discriminatory.

She applied to have her business - a shop and meeting room - recognised as a temple but this week the General Register Office, part of the Home Office, refused.

A rejection letter, which has left the congregation outraged, stated that Wicca, a form of Paganism, is incompatible with the ancient Places of Worship Act 1855.

Why? Have ghosts really earned the reputation of being harmful to humans?

If you were walking unarmed in a dense tropical jungle that you know is inhabited by tigers and large snakes, you'd undoubtedly be petrified. The threat to your life and well-being is quite real and your fears justified. Tigers and snakes can and do kill.

Now place yourself alone at night in a house that has the reputation for being haunted. Most people would probably experience the same fear. Yet, according to most authorities on the subject, the fear is not justified. Ghosts, by and large, are harmless. The true behavior of ghosts, as evidenced by many thousands of investigations and case studies conducted by paranormal experts, overwhelmingly contradicts the common idea that they are to be feared.