A survey of the history of the vampire, both as a mythological legendary creature and as a literary figure. The first part of the book deals with the various human psychological developments in ages past that led to various beliefs about blood which the author feels contributed to the rising of superstitions about such beings. These include cannibalism and ancestor worship. There is then a survey of the different countries or areas of the world and the vampire like creature there and the protections believed to work against them. This also touches on werewolf, witch and ghoul beliefs where those overlap.

Later sections dealt with the vampire as a literary character and its use in productions brought to the stage or screen. Because this is an old book, it doesn't cover, for example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because the Hammer films starring Christopher Lee were the most influential at the time this was written. Despite that, I found these sections more interesting than the earlier ones which were more of a dry catalogue interspersed with extracts from old travellers tales or Victorian and Edwardian studies of the subject. For this reason therefore I am awarding this only an OK 2 star rating. ( )

I'm not entirely sure I should have been reading this when I was aged 10, but of course that was probably why I liked it so much at the time. I haven't read it in years, so my rating is based largely on nostalgia. I'm not sure if my well-thumbed copy would stand up to being read again, or if it would turn to dust and ashes like a certain Count exposed to the sunshine.

From memory, it contains a sort history of vampires from around the world, descriptions of some blood-thirsty religious rites, and a supposedly true account of vampire-hunters operating in London's Highgate cemetery. This latter account was certainly in my mind when I visited the cemetery some years ago, adding to the already thick Gothic romantic atmosphere. ( )