Sink your teeth into Drac facts

BRAM BOOK A BLOODY MARVEL

1 The plot line went through many incarnations with Stoker almost calling his killer Count Wampyr. Rough notes from the author, which also mention a possible werewolf attack, are kept at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum and Library.

2 Vlad the Impaler, the 14th Century Romanian ruler who would stick his enemies on stakes and leave them to die and then drink their blood, was Bram’s biggest inspiration for Dracula. The Romanian word for the devil is Dracul and was one of Vlad’s titles.

3 A nightmare where he saw a vampire king rising from a tomb, caused by eating dodgy dressed crab, has also been mooted for giving Stoker the story idea – as has Jack the Ripper’s murders, with rumours he even had dinner with the serial killer.