Oliver's biography of his aunt Stella Gibbons, Out of the Woodshed, was published by Bloomsbury in 1998; and he is a contributor to the historical magazine History Today.
In All Hallows 34, Jim Rockhill praised Oliver's The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini, noting: Oliver’s ability to create a sense of time and place in every one of these stories is exemplary.... As a work of spiritual terror it has few peers.... Thomas Ligotti and Matt Cardin are the only authors writing today who equal the assurance demonstrated by the author of this tale in ripping away the veil separating mundane reality from the shrieking abyss it conceals.
[2] In his introduction to The Folio Book of Horror Stories he wrote "I believe Reggie Oliver to be the greatest living British classicist in our field who upholds its highest literary qualities.
A number of his stories are set within the rather seedy end of show business, drawing on his background as a playwright, director and actor.
Douglas Campbell wrote of one such story, "The Skins", "I find it hard to believe that there wasn't some kind of a dare involved when Oliver set out to write a tale about a haunted pantomime horse, but the story itself is an unforgettable piece, drawing to a grotesque and pathetic climax in a horribly plausible world of down-at-heel theatre folk.