1.
Poor ole Abraham was bed bound for a huge chunk of his life. As a child he was stricken down with
an illness which left him immobilised. It was because of years spent in a living state of stasis that
instilled in him an interest in the undead as that was exactly how he felt during that time.
2.
While bedbound Stoker was fed stories by his Mother about the terrible things happening in the
world. The diseases that killed the poor in droves, corpses lining the streets, mass graves sky high
with rotten bodies, all sorts of lovely images that you really want to think about as a child. If he
wasn’t already interested in the macabre then he was now.
3.
After recovering from his illness Stoker went on to be an athlete of all things at
Trinity College. He won awards in football, racing and weightlifting. Wouldn’t want to start a brawl
with him in the Pav, he’d bleeding knock ya out then leg it!
4.
Apparently Stoker was quite the lady killer (which would be turned around on him as we’ll see in
the next part). His wife, Florence Balcome was originally engaged to Oscar Wilde.
5.
Not only did the ship Titanic sink and kill loads of people (way to go Titanic) but it took over all the headlines in April 1912 and nobody even noticed that Bram Stoker had died.