Introduction

"My purpose is to inform, educate and assist in the field of operative vampirology; as distinct from speculative vampirology where the student or researcher intends to remain within the relatively safe confines of hearth and home. I was born within the sombre avenues of forest trees that comprise Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, where, in the fading twilight, the substance of tradition and legend entwines. Tales of supernatural spectres flitting thereabouts were never in short supply, but when one of these phantoms assaulted my grandmother I came to realise that the nether region spewed forth untold danger." — †Seán Manchester (paraphrased from The Vampire Hunter's Handbook, 1997)