Abraham 'Bram' Stoker (1847 - 1912) was a sickly child, unable to stand until he was seven years old, and spent the majority of his childhood reading before defying the odds by becoming a champion athlete at Trinity College, Dublin. Starting his career as an Irish civil servant, his love of theatre led him to become an unpaid drama critic for the Dublin Mail and later manager and secretary for the famous actor Sir Henry Irving. He also wrote a dozen books, of which Dracula (1897) is without doubt the most famous. An immediate bestseller in Victorian England, Stoker's masterpiece of the macabre has remained popular ever since, as testified by the countless film adaptations of the novel.