Denis Gifford

The late Denis Gifford was undoubtedly Great Britain's foremost pop culture expert. Here at the library we have a number of his books on comics and film but the very first one we acquired was back in 1973--A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF HORROR MOVIES. After years of learning about classic horror films piecemeal through the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine and its brethren, here was my very first chance to see how this information all fit together in a more or less linear timeline. I devoured this book and its rare stills (often from the author's collection). In my senior year in high school, I actually ended up writing my final book report on it. This was mainly an excuse to carry it to school for a few days to show off. Later there were more scholarly books on the subject, more complete, more detailed and more explicit books on the subject but even as I glance through them now, I still think this is the best overall simple history of horror movies ever!