Neil Spring's Blog, page 3
October 28, 2013
Daily Mail review of The Ghost Hunters
Charming, curmudgeonly Harry Price cannot quite make up his mind about the existence - or otherwise - of ghosts. Teetering between belief and scepticism, he sets out to scientifically investigate paranormal activity with Sarah Grey, his personal assistant. Mediums, preying on the susceptibilities of the grieving families of the Great War dead, are de-bunked while ectoplasm is found to be cheesecloth. But then the pair are called to haunted Borley Rectory. Local legend cite headless coachmen and a spectral nun as the source of terror, but the house itself seems just as frightening. Price, his reputation at stake, and Grey, with issues of her own, set out to find the truth in this deft, spooky psychological drama based on a true story.
- Eithne Farry, Daily Mail, 25th October 2013. (p.65)
- Eithne Farry, Daily Mail, 25th October 2013. (p.65)
October 26, 2013
Halloween is fast approaching
With the nights drawing in and Halloween fast approaching, this is a time for ghost stories.
And there is surely no better ghost story than the legend of Borley Rectory…
Have you ever seen a ghost? Photographed by hundreds, sensed by thousands, ghosts are the most prominent paranormal belief in the world.
But where is the proof that would point to a world beyond this life? Can we ever possess reasonable grounds to believe in an afterlife?
These are the questions posed by Harry Price, the protagonist of my debut novel, The Ghost Hunters. The setting? Borley Rectory, a Victorian mansion that gained fame as “the most haunted house in England.”
Built 150 years ago, the Rectory was destroyed by a controversial fire in 1939, and its ruins torn down in 1944.
Since the first brick was laid, Borley Rectory was the scene of many unusual happenings, including sightings of the apparition of a lonely nun. In 1929 the reports reached a crescendo and the Daily Mirror called in ghost hunter extraordinaire, Harry Price.
But who was this man who had promised a grieving nation that he would lift the veil that separated this world from the next?
Who indeed.
Three years ago, I visited the Harry Price Magical Library at the University of London, Senate House, where shadows stalk the dusty stacks and secrets linger. This collection is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, complete with rare and ancient volumes on the arts of magic and summoning ghosts.
I wanted to read Price’s many investigations, his letters and articles. I wanted to explore the many aspects of this fascinating character and discover what set him on his path of investigation into the unknown? But the more I read, the more I discovered about Price’s private life and his curious, contradictory beliefs, which oscillated between scepticism and belief. And the more intrigued I became.
I’m not sure anyone could claim to have known the true man behind the façade that Harry Price presented to the media, his followers and his critics. Harry was a businessman. A salesman. He was also a conjuror (and member of the Inner Magic Circle), skilled photographer, engineer, writer, journalist and bibliophile. He was very defensive about his working-class origins, and constantly sought academic recognition. He craved fame and publicity. But he was also brilliant and ambitious; selfish and unreliable; elusive but charming. The perfect subject, I decided, for an historical novel complete with thills and chills!
The generation that created the Borley Rectory legend could probably never have imagined that seventy yearslater we would still be talking about rambling old house, where candlesticks were hurled across rooms, witnesses turned out of bed, and mystery writing appeared on the walls. But here we are. The famous gates to that place are about to be re-opened. What’s interesting to me, isn’t what the story tells us about spirituality and life after death, but rather, what it tellsus about the living and the era they inhabited. The characters at Borley, the people who interacted with Harry Price at his Laboratory, were part of grieving nation – in some ways a desperate nation – that needed something to believe in after the atrocities of the First World War. It was an era choked with grief and longing for hope. And there is no case that better highlights the essence of the age than Borley Rectory.
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus available now
And there is surely no better ghost story than the legend of Borley Rectory…
Have you ever seen a ghost? Photographed by hundreds, sensed by thousands, ghosts are the most prominent paranormal belief in the world.
But where is the proof that would point to a world beyond this life? Can we ever possess reasonable grounds to believe in an afterlife?
These are the questions posed by Harry Price, the protagonist of my debut novel, The Ghost Hunters. The setting? Borley Rectory, a Victorian mansion that gained fame as “the most haunted house in England.”
Built 150 years ago, the Rectory was destroyed by a controversial fire in 1939, and its ruins torn down in 1944.
Since the first brick was laid, Borley Rectory was the scene of many unusual happenings, including sightings of the apparition of a lonely nun. In 1929 the reports reached a crescendo and the Daily Mirror called in ghost hunter extraordinaire, Harry Price.
But who was this man who had promised a grieving nation that he would lift the veil that separated this world from the next?
Who indeed.
Three years ago, I visited the Harry Price Magical Library at the University of London, Senate House, where shadows stalk the dusty stacks and secrets linger. This collection is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, complete with rare and ancient volumes on the arts of magic and summoning ghosts.
I wanted to read Price’s many investigations, his letters and articles. I wanted to explore the many aspects of this fascinating character and discover what set him on his path of investigation into the unknown? But the more I read, the more I discovered about Price’s private life and his curious, contradictory beliefs, which oscillated between scepticism and belief. And the more intrigued I became.
I’m not sure anyone could claim to have known the true man behind the façade that Harry Price presented to the media, his followers and his critics. Harry was a businessman. A salesman. He was also a conjuror (and member of the Inner Magic Circle), skilled photographer, engineer, writer, journalist and bibliophile. He was very defensive about his working-class origins, and constantly sought academic recognition. He craved fame and publicity. But he was also brilliant and ambitious; selfish and unreliable; elusive but charming. The perfect subject, I decided, for an historical novel complete with thills and chills!
The generation that created the Borley Rectory legend could probably never have imagined that seventy yearslater we would still be talking about rambling old house, where candlesticks were hurled across rooms, witnesses turned out of bed, and mystery writing appeared on the walls. But here we are. The famous gates to that place are about to be re-opened. What’s interesting to me, isn’t what the story tells us about spirituality and life after death, but rather, what it tellsus about the living and the era they inhabited. The characters at Borley, the people who interacted with Harry Price at his Laboratory, were part of grieving nation – in some ways a desperate nation – that needed something to believe in after the atrocities of the First World War. It was an era choked with grief and longing for hope. And there is no case that better highlights the essence of the age than Borley Rectory.
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus available now
October 25, 2013
The Sunday Times review of The Ghost Hunters
Equally serpentine and surprising in its plotting, Neil Spring’s The Ghost Hunters resurrects the real-life figure of Harry Price, a psychic investigator from the inter-war years, who made Borley Rectory in Essex briefly famous as “the most haunted house in England” . Spring tells his clever tale in the voice of the fictional Sarah Grey, Price’s assistant, who is obsessed by the charismatic ghost-hunter and slowly unearths the truth lurking beneath the lies he has told about his life and work, before learning to her cost that, as the books epigraph states, “Of all ghosts, the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.”
- Culture Magazine, The Sunday Times, 20th October 2013. (p.45)
The Ghost Hunters was published by Quercus on October 24th, you can order your copy here: http://amzn.to/14DhzZF
- Culture Magazine, The Sunday Times, 20th October 2013. (p.45)
The Ghost Hunters was published by Quercus on October 24th, you can order your copy here: http://amzn.to/14DhzZF
October 17, 2013
GHOST HUNTERS: BORLEY RECTORY – THE MOST HAUNTED HOUSE IN ENGLAND
My Blog for Quercus yesterday about Borley Rectory:
On Halloween night this month, police will gather in an isolated hamlet on the Essex Suffolk border to turn away crowds of fascinated spectators.
The watchers will come in their droves and in nervous anticipation from miles away, all of them searching for the one thing that has always attracted strangers to these parts.
They will come looking for ghosts.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the construction of Borley Rectory, a rambling Victorian mansion that gained fame in 1929 as “the most haunted house in England,” when the Daily Mirror called in the famous ghost hunter and arch sceptic Harry Price, to investigate.
Price’s arrival at the Rectory on 12 June 1929 coincided with a range of unusual happenings – stones and mothballs were thrown, bells rang, a candlestick came hurtling down the stairs and a brick crashed through the verandah roof. The rector and his wife soon departed, leaving Price to write a book on the affair which fixated the nation: Borley Rectory – The Most Haunted House in England.
But was it quite right to describe the house as most haunted, or even haunted at all?
That is the question I have sought to examine in my debut novel THE GHOST HUNTERS, which is published later this month. This novel is certainly not a faithful retelling of Harry Price’s association with the house, which stood on a hill overlooking the windswept Essex marshes, but a fictional representation of what might have happened, based on historical reports and witness testimonies. I trawled newspaper archives, dug deep into Price’s private files, left no stone unturned to weave the most famous haunting of our age into a chilling historical novel.
Many will remember how the tale began. According to the legend of a Benedictine monastery built in 1362, a monk was in a relationship with a nun from a nearby convent. Once their affair becomes public news, the monk is executed and the nun bricked up alive in the convent walls.
Soon, stories about the spectral nun walking near the rectory started doing the rounds, as did tales of a phantom coach and horses, inexplicable footsteps, voices, touchings, smells, fires, movement of objects, written messages and poltergeist activity.
But what is it about that red-bricked monstrosity of a building that still keeps us talking about it after 150 years? Just a few months ago I met a lady who remembered visiting the place as a child. She, like many of the locals, still find something odd about Borley. As a local taxi man put it to me: “I genuinely think there is fear in the village, still -fear at whatever is up there.’
It’s a journey I have made often, retracing Harry Price’s footsteps. If you take the road from Sudbury towards Long Melford, about a mile before that town you’ll spot a turning – Rodbridge Corner; and if you take that turning, crossing an old disused railway line, you’ll come to Hall Lane. Here, taking the hill, you might glimpse the spire of Borley Church in the distance. In winter, it can appear a very austere place indeed.
An old friend who accompanied me to Borley revealed in confidence that he had heard strange noises as we approached the churchyard. In his words: “the sound of a coach and horses pounding the road.”
The odd thing was: we hadn’t seen any coach or horses. And when I mentioned this to an elderly woman living close to the site of the old Rectory, she became curiously serious and said quietly, ‘Yes, people do keep reporting that… But if strange things do still happen here, I’m hardly likely to tell you. Don’t expect anyone else here to discuss it, either.’
What’s interesting to me, isn’t what the story tells us about spirituality and life after death, but rather, what it tells us about the living. The era of Harry Price was a grieving nation, in some ways a desperate nation, that needed something to believe in. A pre war world as remote as Borley itself.
So come with me, if you will, back into the 1920s. An era where war injured servicemen stood in the cold and the fog on London streets selling bootlaces and copies of the Daily Worker; an era of longing and despair and a little hope.
It’s January 1929 and a renegade writer and researcher, has announced in the Times the gala opening of a new laboratory in South Kensington where spiritualist mediums will be put to the test. Everyone is speculating about its work, including a young woman recently returned from Paris. Sarah Grey. She is lost, without purpose, until she witnesses the marvels of the Laboratory – where the floors are made of cork, where wooden shutters keep rooms devoid of light, and where mediums are strapped into devices that resemble the electric chair.
She doesn’t know it yet, but Sarah Grey is destined to come face to face with arch sceptic, Harry Price. And her whole life is about to change…
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order your copy today at http://amzn.to/18am4OT
On Halloween night this month, police will gather in an isolated hamlet on the Essex Suffolk border to turn away crowds of fascinated spectators.
The watchers will come in their droves and in nervous anticipation from miles away, all of them searching for the one thing that has always attracted strangers to these parts.
They will come looking for ghosts.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the construction of Borley Rectory, a rambling Victorian mansion that gained fame in 1929 as “the most haunted house in England,” when the Daily Mirror called in the famous ghost hunter and arch sceptic Harry Price, to investigate.
Price’s arrival at the Rectory on 12 June 1929 coincided with a range of unusual happenings – stones and mothballs were thrown, bells rang, a candlestick came hurtling down the stairs and a brick crashed through the verandah roof. The rector and his wife soon departed, leaving Price to write a book on the affair which fixated the nation: Borley Rectory – The Most Haunted House in England.
But was it quite right to describe the house as most haunted, or even haunted at all?
That is the question I have sought to examine in my debut novel THE GHOST HUNTERS, which is published later this month. This novel is certainly not a faithful retelling of Harry Price’s association with the house, which stood on a hill overlooking the windswept Essex marshes, but a fictional representation of what might have happened, based on historical reports and witness testimonies. I trawled newspaper archives, dug deep into Price’s private files, left no stone unturned to weave the most famous haunting of our age into a chilling historical novel.
Many will remember how the tale began. According to the legend of a Benedictine monastery built in 1362, a monk was in a relationship with a nun from a nearby convent. Once their affair becomes public news, the monk is executed and the nun bricked up alive in the convent walls.
Soon, stories about the spectral nun walking near the rectory started doing the rounds, as did tales of a phantom coach and horses, inexplicable footsteps, voices, touchings, smells, fires, movement of objects, written messages and poltergeist activity.
But what is it about that red-bricked monstrosity of a building that still keeps us talking about it after 150 years? Just a few months ago I met a lady who remembered visiting the place as a child. She, like many of the locals, still find something odd about Borley. As a local taxi man put it to me: “I genuinely think there is fear in the village, still -fear at whatever is up there.’
It’s a journey I have made often, retracing Harry Price’s footsteps. If you take the road from Sudbury towards Long Melford, about a mile before that town you’ll spot a turning – Rodbridge Corner; and if you take that turning, crossing an old disused railway line, you’ll come to Hall Lane. Here, taking the hill, you might glimpse the spire of Borley Church in the distance. In winter, it can appear a very austere place indeed.
An old friend who accompanied me to Borley revealed in confidence that he had heard strange noises as we approached the churchyard. In his words: “the sound of a coach and horses pounding the road.”
The odd thing was: we hadn’t seen any coach or horses. And when I mentioned this to an elderly woman living close to the site of the old Rectory, she became curiously serious and said quietly, ‘Yes, people do keep reporting that… But if strange things do still happen here, I’m hardly likely to tell you. Don’t expect anyone else here to discuss it, either.’
What’s interesting to me, isn’t what the story tells us about spirituality and life after death, but rather, what it tells us about the living. The era of Harry Price was a grieving nation, in some ways a desperate nation, that needed something to believe in. A pre war world as remote as Borley itself.
So come with me, if you will, back into the 1920s. An era where war injured servicemen stood in the cold and the fog on London streets selling bootlaces and copies of the Daily Worker; an era of longing and despair and a little hope.
It’s January 1929 and a renegade writer and researcher, has announced in the Times the gala opening of a new laboratory in South Kensington where spiritualist mediums will be put to the test. Everyone is speculating about its work, including a young woman recently returned from Paris. Sarah Grey. She is lost, without purpose, until she witnesses the marvels of the Laboratory – where the floors are made of cork, where wooden shutters keep rooms devoid of light, and where mediums are strapped into devices that resemble the electric chair.
She doesn’t know it yet, but Sarah Grey is destined to come face to face with arch sceptic, Harry Price. And her whole life is about to change…
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order your copy today at http://amzn.to/18am4OT
October 12, 2013
"Events, My Dear! Events!"
If you've been following my updates on the long road to publication (thank you) then you'll know that publication date is almost upon us. 13 days away.
The book was finished way back before summer, and then this moment couldn't have been further away. But tempus fugit. Here we are. And how do I feel?
The truth is, this is as stressful as it gets folks. Why? You ask. Surely your job as the author is done?
Well, no. Because this book took a long time to write. It deserves to be brought into the world with care and respect and a bloody great party.
So I've been hard at it and I hope you'll find the results worth it. Over the next few weeks I’ll be spending every second of every day promoting Harry Price and His mad adventures at Borley rectory. Expect tweets profiling some of my favourite lines from the book, expect a few surprises, and lots of photos. Of what you ask?
Events dear reader. Lots of them!
I’ll be revisiting the scenes in the book and speaking at book shops across London.
Here is a brief summary of where you can find me and how you can book tickets:
** For links and sign ups within this article please visit http://neilspring.com/news/events/art... **
17 Oct, Senate House, The Magical Library - Bloomsbury Festival, 6.30pm
Looking forward to this one!
"There had already been rumours about the eighth floor." It's true! Because that's where Harry Price, the nation's most enigmatic ghost hunter, left his vast collection of books and séance related artefacts.
And thanks to the good people who run the haunted Senate House, some of them will be on display at this first event to mark the launch of the novel.
It's sold out. So if you want to come, please turn up at the door and I am sure we'll find you a place!
http://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/ai1e...
22 Oct, Foyles Bookshop, 6.30 pm
London's most famous book shop, and National Bookshop of the Year, FOYLES have asked me to give an evening talk for them on ghosts and the Borley Rectory haunting, two days from publication. How could I resist?!
You can book tickets, just click here: http://www.foyles.co.uk/Public/Events...
24 Oct, Publication Day! The Notting Hill Bookshop, 7.30pm
Another famous bookshop, which you might have seen in that ever so lovely movie, Notting Hill. Come and enjoy a reading, a glass of wine, and I'll sign your book for you, too!
Weds 30 Oct, Waterstones, Gower Street, 6.30pm
A talk on the historical inspiration for 'The Ghost Hunters. What was the truth about the enigmatic paranormal detective Harry Price, whose magical library was stored on the haunted 8th floor of Senate House? Was his death connected with his investigation of the famous Borley Rectory in Suffolk?
Come one, come all, just dial 020 7636 1577 to reserve your place!
Thurs 31 Oct, Halloween VIP Candlelit Reading, College of Psychic Studies, 7.30pm (Invitation only)
This is the big one! I am sure that Harry Price and Conan Doyle would approve, too. Well, I hope so! Because this event, sponsored by Barefoot Wines, is in the very building where Harry Price ran his laboratory. What could be more perfect than that!?
I hope you can make it along to some, or all of these. You can of course also read an excerpt of The Ghost Hunters here and pre-order your copy for delivery on the day of release here. And please don't forget to share your thoughts on Goodreads and Amazon and Twitter once you've read it.
That really helps create a buzz for a new release. And please come find me at one of these great events, and i'll be delighted not only to see you, and to thank you, but to sign your copy, too. :-)
The Ghost Hunters
The book was finished way back before summer, and then this moment couldn't have been further away. But tempus fugit. Here we are. And how do I feel?
The truth is, this is as stressful as it gets folks. Why? You ask. Surely your job as the author is done?
Well, no. Because this book took a long time to write. It deserves to be brought into the world with care and respect and a bloody great party.
So I've been hard at it and I hope you'll find the results worth it. Over the next few weeks I’ll be spending every second of every day promoting Harry Price and His mad adventures at Borley rectory. Expect tweets profiling some of my favourite lines from the book, expect a few surprises, and lots of photos. Of what you ask?
Events dear reader. Lots of them!
I’ll be revisiting the scenes in the book and speaking at book shops across London.
Here is a brief summary of where you can find me and how you can book tickets:
** For links and sign ups within this article please visit http://neilspring.com/news/events/art... **
17 Oct, Senate House, The Magical Library - Bloomsbury Festival, 6.30pm
Looking forward to this one!
"There had already been rumours about the eighth floor." It's true! Because that's where Harry Price, the nation's most enigmatic ghost hunter, left his vast collection of books and séance related artefacts.
And thanks to the good people who run the haunted Senate House, some of them will be on display at this first event to mark the launch of the novel.
It's sold out. So if you want to come, please turn up at the door and I am sure we'll find you a place!
http://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/ai1e...
22 Oct, Foyles Bookshop, 6.30 pm
London's most famous book shop, and National Bookshop of the Year, FOYLES have asked me to give an evening talk for them on ghosts and the Borley Rectory haunting, two days from publication. How could I resist?!
You can book tickets, just click here: http://www.foyles.co.uk/Public/Events...
24 Oct, Publication Day! The Notting Hill Bookshop, 7.30pm
Another famous bookshop, which you might have seen in that ever so lovely movie, Notting Hill. Come and enjoy a reading, a glass of wine, and I'll sign your book for you, too!
Weds 30 Oct, Waterstones, Gower Street, 6.30pm
A talk on the historical inspiration for 'The Ghost Hunters. What was the truth about the enigmatic paranormal detective Harry Price, whose magical library was stored on the haunted 8th floor of Senate House? Was his death connected with his investigation of the famous Borley Rectory in Suffolk?
Come one, come all, just dial 020 7636 1577 to reserve your place!
Thurs 31 Oct, Halloween VIP Candlelit Reading, College of Psychic Studies, 7.30pm (Invitation only)
This is the big one! I am sure that Harry Price and Conan Doyle would approve, too. Well, I hope so! Because this event, sponsored by Barefoot Wines, is in the very building where Harry Price ran his laboratory. What could be more perfect than that!?
I hope you can make it along to some, or all of these. You can of course also read an excerpt of The Ghost Hunters here and pre-order your copy for delivery on the day of release here. And please don't forget to share your thoughts on Goodreads and Amazon and Twitter once you've read it.
That really helps create a buzz for a new release. And please come find me at one of these great events, and i'll be delighted not only to see you, and to thank you, but to sign your copy, too. :-)
The Ghost Hunters
September 27, 2013
The first launch of The Ghost Hunters, at The Bloomsbury Festival
WHEN: October 17, 2013 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
WHERE: The Goldsmiths' Library Reading Room at Senate House Library Senate House, London WC1E
TICKETS: Book free tickets at http://bit.ly/1ftZ7Kj
The year is 1926 and the place is Borley Rectory – the most haunted house in England. Into this infamous setting, with its tales of spectral nuns and flying furniture, comes legendary ghost hunter Harry Price: charming, neurotic, manipulative, and with a point to prove. Initially convinced he faces yet another case of smoke and mirrors, things take a turn for the unexpected as night falls and Harry and his assistant are forced to doubt th...eir own instinctive scepticism.
Based on real events and historical testimonies, THE GHOST HUNTERS is the thrilling debut novel from Neil Spring.
This launch event will a special exhibition of artefacts from the Harry Price Magical Library,with rare and ancient volumes on the arts of magic and summoning ghosts
This is a a FREE event, but tickets are bookable via the Bloomsbury Festival website - follow the link to reserve your place .
If the event is full or booking is closed you can still turn up on the day, at least 50% of seats are available on a first come, first served basis. - Please leave good time to arrive for events to avoid disappointment.
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order your copy today.
The Bloomsbury Festival is a free celebration that draws 50,000 people to London’s most inspiring cultural quarter.
With a theme of vitality, this year’s festival is a journey of discovery for mind, body and imagination.
Over six days 200 free events will showcase an eclectic programme of pioneering art, music, dance and literature, while also giving a voice and new skills to diverse young, older and disabled people.
Bloomsbury Festival takes place 15 – 20 October 2013.
Bloomsbury is a national storehouse of the learning of all ages and the arts of all humankind. With more libraries, and museums than any part of London. An extraordinary line-up of the world’s most influential thinkers, from Mahatma Gandhi to Virginia Woolf to Charles Darwin, have lived and worked in the area.
Following in their footsteps, the Bloomsbury Festival empowers the extraordinary people that live and work here today – and shows what neighbours, no longer strangers, can achieve together.
The Ghost Hunters
WHERE: The Goldsmiths' Library Reading Room at Senate House Library Senate House, London WC1E
TICKETS: Book free tickets at http://bit.ly/1ftZ7Kj
The year is 1926 and the place is Borley Rectory – the most haunted house in England. Into this infamous setting, with its tales of spectral nuns and flying furniture, comes legendary ghost hunter Harry Price: charming, neurotic, manipulative, and with a point to prove. Initially convinced he faces yet another case of smoke and mirrors, things take a turn for the unexpected as night falls and Harry and his assistant are forced to doubt th...eir own instinctive scepticism.
Based on real events and historical testimonies, THE GHOST HUNTERS is the thrilling debut novel from Neil Spring.
This launch event will a special exhibition of artefacts from the Harry Price Magical Library,with rare and ancient volumes on the arts of magic and summoning ghosts
This is a a FREE event, but tickets are bookable via the Bloomsbury Festival website - follow the link to reserve your place .
If the event is full or booking is closed you can still turn up on the day, at least 50% of seats are available on a first come, first served basis. - Please leave good time to arrive for events to avoid disappointment.
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order your copy today.
The Bloomsbury Festival is a free celebration that draws 50,000 people to London’s most inspiring cultural quarter.
With a theme of vitality, this year’s festival is a journey of discovery for mind, body and imagination.
Over six days 200 free events will showcase an eclectic programme of pioneering art, music, dance and literature, while also giving a voice and new skills to diverse young, older and disabled people.
Bloomsbury Festival takes place 15 – 20 October 2013.
Bloomsbury is a national storehouse of the learning of all ages and the arts of all humankind. With more libraries, and museums than any part of London. An extraordinary line-up of the world’s most influential thinkers, from Mahatma Gandhi to Virginia Woolf to Charles Darwin, have lived and worked in the area.
Following in their footsteps, the Bloomsbury Festival empowers the extraordinary people that live and work here today – and shows what neighbours, no longer strangers, can achieve together.
The Ghost Hunters
September 17, 2013
Who you gonna call? Belief in ghosts is rising
The Daily Telegraph, 15th September 2013
More than half of those taking part (52 per cent) said they believed in the supernatural, a marked increase on the two previous comparable studies, in 2009 and 2005, which both found a level of around 40 per cent.
The survey also found that one in five claimed to have had some sort of paranormal experience.
Interest in the supernatural has become big business in recent years, with the popularity of television shows like Most Haunted, which starred Yvette Fielding, and the spread of so-called “ghost walks” around supposedly haunted parts of city centres. English Heritage (EH) and the National Trust have both begun to attract people to their properties by identifying which ones are said to be occupied by ghosts, among them Blickling Hall, in Norfolk, Dunster Castle, in Somerset, and Dover Castle, in Kent. EH even conducted a “spectral stocktake” of “hauntings” and unexplained events recorded at its sites.
The new study was carried out for the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (Assap), for its annual conference.
Dave Wood, chairman of the group, which is dedicated to the study of a wide range of unexplained experiences – from supposed hauntings to UFO sightings – said: “The rise in the numbers believing in ghosts is a surprise, and is significantly higher than what we consider to have been the historical average.
“It could be that in a society which has seen economic uncertainty and is dominated by information and technology, more people are seeking refuge in the paranormal, whereas in the past they might have sought that in religion.”
Among notable personalities said to have encountered ghosts is Winston Churchill, who is on a long list of people reported to have seen an apparition of former US president Abraham Lincoln, in the White House.
But while belief in ghosts is rising, the study, conducted by polling company YouGov, suggests a fall in the numbers prepared to accept the existence of UFOs, from 52 per cent to 39 per cent, in 2008. The data also found that one in five claimed to have had some sort of paranormal experience.
Mr Wood added: “We have felt that a belief in UFOs has been declining for some time. I think a belief in ghosts is easier to sustain. Most people will know someone they respect who claims to have some sort of experience. That is no longer the case with UFOs.”
It comes at a time when Ufology – the study of UFOs – is said to be in decline. Last year, the Assap held a meeting to address the apparent crisis, and revealed that the number of its UFO cases had dropped by 96 per cent since 1988. In 2009, the Ministry of Defence closed its own UFO unit after ruling that, in more than 50 years of monitoring, it had found “no evidence” they pose a threat to the UK.
Mr Wood also expressed surprise at the findings that belief in ghosts and UFOs was higher in women (63 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively), than among men (42 per cent and 36 per cent). In both categories, the least likely to be believers were the youngest polled, 18 to 24 year olds.
Speakers at the conference, at the University of Bath, last week included former MP Lembit Öpik, and Reece Shearsmith, creator of The League of Gentleman, as well as university lecturers and experts on folklore, ghosts, UFOs, and even bigfoot, the creature said to live in the north west of the US.
The organisation, which describes itself as an education and research charity, was established in 1981. Its first president was Michael Bentine, the comedian and member of the Goons.
It contains both sceptics and believers in UFOs and has been involved in several notable sightings and theories over the years.
Its current President Lionel Fanthorpe has claimed in its journal that King Arthur was an alien who came to Earth to save humans from invading extraterrestrials.
The poll covered more than 2,000 people, and the figures weighted to make the study representative of the population.
*** ends ***
Neil Spring's debut novel The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can preorder a copy today at http://amzn.to/14DhzZF
More than half of those taking part (52 per cent) said they believed in the supernatural, a marked increase on the two previous comparable studies, in 2009 and 2005, which both found a level of around 40 per cent.
The survey also found that one in five claimed to have had some sort of paranormal experience.
Interest in the supernatural has become big business in recent years, with the popularity of television shows like Most Haunted, which starred Yvette Fielding, and the spread of so-called “ghost walks” around supposedly haunted parts of city centres. English Heritage (EH) and the National Trust have both begun to attract people to their properties by identifying which ones are said to be occupied by ghosts, among them Blickling Hall, in Norfolk, Dunster Castle, in Somerset, and Dover Castle, in Kent. EH even conducted a “spectral stocktake” of “hauntings” and unexplained events recorded at its sites.
The new study was carried out for the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (Assap), for its annual conference.
Dave Wood, chairman of the group, which is dedicated to the study of a wide range of unexplained experiences – from supposed hauntings to UFO sightings – said: “The rise in the numbers believing in ghosts is a surprise, and is significantly higher than what we consider to have been the historical average.
“It could be that in a society which has seen economic uncertainty and is dominated by information and technology, more people are seeking refuge in the paranormal, whereas in the past they might have sought that in religion.”
Among notable personalities said to have encountered ghosts is Winston Churchill, who is on a long list of people reported to have seen an apparition of former US president Abraham Lincoln, in the White House.
But while belief in ghosts is rising, the study, conducted by polling company YouGov, suggests a fall in the numbers prepared to accept the existence of UFOs, from 52 per cent to 39 per cent, in 2008. The data also found that one in five claimed to have had some sort of paranormal experience.
Mr Wood added: “We have felt that a belief in UFOs has been declining for some time. I think a belief in ghosts is easier to sustain. Most people will know someone they respect who claims to have some sort of experience. That is no longer the case with UFOs.”
It comes at a time when Ufology – the study of UFOs – is said to be in decline. Last year, the Assap held a meeting to address the apparent crisis, and revealed that the number of its UFO cases had dropped by 96 per cent since 1988. In 2009, the Ministry of Defence closed its own UFO unit after ruling that, in more than 50 years of monitoring, it had found “no evidence” they pose a threat to the UK.
Mr Wood also expressed surprise at the findings that belief in ghosts and UFOs was higher in women (63 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively), than among men (42 per cent and 36 per cent). In both categories, the least likely to be believers were the youngest polled, 18 to 24 year olds.
Speakers at the conference, at the University of Bath, last week included former MP Lembit Öpik, and Reece Shearsmith, creator of The League of Gentleman, as well as university lecturers and experts on folklore, ghosts, UFOs, and even bigfoot, the creature said to live in the north west of the US.
The organisation, which describes itself as an education and research charity, was established in 1981. Its first president was Michael Bentine, the comedian and member of the Goons.
It contains both sceptics and believers in UFOs and has been involved in several notable sightings and theories over the years.
Its current President Lionel Fanthorpe has claimed in its journal that King Arthur was an alien who came to Earth to save humans from invading extraterrestrials.
The poll covered more than 2,000 people, and the figures weighted to make the study representative of the population.
*** ends ***
Neil Spring's debut novel The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can preorder a copy today at http://amzn.to/14DhzZF
September 3, 2013
Getting Published
“When’s your book out?”
I’m asked that a lot with The Ghost Hunters. It’s my own fault. After all, I’m the one who’s been telling anyone who will listen, for the last few years, that I am writing a book.
“Later this year,” I say. “October.”
Puzzled faces all round. ‘Why so long?”
Another infuriating - but lovely - question, is: “How’s book 2 coming along?”
This one is usually asked by the close friends who haven’t seen you for months because - yep, you’ve guessed it - you’ve been walled up at home creating other people’s lives while you put your own on hold.
Up until three months ago, the conversation would then usually go something like this:
“Actually I’m still writing book 1.’
“Oh…I thought you finished that?”
“So did I.. I’m doing revisions now.”
And revisions can take a long, long time; not because editors want to make your life more difficult, but because editors are there to make your novel leaner, faster passed, and generally much, much better.
The fact is, writing a novel, re-writing it, finding an agent, securing a publishing deal, then re-writing again, is an extremely time consuming and demanding process. Over the last three years, my social life has diminished to a fraction of what it once was.
Now, with the publication date in sight (about 50 days out), I thought I’d talk a little more about the process of getting there.
I have no idea what the next 50 days have in store, but this is how life started for The Ghost Hunters.
After securing the wonderful support of my agent, Cathryn Summerhayes at William Morris Endeavour, I spent a whole year polishing the novel, re-writing key scenes. You’d think, perhaps, that after all the time I had spent on my manuscript, I wouldn’t have needed to re-write, edit, delete and write - but you’d be wrong. There are always changes, and aspiring writers, should never stop looking out for them.
We submitted at the end of 2011 and Cathryn was hopeful, but even with an agent who believed in my novel, I knew the odds of getting a publisher weren’t good. For every book that receives an offer, thousands more are rejected. Cathryn sent it out, along with a brilliant cover note, to a selection of commissioning editors who were already primed to expect a spooky, historical novel.
The cover note included a short synopsis of the work, as well as a few paragraphs on my background and my research into the paranormal. This was relevant because a novel like The Ghost Hunters is likely to find appeal with both, lovers of fiction, and people with a genuine interest in paranormal events. The characters, the scenes, key plot moments - all are based on recorded history and devised careful scrutiny of the historical evidence, and I wanted this acknowledged in the final work because we felt it added credibility to me as a writer.
So we had submitted. And now the waiting game began. Oh, now, that was a very tense time. I didn’t sleep, and filled my time by drafting plans for a second novel. I even jotted down ideas for a sequel, in case any prospective deal tuned on demand for a follow-up.
The first indication that things would go well came a couple of weeks later in an email I received whilst staying at a friend’s house in Barbados in January 2012. It was Cathryn. ‘Neil, can I speak with you?’
I phoned her back immediately. ‘Any offers?’
‘None yet. But I just got off the phone from a scout in New York who described your novel as one of the most accomplished, original debuts he’s read in a long time. Speak soon.’
‘Soon’ turned out to mean the very next morning.
Over coffee, overlooking the sparking ocean, I listened anxiously to my agent tell me the news I had longed to hear. ‘I’m expecting Quercus to make an offer. They want to speak with you this morning.’
That was one of the longest mornings of my life.
I drank more coffee, paced the floor, went swimming in the sea. My mind was swelling with answers to the questions I imagined they would ask me.
When eleven o’clock finally arrived, I was sitting anxiously by the phone. Five, then ten minutes, passed. Twenty. But… yep, you’ve guessed it…. No one called. And by midday I had already decided, in a moment of catastrophic over reaction, that the publisher no longer wanted my novel.
Then the phone did ring. Phew! It was Jo Dickinson, mass market editor at Quercus. I released a long sigh of relief as Jo explained that she found The Ghost Hunters both fascinating and terrifying. I listened to her wonderful ideas to improve the structure of the work and asked some questions. When did they envisage publishing The Ghost Hunters? Which scenes did they think were most effective? How did they plan to promote the novel?
Jo’s answers left me in no doubt whatsoever that this was a publisher who believed in me. And from the moment I hung up the phone my mind was spinning with new ideas for the manuscript.
A week after getting back from holiday I arrived at my desk to find an email from my agent waiting in my inbox. The subject of that email sent a shock right through me:
It simply read, “Offer.”
Those five letters of the alphabet never looked more enticing.
I clicked, opened the email. And in a second that lasted twenty years, my childhood dream came true. I’d written a novel, slaved through countless coffee fuelled nights at my computer. Pitched that novel to an agent. And sold it, eventually, to a major publisher.
I shouted, jumped up and down. I think the woman sitting next to me at work thought I had gone crazy.
‘What is it, what’s wrong?’ she asked me.
‘Nothing,’ I replied with the widest possible smile you can imagine. ‘Everything is very all right!’
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order a copy today from http://amzn.to/14kcK3e
Neil Spring
I’m asked that a lot with The Ghost Hunters. It’s my own fault. After all, I’m the one who’s been telling anyone who will listen, for the last few years, that I am writing a book.
“Later this year,” I say. “October.”
Puzzled faces all round. ‘Why so long?”
Another infuriating - but lovely - question, is: “How’s book 2 coming along?”
This one is usually asked by the close friends who haven’t seen you for months because - yep, you’ve guessed it - you’ve been walled up at home creating other people’s lives while you put your own on hold.
Up until three months ago, the conversation would then usually go something like this:
“Actually I’m still writing book 1.’
“Oh…I thought you finished that?”
“So did I.. I’m doing revisions now.”
And revisions can take a long, long time; not because editors want to make your life more difficult, but because editors are there to make your novel leaner, faster passed, and generally much, much better.
The fact is, writing a novel, re-writing it, finding an agent, securing a publishing deal, then re-writing again, is an extremely time consuming and demanding process. Over the last three years, my social life has diminished to a fraction of what it once was.
Now, with the publication date in sight (about 50 days out), I thought I’d talk a little more about the process of getting there.
I have no idea what the next 50 days have in store, but this is how life started for The Ghost Hunters.
After securing the wonderful support of my agent, Cathryn Summerhayes at William Morris Endeavour, I spent a whole year polishing the novel, re-writing key scenes. You’d think, perhaps, that after all the time I had spent on my manuscript, I wouldn’t have needed to re-write, edit, delete and write - but you’d be wrong. There are always changes, and aspiring writers, should never stop looking out for them.
We submitted at the end of 2011 and Cathryn was hopeful, but even with an agent who believed in my novel, I knew the odds of getting a publisher weren’t good. For every book that receives an offer, thousands more are rejected. Cathryn sent it out, along with a brilliant cover note, to a selection of commissioning editors who were already primed to expect a spooky, historical novel.
The cover note included a short synopsis of the work, as well as a few paragraphs on my background and my research into the paranormal. This was relevant because a novel like The Ghost Hunters is likely to find appeal with both, lovers of fiction, and people with a genuine interest in paranormal events. The characters, the scenes, key plot moments - all are based on recorded history and devised careful scrutiny of the historical evidence, and I wanted this acknowledged in the final work because we felt it added credibility to me as a writer.
So we had submitted. And now the waiting game began. Oh, now, that was a very tense time. I didn’t sleep, and filled my time by drafting plans for a second novel. I even jotted down ideas for a sequel, in case any prospective deal tuned on demand for a follow-up.
The first indication that things would go well came a couple of weeks later in an email I received whilst staying at a friend’s house in Barbados in January 2012. It was Cathryn. ‘Neil, can I speak with you?’
I phoned her back immediately. ‘Any offers?’
‘None yet. But I just got off the phone from a scout in New York who described your novel as one of the most accomplished, original debuts he’s read in a long time. Speak soon.’
‘Soon’ turned out to mean the very next morning.
Over coffee, overlooking the sparking ocean, I listened anxiously to my agent tell me the news I had longed to hear. ‘I’m expecting Quercus to make an offer. They want to speak with you this morning.’
That was one of the longest mornings of my life.
I drank more coffee, paced the floor, went swimming in the sea. My mind was swelling with answers to the questions I imagined they would ask me.
When eleven o’clock finally arrived, I was sitting anxiously by the phone. Five, then ten minutes, passed. Twenty. But… yep, you’ve guessed it…. No one called. And by midday I had already decided, in a moment of catastrophic over reaction, that the publisher no longer wanted my novel.
Then the phone did ring. Phew! It was Jo Dickinson, mass market editor at Quercus. I released a long sigh of relief as Jo explained that she found The Ghost Hunters both fascinating and terrifying. I listened to her wonderful ideas to improve the structure of the work and asked some questions. When did they envisage publishing The Ghost Hunters? Which scenes did they think were most effective? How did they plan to promote the novel?
Jo’s answers left me in no doubt whatsoever that this was a publisher who believed in me. And from the moment I hung up the phone my mind was spinning with new ideas for the manuscript.
A week after getting back from holiday I arrived at my desk to find an email from my agent waiting in my inbox. The subject of that email sent a shock right through me:
It simply read, “Offer.”
Those five letters of the alphabet never looked more enticing.
I clicked, opened the email. And in a second that lasted twenty years, my childhood dream came true. I’d written a novel, slaved through countless coffee fuelled nights at my computer. Pitched that novel to an agent. And sold it, eventually, to a major publisher.
I shouted, jumped up and down. I think the woman sitting next to me at work thought I had gone crazy.
‘What is it, what’s wrong?’ she asked me.
‘Nothing,’ I replied with the widest possible smile you can imagine. ‘Everything is very all right!’
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order a copy today from http://amzn.to/14kcK3e
Neil Spring
August 27, 2013
Ghost hunting in Venice
Ghost hunting in Venice
When I write, I don’t simply sit at my keyboard and dream up spooky stories. I go out and look for inspiration. And where could possibly better inspire strange stories of the supernatural than Venice - the most haunted city in Europe?
That’s where I am today, exploring the hidden backstreets of the city that started as a refuge for poor souls seeking refuge from the Barbarians after the fall of the Roman Empire.
It might be difficult to imagine Venice as an eerie city at the height of summer, but trust me - as the sun lowers to the horizon, you can feel the atmosphere change. It’s impossible not to imagine dark, cloaked figures lurking in the shadowy alleyways, or punting on the winding black canals.
There are a few haunted places on my list: the Casin Degli Spirti, a palace overlooking the lagoon, and otherwise known as “The House of Spirits”; and Ca Dario, a house so haunted they say it is afflicted with a terrible curse (perhaps best not to linger to long here.) I’ll let you know how I get on.
But in all seriousness, this city has inspired some pretty wonderful ghost stories. The definitive example is The Man in the Picture, by Susan Hill: a novella which builds with such a sense of dread and momentum, I found it almost impossible not to read in one sitting.
My advice - buy it now, and keep it for a cold winter’s night…
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order a copy today from http://amzn.to/14kcK3e
When I write, I don’t simply sit at my keyboard and dream up spooky stories. I go out and look for inspiration. And where could possibly better inspire strange stories of the supernatural than Venice - the most haunted city in Europe?
That’s where I am today, exploring the hidden backstreets of the city that started as a refuge for poor souls seeking refuge from the Barbarians after the fall of the Roman Empire.
It might be difficult to imagine Venice as an eerie city at the height of summer, but trust me - as the sun lowers to the horizon, you can feel the atmosphere change. It’s impossible not to imagine dark, cloaked figures lurking in the shadowy alleyways, or punting on the winding black canals.
There are a few haunted places on my list: the Casin Degli Spirti, a palace overlooking the lagoon, and otherwise known as “The House of Spirits”; and Ca Dario, a house so haunted they say it is afflicted with a terrible curse (perhaps best not to linger to long here.) I’ll let you know how I get on.
But in all seriousness, this city has inspired some pretty wonderful ghost stories. The definitive example is The Man in the Picture, by Susan Hill: a novella which builds with such a sense of dread and momentum, I found it almost impossible not to read in one sitting.
My advice - buy it now, and keep it for a cold winter’s night…
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can pre-order a copy today from http://amzn.to/14kcK3e
August 24, 2013
BRITAIN'S SPOOKIEST PLACES
(From the Daily Express, 23 Aug 2013)
1 BORLEY RECTORY, ESSEX
Footsteps in empty rooms, a human skull in the library, lights in unoccupied parts of the building, slamming shutters, locking and unlocking doors, vanishing keys, ringing bells, mysterious voices, writing on the walls, a headless coachman and a phantom nun: Borley Rectory has everything you want from a haunted house. Despite being burnt down and demolished in 1939 it still holds the reputation of being Britain's most haunted place. Today the focus of paranormal activity has shifted to the nearby medieval church where organ music played by no living hand has been heard to entertain the empty pews.
2 THE TOWER OF LONDON
Charles Dickens called it "the stronghold of ghosts". There have been reports of 54 separate hauntings at the Tower, from full-blown apparitions to some supernaturally unpleasant smells. The most famous ghosts include Henry VIII's unfortunate wife Anne Boleyn - beheaded here in 1536 - and Sir Walter Raleigh, imprisoned for years in the Bloody Tower. The most heart-rending are the ghosts of the two young princes murdered in 1483 by Richard III and said to still walk together hand in hand. The Wakefield Tower is thought to be haunted by the ghost of Henry VI and on the anniversary of his death his mournful figure is said to pace around until the clock strikes midnight. The White Tower is haunted by the White Lady who has been seen waving at groups of schoolchildren. Her perfume lingers and the scent of it has made numerous guards physically ill. The most bizarre non-human entity that has been reported was of a moving glass tube of swirling blue liquid seen in the Martin Tower. In 1817 it scared the life out of Edmund Swifte, keeper of the Crown Jewels, and his wife.
3 PENDLE HILL, LANCASHIRE
TV's Most Haunted brought this hill to national attention with its Halloween special filmed in and around the area. Team members felt as though they were being strangled, one claimed to be possessed and presenter Yvette Fielding screamed as a seance went horribly wrong. What brought them here was a 1612 witchcraft panic that had led to the hanging of 10 people on Gallows Hill near Williamson Park. Accused of murder by magic the alleged witches met at the now lost Malkin Tower in Pendle Forest but many other landmarks connected with the story are still standing and, like Lancaster Castle where they were incarcerated, are open to visitors. Every Halloween people still climb the hill looking for the Witches' Sabbath meeting.
4 BLICKLING HALL, NORFOLK
On May 19 every year a coach races up the long drive to this magnificent Jacobean hall. A headless coachman whips the headless horses and inside sits a queen, holding her head in her hands. Anne Boleyn was born here and on the anniversary of her death she is said to return to roam Blickling until daybreak. Anne's father Sir Thomas Boleyn and her brother George, who was beheaded like Anne, are also said to haunt their former home. Other ghosts include Sir John Fastolf - model for Shakespeare's Falstaff - and politician Sir Henry Hobart. The National Trust describes Blickling as "the most haunted country house in Britain".
5 THE ANCIENT RAM INN, WOTTONUNDER-EDGE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Built in the 12th century on the site of a pagan burial ground where human sacrifices were once performed (or so the story goes) this rambling inn is home to some formidable spirits. The Bishop's Room is thought to be the most haunted, claiming a murdered cavalier, a woman hanging from the ceiling, two monks, two nuns, a shepherd and his dog, and a frisky demon in the bed. Throughout strange sounds such as banging, dragging, clawing, panting and growling have been reported, as well as cold spots and strange dancing lights.
6 GLAMIS CASTLE, ANGUS
"The place," said James Wentworth Day, a former Daily Express journalist and Ghost Club member, "is undoubtedly haunted." He spent several harrowing nights in the late Queen Mother's childhood home. Thought by some to be the most haunted castle in Scotland, Glamis claims a monster imprisoned in a secret room, the ghost of Earl Beardie playing cards with the Devil and the Grey Lady in the chapel. Outside a female phantom with no tongue rushes through the grounds, Jack The Runner races up the driveway, a spectre paces the Mad Earl's Walk on stormy nights and a former Lady Glamis executed for witchcraft appears above the clock tower.
7 PLUCKLEY VILLAGE, KENT
This sleepy village, used as the backdrop for the TV series The Darling Buds Of May, is guaranteed to produce more than a restless night. With 12 spooks and 10 documented investigations it holds the Guinness World Record as the most haunted village in England. Ghosts include a screaming man, a highwayman skewered to a tree at Fright Corner, a schoolmaster who hanged himself, a gin-tippling watercress seller who accidentally incinerated herself, a White Lady, a rare Red Lady and a monk.
8 CHILLINGHAM CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND
"It's packed with troubled souls." Before he bought the castle in 1982 Sir Humphrey Wakefield brought in a psychic. Of the ghosts he said that there were "far, far too many to deal with". Sir Humphrey ignored his warning not to buy it and is now the owner, not only of an imposing medieval castle with dungeons and torture chamber but also of the famous Blue or Radiant Boy, a White Lady, the ghost of Lady Mary Berkeley, mysterious whispering voices and more. The castle runs ghost tours and recent visitors have reported spooky goings on.
9 SKIRRID MOUNTAIN INN, LLANVIHANGEL CRUCORNEY, SOUTH WALES
Billing itself as Wales's oldest inn, the Skirrid has been serving ale since 1100. It is also claimed that more than 180 people have been hanged here, some of them possibly by the infamous Judge Jeffreys, the Hanging Judge. A hangman's noose dangles in the stairwell where the grisly deeds took place. Not surprisingly it is also believed to be haunted. Former landlady Heather Grant often had first-hand experience of the supernatural, including seeing shadows walking the corridors and dodging glasses thrown by invisible hands, while patrons have reported feeling strangled.
10 JAMAICA INN, CORNWALL
Lying on Cornwall's lonely Bodmin Moor this 18th-century coaching house was once a den of smugglers and is still home to many lost spirits. The sound of horses' hooves still clatter in the empty courtyard, ghostly footsteps echo in the corridors, disembodied voices speaking Old Cornish are heard, a man in a green cloak walks through solid doors and the phantom of a murdered man has been seen sitting on the wall outside. Visitors looking for a sleepless night should ask for either Room Four or Five, both said to be haunted.
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can preorder a copy today at http://amzn.to/14DhzZF
1 BORLEY RECTORY, ESSEX
Footsteps in empty rooms, a human skull in the library, lights in unoccupied parts of the building, slamming shutters, locking and unlocking doors, vanishing keys, ringing bells, mysterious voices, writing on the walls, a headless coachman and a phantom nun: Borley Rectory has everything you want from a haunted house. Despite being burnt down and demolished in 1939 it still holds the reputation of being Britain's most haunted place. Today the focus of paranormal activity has shifted to the nearby medieval church where organ music played by no living hand has been heard to entertain the empty pews.
2 THE TOWER OF LONDON
Charles Dickens called it "the stronghold of ghosts". There have been reports of 54 separate hauntings at the Tower, from full-blown apparitions to some supernaturally unpleasant smells. The most famous ghosts include Henry VIII's unfortunate wife Anne Boleyn - beheaded here in 1536 - and Sir Walter Raleigh, imprisoned for years in the Bloody Tower. The most heart-rending are the ghosts of the two young princes murdered in 1483 by Richard III and said to still walk together hand in hand. The Wakefield Tower is thought to be haunted by the ghost of Henry VI and on the anniversary of his death his mournful figure is said to pace around until the clock strikes midnight. The White Tower is haunted by the White Lady who has been seen waving at groups of schoolchildren. Her perfume lingers and the scent of it has made numerous guards physically ill. The most bizarre non-human entity that has been reported was of a moving glass tube of swirling blue liquid seen in the Martin Tower. In 1817 it scared the life out of Edmund Swifte, keeper of the Crown Jewels, and his wife.
3 PENDLE HILL, LANCASHIRE
TV's Most Haunted brought this hill to national attention with its Halloween special filmed in and around the area. Team members felt as though they were being strangled, one claimed to be possessed and presenter Yvette Fielding screamed as a seance went horribly wrong. What brought them here was a 1612 witchcraft panic that had led to the hanging of 10 people on Gallows Hill near Williamson Park. Accused of murder by magic the alleged witches met at the now lost Malkin Tower in Pendle Forest but many other landmarks connected with the story are still standing and, like Lancaster Castle where they were incarcerated, are open to visitors. Every Halloween people still climb the hill looking for the Witches' Sabbath meeting.
4 BLICKLING HALL, NORFOLK
On May 19 every year a coach races up the long drive to this magnificent Jacobean hall. A headless coachman whips the headless horses and inside sits a queen, holding her head in her hands. Anne Boleyn was born here and on the anniversary of her death she is said to return to roam Blickling until daybreak. Anne's father Sir Thomas Boleyn and her brother George, who was beheaded like Anne, are also said to haunt their former home. Other ghosts include Sir John Fastolf - model for Shakespeare's Falstaff - and politician Sir Henry Hobart. The National Trust describes Blickling as "the most haunted country house in Britain".
5 THE ANCIENT RAM INN, WOTTONUNDER-EDGE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Built in the 12th century on the site of a pagan burial ground where human sacrifices were once performed (or so the story goes) this rambling inn is home to some formidable spirits. The Bishop's Room is thought to be the most haunted, claiming a murdered cavalier, a woman hanging from the ceiling, two monks, two nuns, a shepherd and his dog, and a frisky demon in the bed. Throughout strange sounds such as banging, dragging, clawing, panting and growling have been reported, as well as cold spots and strange dancing lights.
6 GLAMIS CASTLE, ANGUS
"The place," said James Wentworth Day, a former Daily Express journalist and Ghost Club member, "is undoubtedly haunted." He spent several harrowing nights in the late Queen Mother's childhood home. Thought by some to be the most haunted castle in Scotland, Glamis claims a monster imprisoned in a secret room, the ghost of Earl Beardie playing cards with the Devil and the Grey Lady in the chapel. Outside a female phantom with no tongue rushes through the grounds, Jack The Runner races up the driveway, a spectre paces the Mad Earl's Walk on stormy nights and a former Lady Glamis executed for witchcraft appears above the clock tower.
7 PLUCKLEY VILLAGE, KENT
This sleepy village, used as the backdrop for the TV series The Darling Buds Of May, is guaranteed to produce more than a restless night. With 12 spooks and 10 documented investigations it holds the Guinness World Record as the most haunted village in England. Ghosts include a screaming man, a highwayman skewered to a tree at Fright Corner, a schoolmaster who hanged himself, a gin-tippling watercress seller who accidentally incinerated herself, a White Lady, a rare Red Lady and a monk.
8 CHILLINGHAM CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND
"It's packed with troubled souls." Before he bought the castle in 1982 Sir Humphrey Wakefield brought in a psychic. Of the ghosts he said that there were "far, far too many to deal with". Sir Humphrey ignored his warning not to buy it and is now the owner, not only of an imposing medieval castle with dungeons and torture chamber but also of the famous Blue or Radiant Boy, a White Lady, the ghost of Lady Mary Berkeley, mysterious whispering voices and more. The castle runs ghost tours and recent visitors have reported spooky goings on.
9 SKIRRID MOUNTAIN INN, LLANVIHANGEL CRUCORNEY, SOUTH WALES
Billing itself as Wales's oldest inn, the Skirrid has been serving ale since 1100. It is also claimed that more than 180 people have been hanged here, some of them possibly by the infamous Judge Jeffreys, the Hanging Judge. A hangman's noose dangles in the stairwell where the grisly deeds took place. Not surprisingly it is also believed to be haunted. Former landlady Heather Grant often had first-hand experience of the supernatural, including seeing shadows walking the corridors and dodging glasses thrown by invisible hands, while patrons have reported feeling strangled.
10 JAMAICA INN, CORNWALL
Lying on Cornwall's lonely Bodmin Moor this 18th-century coaching house was once a den of smugglers and is still home to many lost spirits. The sound of horses' hooves still clatter in the empty courtyard, ghostly footsteps echo in the corridors, disembodied voices speaking Old Cornish are heard, a man in a green cloak walks through solid doors and the phantom of a murdered man has been seen sitting on the wall outside. Visitors looking for a sleepless night should ask for either Room Four or Five, both said to be haunted.
The Ghost Hunters is published by Quercus on October 24th, you can preorder a copy today at http://amzn.to/14DhzZF
