Haunted Britain: Supernatural Realms of the United Kingdom

by J.G. Montgomery

Take a social, historical, and cultural journey of paranormal discovery throughout Great Britain with more than 50 locations for the shadowy and often unexplained world of ghosts and the supernatural. Visit the London Dungeon where an unseen hand in the mortuary room pokes people in the ribs. Journey to the Ancient Ram Inn in Wotten-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, to learn historic accounts of ritual child sacrifice, black magic, suicide, witchcraft, and murder. Find out about the Enfield poltergeist activity that pervades into this century. Discover the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Explore time-slips, black dogs and other spectral animals, haunted caves, graveyards, and tunnels. From the ghosts of London's tragic past to haunted manors and ancient barrows, to the wilds of Bodmin Moor and brooding serenity of Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, follow a cultural historian to the strange and wonderful haunted places in the UK.

240 pages, Hardcover

Published June 15, 2017

Reviews

[Bekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok, and has some interesting elements. I enjoyed hearing a lot of the tales, but it got fairly "same-y" after a while. I do wish they had included photos of all the places the author talked about, and maybe a map. Maybe this book is solely for a British audience who knows all these places already, but for American me, I a had to keep googling them as I read. I did like that the author takes his subject seriously, but with a scientists outlook - open-minded that there might be something to these tales, but also upfront that much could be attributed to natural causes. I think people who are interested in ghost stories and paranormal events would enjoy this.

[J. d'Merricksson · Rating 3 out of 5]

***This book was reviewed for Schiffer Publishing via Edelweiss

Montgomery's Haunted Britain is a tour of the whole of the UK, looking into hauntings in a variety of places, from inns, to castles, to taverns, and more. Great Britain, comprising England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and several small islands, is rich with ancient history. In addition to in-depth research, Montgomery visits as many of these sites as possible, in hopes of a ghostly encounter of his own, and relates his experiences of the places he is able visit.

Montgomery takes the time, throughout the book, to look at various explanations as to how ghosts are formed, what they are, and how dangerous they might actually be. Poltergeist phenomena, possible possession, and other Otherworldly encounters, such as Gef, the talking mongoose, are discussed in terms of how they stack up with ghost theories. One of my favourite theories, that may explain at least some ghostly encounters, is time-looping. We think of time as linear because we are linear beings, but it isn't and the theory is that on occasion what we see is actually a breach or brief blurring of the barrier between 'now’ and 'then’.

Rather ironically, as I've been reading through this book, I happened to be watching the show Ghost Adventures, only paying half attention to the show, and what should catch my attention? An episode on the Edinburgh Vaults that spoke of Greyfriars, and the ghost of Mackenzie.

I did find some of the writing a bit stilted, and repetitive in phrasing. The segues between topics didn't flow smoothly. Indeed, much of the time it seemed a bit abrupt. There was a confusing tendency to switch between present and past tense, sometimes even within the same paragraph. Also… overuse of the word 'reputedly’. Itgets used throughout the book a lot! Like the word 'allegedly’, ‘reputedly’ sets my teeth on edge. To me, it feels like a mocking of the events in question, be it a ghost encounter or victimisation of crime. It feels like we are saying 'this didn't really happen and you know it.

📚📚📚 Recommended if you enjoy the paranormal or ghosthunting.