Publications:
BOOKS

PRE-ORDER NOW

Don't Dare See It Alone! Essays on Hammer Films

By Robert J.E. Simpson
Avalard Publishing, 31 March 2025
Hardback | Paperback | Ebook
406 pages | Fully illustrated
ISBN 978-1-908566-37-9 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-908566-38-6 (Hardback)

A compendium of my published writing on Hammer Films from the last 25 years. Sourced from magazines, blogs, websites, conferences, books and other places words are shared, alongside some new work.

Featuring essays and articles covering the entire 90 year history of Hammer Films, including its origins, noirs, studies of classic gothics, archival finds and set reports.

Pre-orders are now open for both hardback and paperback editions.

For more information see:
https://exclusivefilms.wordpress.com/2024/04/21/book-pre-order-dont-dare-see-it-alone-essays-on-hammer-films/

Pre-order signed copies here.
Pre-order unsigned copies here.

The Willing Fool: The Spectacle of The Wicker Man

By Robert J.E. Simpson
Avalard Publishing, September 2021
Hardback | Paperback | Ebook
ISBN: 978-1908566348 (HB)
ISBN: 978-1908566331 (PB)

Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man is one of the most beloved of 1970s British horror films. Bold, transgressive, iconic. Its cult status has grown with each passing season. In this monograph, the first in a series from CinePunked, film historian Robert JE Simpson explores the pagan rituals and spectacle, and the act of watching that is central to an understanding of the film itself.

Robert's first solo book is also the first in the CinePunked Monographs range and is based on his MA thesis, toeing a line between scholarly academia and populist approach to film studies.

Read a review of the book on the Warped Perspectives website here.

Forthcoming:

Looking for Madeline

by Robert J.E. Simpson

A CinePunked Monograph blending scholarly academia and populist approachs to film studies in a study of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Vertigo.

Work in progress. Release TBC.

The Exclusive Project

by Robert J.E. Simpson

The first ever comprehensive study of Exclusive Films - sister company to Hammer Films. A project 15 years in the making.
A fully illustrated and annotated filmography containing details of every film made or distributed by Exclusive.

To be published 2025 via Avalard Publishing.

Written contributions:

The Complete Veritas : A Rock 'n' Roll Story

by Pete Quaife

Avalard Publishing 2023

Hardback

The exclusive collector's edition hardback of Veritas - the semi-autobiographical novel by the late co-founder of The Kinks, Pete Quaife.

This edition includes a foreword by Thomas M Kitts, and an exclusive afterword 'The Completed Veritas' by Robert.

The book is available for purchase via Amazon.

Inside Bray Studios

by Wayne Kinsey
Peverill Publishing, 2018

As the campaign originator for the Save Bray Studios group, Robert provided a short write-up on developments regarding the attempt to protect the studio, which was published as a coda to this history of the Bray Film Studios near Windsor. The situation rapidly changed following publication of the book, and as of January 2022, the studios are active once again.

The book was a limited edition, now sold out.
https://peverilpublishing.co.uk/inside-bray-studios/

Directory of World Cinema: Britain 2

Editor: Neil Mitchell
Intellect Books, 2015
ISBN: 9781783203970

Robert wrote an entry for this encyclopaedia of British film on director Ken Russell, plus critical reviews of Women In Love, The Devils and Hell Is A City.

Directory of World Cinema: Britain

Editor: Emma Bell & Neil Mitchell
Intellect Books, 2012
ISBN: 9781841505572

Robert wrote for this encyclopaedia of British film on Odd Man Out, plus entries co-written with Chris Legge on Cherrybomb and Northern Irish cinema.

Stanley Kubrick: Essays on his Films and Legacy

Editor: Gary D Rhodes
McFarland Publishing, 2008
ISBN: 9780786432974

Robert provided the chapter "Whose Stanley Kubrick? The Myth, Legacy, and Ownership of the Kubrick Image" for this anthology of essays on film director Stanley Kubrick.
The essay has been republished for free via the CinePunked website.
Read it here.

Editorial contributions

Veritas : A Rock 'n' Roll Story
Volume 1 & 2

by Pete Quaife

Avalard Publishing / Pete Quaife Foundation, 2021

eBook | Paperback

A semi-autobiographical novel by the late co-founder of The Kinks, Pete Quaife.

Robert provided editorial services, and designed the book, as well as facilitating publication through his Avalard Publishing label, and in collaboration with The Pete Quaife Foundation.