A note on hauntings, reputed, and otherwise.

I must admit to being a little taken aback lately by some comments that have appeared on a small number of my Facebook posts relating to alleged hauntings. The purpose of these posts is to entertain, not to make any statement relating to any factual basis, or lack thereof, for the stories that are contained therein. Their origins are often obscure, their meanings contested, and their substance frequently augmented by invention.

Traditional ghost stories arise from a number of sources, and become attached to certain locations, and sometimes figures, often first having acquired a coherent form in oral tradition before being taken up in print by folklorists, amateur antiquarians, and the press. Some have been further worked up by sensationalist writers, or exploited by enterprising landlords of historic inns with an eye to making their ghostly residents pay for their lodgings. Whether there should be a kernel of truth lurking within any of these stories, or none of them, is beside the point. Each of them adds a little extra colour to the place with which it is associated, a certain romance, and charm. They may make an otherwise prosaic setting enchanted, although many ghosts are associated with locations that are both scenic, and picturesque.

England’s haunted landscape makes for another realm, that often intersects with, and is shaped by, the reality of its historic counterpart. In the traditional ghost story, one often encounters the embodiment of a popular desire for those who have abused their position in life – such as the Hanging Judge, Judge Jeffreys of the Bloody Assizes – to be punished for their sins through being compelled to return to this world in the form of some sad shade. Atonement and remorse are common components of such tales, as are unrequited love, and loss. It is these universal and powerful themes, that allow the ghost story as a form to exert its longstanding appeal, as well as the chronic uncertainty, and fear, of what lies beyond this temporary state that we know as life.

As for the books that I publish, they are original works of fiction, although they often draw upon, and incorporate, elements of traditional supernatural lore and superstition: a vengeful spirit here, a genius loci there; occult fraudsters, demons and half-forgotten deities. Many are set in real locations, whereas others are set in a fictionalised West Country village, or house, spanning the centuries, and time immemorial.