A young English lawyer travels deep into the mountains of Eastern Europe to close a simple property deal with a wealthy client.

The locals beg him not to go. They press crucifixes into his hands and mutter prayers as his coach rolls away.

And when he finally arrives at the castle, he starts to realise that his host is not quite what he seems — and that the doors are locked from the inside.

What follows spreads far beyond those mountains, reaching all the way to England, where a small group of friends slowly begin to understand that something ancient has come ashore — and that it has already chosen who it wants.

This is *Dracula* by Bram Stoker.

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I'm Roger Braveheart, and it's lovely to have you along on the *TWIG 74* podcast — where the summary story you're about to hear basically works as a free audiobook for you.

Here's the deal: I take a great classic novel and boil it down into a clear, easy retelling that keeps the drama and the atmosphere of the original. This one runs at about an hour, which is roughly what you can expect from most episodes — though it does shift a bit depending on how long and how complicated the original book is. Read the whole of *Dracula* yourself and you'd be looking at many hours, so think of this as the story with the padding trimmed away.

I did try 30-minute versions early on, but honestly I had to hack out far too much of the good stuff to make them fit, so an hour it is.

Oh, and one thing worth mentioning: this comes straight from Stoker's actual novel — not the films, the TV shows, the abridged editions or any of the hundreds of spin-offs out there. A lot of those shuffle events around, thin out the characters, or just quietly rewrite big chunks of what happens.

I aim to get a new episode out at least once a week, on a Sunday, so it's sitting there ready for your working week.

And if you fancy dropping me a line, the show's email is **twig74@mailo.com**. I genuinely love hearing your feedback, and if there's a classic you think I should read on a future episode, send it my way.

Right then — get comfortable, picture a cold wind moving through a dark mountain pass, and let's begin.