EDGAR Allan Poe is the master of horror, the father of detective fiction and the man whose - some would say 'twisted' - imagination inspired countless novels, dozens of often dodgy movies and who is in many ways the grandaddy of all things Gothic in the current era..

Honestly? We’d hit a bit of a slump in the first nine months of lockdown. Like most arts companies, carefully worked out plans came to naught during the pandemic. Community productions – no chance. Staging a play about the Irvine witch trials? Up in smoke.