With its long history of conflict and many tragic events, York boasts more than its fair share of ghosts, ghouls, phantoms and things that go bump in the night. In fact, York claims to be 'Europe's most haunted city', and sometimes it seems as though a ghostly figure with a score to settle is in residence in just about every deserted street or dark ginnel in the old town. Discover the fascinating history of the Minster and the legend of the haunted pew, the story of the terrible massacre at Bedern Orphanage, the stories behind the sightless severed heads which have throughout history gazed down on the citizens of York from Micklegate Bar, meet the real Dick Turpin and discover the truth about his death over 260 years ago. Join Yorkshire guide Philip Lister as he takes you on a terrifying tour of York's dark and ghostly side.

When well-to-do Hester learns of her sister Mercy's death at a Nottinghamshire workhouse, she travels to Southwell to find out how her sister ended up at such a place. Haunted by her sister's ghost, Hester sets out to uncover the truth, when the official story reported by the workhouse master proves to be untrue. Mercy was pregnant - both her and the baby are said to be dead of cholera, but the workhouse hasn't had an outbreak for years. Hester discovers a strange trend in the workhouse of children going missing. One woman tells her about the Pale Lady, a ghostly figure that steals babies in the night. Is this lady a myth or is something more sinister afoot at the Southwell poorhouse? As Hester investigates, she uncovers a conspiracy, one that someone is determined to keep a secret, no matter the cost... ********** 'A creepy, evocative mystery' Heat 'An historical novel dripping with menace' Shari Lapena 'If you like gothic mystery, buckle up! This atmospheric read has it all' Woman magazine

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE 2020 'A uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature' Philip Hoare 'An exciting new voice' Mark Cocker, author of Crow Country In his late thirties, Edward Parnell found himself trapped in the recurring nightmare of a family tragedy. For comfort, he turned to his bookshelves, back to the ghost stories that obsessed him as a boy, and to the writers through the ages who have attempted to confront what comes after death. In Ghostland, Parnell goes in search of the 'sequestered places' of the British Isles, our lonely moors, our moss-covered cemeteries, our stark shores and our folkloric woodlands. He explores how these landscapes conjured and shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema, from the ghost stories and weird fiction of M. R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to the children's fantasy novels of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper; from W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and Graham Swift's Waterland to the archetypal 'folk horror' film The Wicker Man... Ghostland is Parnell's moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists - and what is haunting him. It is a unique and elegiac meditation on grief, memory and longing, and of the redemptive power of stories and nature.

Who's that? Is someone there? A whisper of air brushes your cheek. Then all is still. Maybe it was just the wind. Or maybe it wasn't. . . .

Maybe you've just been visited by the late Ida Day lurking in the basement of Hutchinson's public library or the widow Tarot staring forlornly from an upstairs window at Fort Scott, or the phantom Earl floating behind the scenes in Concordia's Brown Grand Theater. And maybe the horrific Albino Woman truly does haunt Topeka, turning romantic nights into nightmares. . . . maybe.

Pursuing the stories behind these and other spectral manifestations, Lisa Hefner Heitz has traveled the state in search of its ghostly folklore. What she has unearthed is a fascinating blend of oral histories, contemporary eye-witness accounts, and local legends. Creepy and chilling, sometimes humorous, and always engaging, her book features tales about ghosts, poltergeists, spook lights, and a host of other restless spirits that haunt Kansas.

Heitz's spine-tingling collection of stories raps and taps and moans and groans through a wealth of descriptions of infamous Kansas phantoms, as well as disconcerting personal experiences related by former skeptics. Many of these ghosts, she shows, are notoriously linked to specific structures or locations, whether it is an eighteenth-century mansion in Atchison or a deep--some have claimed bottomless--pool near Ashland.

The evanescent apparitions of these tales have frightened and at times amused Kansans throughout the state's long history. Yet this is the first book to capture for posterity the lively antics of the state's ghostly denizens. Besides preserving a colorful and imaginative, if intangible, side of the state's popular heritage, Heitz supplies ghost-storytellers with ample hair-raising material for, well, eternity. Maybe that person breathing softly behind you has another such story to share. Oh, no one's there? Perhaps it really was just the breeze off the prairie.

There has been an upsurge in books, television programmes, films and websites exploring the reality or otherwise of the spirit world. Not since the founding of The Ghost Club in 1862 and the Society for Psychical Research in 1882 has ghost hunting been so popular. Television and the internet, in particular, have fueled this new level of interest, creating a modern media phenomenon that spans the globe. But while the demand for information is high, good information remains scarce. A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting leads us through the process of ghost hunting, from initially weighing the first report, to choosing equipment, and investigating and identifying the phenomena, with an analysis of the best places to go looking, methods of contacting the spirit world, how to explain paranormal activity and, crucially, how to survive the encounter. However, it is also a book about ghost hunting itself, drawing on 130 years of research in the cavernous archives of the Society for Psychical Research and even older history to find the earliest ghost stories. A Ghost Hunting Survey makes use of interviews with those billing themselves as ghost hunters to find out their views, motivations and experiences. New and original research makes use of statistics to map the nebulous world of apparitions while a Preliminary Survey of Hauntings offers an analysis of 923 reported phenomena from 263 locations across the UK. This is, as far as possible, an objective presentation of ghosts and ghost hunting. It is no wonder that mainstream science largely refuses to deal with the subject: it is too complicated. Without trying to convince you of any viewpoint, this book is intended to help you understand more.

Gordon Smith, hailed as the UK's most accurate Spiritual Medium, is respected internationally both for his ability to convey precise messages from the Spirit World, filled with a level of detail that astounds people, and also as one of the world's foremost teachers of mediumship. In this fascinating updated edition of one of his bestselling books, Gordon sheds light on: - how mediums and psychics get their information - why spirits choose to communicate with us - the truth about ghosts, poltergeists and hauntings - out-of-body experiences and altered states of awareness - re-incarnation and memories of past lives. While Gordon is the first person to acknowledge that people's imagination, grief or distress can affect their perceptions, and that charlatans and frauds only add to the confusion, his incredible experiences and research have inspired him with a passion to reveal what really happens in the Spirit World. In The Unbelievable Truth, he lifts the lid on these 'insider' topics with wit, insight and great knowledge.

The Trickster-god is a strange and rather wonderful mythological figure who is found in folklore and legend right across the world, from the Norse Loki to the Greek Hermes to the Raven and Coyote of the Native American peoples. The ultimate 'cunning fool', he and the many subversive tales told about him have been studied down the years by anthropologists, historians, literary theorists and psychologists from Ted Hughes to C. G. Jung. But in the twenty-first century, should the Trickster also be studied by parapsychologists and ghost hunters? Nobody believes in gods like Hermes or Loki anymore, but that does not mean that people do not still tell one another tales about such Tricksters and their mischievous ways. They do, but in disguised form - the disguised form of the poltergeist. Belief in Trickster-gods, this book argues, has today been transformed into popular belief in Trickster-ghosts, with those noisy, disruptive, roguish spirits known as poltergeists fulfilling largely the same imaginative function as more traditional Trickster-figures like Robin Goodfellow once did. By playing childish tricks upon us, poltergeists appear to reveal our current world-view to be in some way incomplete, breaking the accepted circles of 'official' materialistic, scientific logic and provoking laughter at their irreverent audacity in doing so. Rather than being intended to frighten, perhaps the true purpose of certain ghost stories is in fact to amuse, perplex and provoke? Whether true or not, such ghost stories still function as genuine Trickster-myths, providing those who read them with access to a hidden realm lurking somewhere just beyond the rational, in which the usual rules of science, logic and reality simply do not apply. Perhaps in doing so they act as a kind of 'emotional safety-valve', intended to allow mankind temporary respite from the sometimes oppressive social forces surrounding us. Covering a wide global selection of reported poltergeist phenomena from ancient times right up to the present day, and then subjecting them to a process of literary, historical and sociological analysis, Blithe Spirits is one of the most unusual, original and wide-ranging books about the subject ever to be written.

This is the Amazing Story of the Enfield Poltergeist On August 31st 1977, normal life ended for Mrs Harper and her four children in their modest council house in a hitherto quiet corner of the north London suburb of Enfield. Compared to what was to come, the initial phenomena were relatively minor - knockings on the walls, and pieces of furniture moving in ways that did not seem normal. The neighbours came in and searched the house, finding all in order, though they too heard the knocking. The police were called, and were able to witness a chair sliding along the floor. The disturbances went on, getting more intense and more frightening. They were eventually witnessed by at least thirty people. They included examples of everything a poltergeist can do - overturning chairs and tables, flinging things about, whipping off bedclothes, levitating one of the girls in full view of passers-by, making her speak with the voice of an old man and defying the laws of physics by passing matter through solid matter. Much of this bewildering and often terrifying activity was captured on tape and film by Maurice Grosse of the Society for Psychical Research and his colleague Guy Lyon Playfair, who were on the case within days of its outbreak stayed on it until it finally came to an end, with a twist as unexpected and surprising as in any detective story. No other case of its kind has been so well witnessed from start to finish or so thoroughly documented. Incidents are described as they happened, without embellishment, from some six hundred pages of transcripts of live tape recordings. The story of the Enfield poltergeist is already regarded as a classic in the annals of psychical research. It has been the subject of worldwide press coverage and several radio and television documentaries.

2011 Reprint of 1921 edition. Illustrated Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Fully illustrated with dozens of charts and drawings. This book covers all phases of the spirit world; particularly the powers of good and evil; the underworld, fallen angels, demonism, the intermediate state, heaven and hell, the resurrection of the body and the judgments of the righteous and the wicked. Larkin is well known as a biblical interpreter and lavishly illustrates many of his works. He is best known as the author of Dispensation Truth, also published by Martino Fine Books.

Who knew that our experience would push us over the edge of disbelief and through the door of certain terror? Debra Pickman had always wanted a ghost of her own. She never expected her wish to come horrifically true when she, her husband, and their newborn son moved into a century-old home in Atchison, Kansas, that-to their shock-is also occupied by a fire-starting spirit child named Sallie ...and darker, aggressive forces. Gradually, Debra becomes attached to Sallie and adjusts to her ghostly mischief-toys turning on by themselves, knick-knacks moving, and electrical disruptions. But serious problems arise when she can't control Sallie's habit of lighting fires. What's worse, her husband Tony becomes the victim of scratches, bites, and terrifying ghostly attacks that are clearly the work of other menacing entities. Discover how the ongoing terror takes its toll on their nerves, sanity, and marriage, and what finally forces the Pickmans to flee the infamous Sallie House.

A fabulous collection of ghost hauntings in Suffolk, from the infamous Black Dog of Bungay to the headless Anne Boleyn stalking visitors at Blickling Hall. The serene, low-lying countryside of Suffolk, with its scattered farms, water-meadows and extensive coastline, seems an unlikely area to be associated with ghosts and demons. Yet, a motley array are said to haunt the region. The most famous is the Black Dog, a spectral hound, which in the year 1577 terrorised and killed parishioners in the churches of Bungay and Blythburgh, and continues to exert a strong presence today. Other strange phenomena include phantom coaches, rattling through the countryside at night, drawn by spectral horses and driven by a headless coachman, and the freshwater mermaids who lure young children to their deaths in pools and rivers. Tobias Gill the black drummer haunts the crossroads near Blythburgh where he was hanged for the murder of a servant girl, and Mrs. Short, the 'Queen of Hell', can still raise the hairs on your neck if you wander in the region of Boulge Hall near Woodbridge. Famous characters such as Anne Boleyn, Earl Hugh Bigod, and St. Edmund add an additional lustre to folk tales of the area, and strange happenings occur in many of the churchyards, Suffolk having more churches per acre than almost any other county. This fascinating account of local 'sightings' deals with all the traditional historical legends as well as modern day sightings, and investigates their relevance and significance for the modern age.

Examines how the ancient customs of constructing and keeping a house formed a sacred bond between homes and their inhabitants
- Shares many tales of house spirits, from cajoling the local land spirit into becoming one's house spirit to the good and bad luck bestowed by mischievous house elves
- Explains the meaning behind door and window placement, house orientation, horsehead gables, the fireplace or hearth, and the threshold
- Reveals the charms, chants, prayers, and building practices used by our ancestors to bestow happiness and prosperity upon their homes and their occupants
Why do we hang horseshoes for good luck or place wreaths on our doors? Why does the groom carry his new bride over the threshold? These customs represent the last vestiges from a long, rich history of honoring the spirits of our homes. They show that a house is more than a building: it is a living being with a body and soul.
Examining the extensive traditions surrounding houses from medieval times to the present, Claude Lecouteux reveals that, before we entered the current era of frequent moves and modular housing, moving largely from the countryside into cities, humanity had an extremely sacred relationship with their homes and all the spirits who lived there alongside them--from the spirit of the house itself to the mischievous elves, fairies, and imps who visited, invited or not. He shows how every aspect of constructing and keeping a house involved rites, ceremony, customs, and taboos to appease the spirits, including the choice of a building lot and the very materials with which it was built. Uncovering the lost meaning behind door and window placement, the hearth, and the threshold, Lecouteux shares many tales of house spirits, from the offerings used to cajole the local land spirit into becoming the domestic house spirit to the good and bad luck bestowed upon those who seek the help of the "Little Money Man." He draws on studies and classic literature from old Europe--from Celtic lands and Scandinavia to France and Germany to the far eastern borders of Europe and into Russia--to explain the pagan roots behind many of these traditions.
Revealing our ancestors' charms, prayers, and practices to bestow happiness and prosperity upon their homes, Lecouteux shows that we can invite the spirits back into our houses, old or new, and restore the sacred bond between home and inhabitant.

Although the evidence for ghosts is largely inconclusive, there has throughout history always been a widespread belief in paranormal beings and to this day the telling of ghost stories continues to intrigue and disturb us. With black and white photos of some of the old buildings that claim to be haunted and locations of where these lurking spirits can be seen, "Discovering Ghosts" aims to reveal some of the most interesting and persistent of all British ghost stories and will provide an abundance of unsettling tales to frighten and excite the reader, or even entice the brave to track down these ghosts for themselves.

A guide to the capital's most terrifying and spooky corners - enter at your peril.London has been the site of executions, murders, betrayals and treason. It is said you can see the Ripper's victims on street corners, hear the screams of Guy Fawkes at the Tower of London, and much, much more.Discover what lurks behind the normal life of the capital city. Watch out for the mysterious monk commemorating the only act of violence in Westminster Abbey and keep your eyes peeled in Whitechapel for the tragic ghostly figure of Mary Ann Nicholls, the first victim of the gruesome Jack the Ripper.Step inside this guide and walk the ancient streets of Haunted London. Grouped by area and covering hundreds of years of supernatural spooky tales, this guide is sure to shock anyone. A city almost as full of ghosts as it is of tourists, London is full of ghoulish and eerie histories to make you shudder - read on if you dare...

Discover the historical tapestry of San Diego through a haunted tour of cemeteries, hotels, restaurants, museums, libraries, battlefields, and even fairgrounds. Join the San Diego Paranormal Research Society as they explore ghostly occurrences and examine eyewitness and curator accounts alongside paranormal researchers firsthand experiences. Learn about the types of ghosts, spirits, and hauntings at more than 25 locations and the theories behind their existence. From downtown San Diego, Julian, and the Gaslamp Quarter District to the North, West, and East Counties, learn why Americas Finest City could be in the running for Americas Most Haunted City. San Diegos Most Haunted is a collection of spooky spaces and paranormal places that is sure to delight, educate, and entertain.

When a dark shadow passes overhead, do you stop? Or do you run? Infamous sky monsters have haunted our imaginations for centuries. The Thunderbird, steeped in Native American folklore, supposedly controls evil by throwing lightning. The Jersey Devil is said to roam the Pine Barrens of South Jersey, terrorizing anyone who crosses its path. And the cryptic warnings of Mothman have worried residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, since the 1960s. In A Guide to Sky Monsters: Thunderbirds, the Jersey Devil, Mothman, and Other Flying Cryptids, authors T. S. Mart and Mel Cabre introduce 20 flying cryptids with legends that span the United States. With 70 hand-drawn illustrations, A Guide to Sky Monsters details our fascination with these creatures and describes both historical evidence found in the fossil record and the specifics of modern-day sightings. By studying the fact, fiction, and pop culture surrounding these notorious beasts, Mart and Cabre help us lean into the question, "What if?" A Guide to Sky Monsters, perfect for the believer and skeptic alike, addresses the wider truths about flying cryptids and leaves us all to wonder whether that breeze was the wind or a wing.

Got Ghosts? Las Vegas certainly has, and many of them. There's an abundance of paranormal activity in this super hot, dry, and enchanting desert. Come join us on the South side of Las Vegas as we learn about a ghost who gets a home owner's attention by hanging a child's Barbie doll from the ceiling. Listen to a ghost who likes to play the Ukulele on the North side of town. Meet the ghost of a Grandpa in the area of Sunrise Mountain who won't leave until his new grandchild is born, and a spirit in the Summerlin neighborhood who made contact with the residents by writing messages on their bathroom mirrors! Do you believe in ghosts? You will, after hearing about the specters of Las Vegas!

The ghosts Linda Williamson writes about in this book are not misty phantoms. She prefers to call them earthbound spirits, because that is just what they are - ordinary men and women who, instead of passing into the spirit world when they died, have remained trapped and bound to this world. As a medium, Linda encounters many such spirits. Very few are evil, most are lost and confused. Some do not even realise that they have died. With love and compassion they can be released, so that they can move forward to the place where they belong. If you have ever sensed a presence in your house, glimpsed a shadow out of the corner of your eye, or heard inexplicable noises, it may be that you are sharing your home with an earthbound spirit. Linda explains what to do in these situations and gives a fascinating insight into what it is like to be an earthbound spirit.

From the wilds of Scotland to the ruins of an old Abbey on the South Coast of England psychic medium and paranormal expert Diana Jarvis has investigated connected with and been terrified out of her wits by a plethora of poltergeists and apparitions. Join her as she relives some of her most bizarre encounters. Funny and frightening these accounts are very real and will take you out of your armchair and transport you to each cobweb infested location. Experience the terror of sharing personal space with a Jack the Ripper suspect, face off a murderer and black magician as he attempts a supernatural slaying or feel the passion of a man separated by death from his love. Backed by witness statements this book will make you think again about life after death. With each series of experiences Diana also gives you techniques to protect yourself and help understand what is happening when you encounter the dead face to face. So grab your digital thermometer and get ready for the ride of your life and Afterlife

'Heather Atkinson is my no.1 author. She keeps you glued to her books from beginning to end.' Edinburgh 1880. When Amy Osbourne's parents are lost at sea, she is forced to leave her London home and is sent to live with her aunt and uncle at the opposite end of the country. Alardyce House is depressing and dreary, her aunt haughty and cruel. Amy strikes up a friendship with her cousin Edward but his older brother Henry is just as conceited as his mother, and a mutual loathing develops between him and Amy. As her weeks of mourning pass, the realisation begins to dawn on Amy that her aunt has designs on her inheritance and the candidate she favours to be her niece's husband fills Amy with horror. Struggling in this strange, unwelcoming environment, Amy begins to suspect that something isn't right at Alardyce House. There are rumours below stairs of a monster on the loose, local women are being brutally attacked and her cousin Henry is the prime suspect. Alardyce House is full of dark secrets and Amy isn't sure who she can trust... If you love Emily Organ, Kate Saunders and Ann Granger, you'll loveThe Missing Girls of Alardyce House. Discover bestselling author Heather Atkinson and you'll never look back... Please note this book was previously published as Sins of a Father. What readers are saying about Heather Atkinson: 'What a story. This book I think is the best yet from Heather Atkinson and I have read all hers so far.' 'Another brilliant book from Heather...she really is one the best in the business. ' 'I have read ALL Heather Atkinson's books. They are all fantastic.' 'I stumbled upon Heather's books and I'm so glad I did, characters excellent and storylines are great, I find myself searching the book stores for more of them to read the minute I finish one.'

Look into Virginia's paranormal past through the haunted plantations of its most famous residents. Journey to some of the earliest settlements of the New World at the Adam Thoroughgood House and Bacon's Castle and discover why spirits of their founders refuse to leave. Explore homes of founding fathers at Berkeley and Red Hill and learn one mysterious trait they sharethe ghosts of children. Visit sixteen more Old Dominion houses to learn why spirits linger. Tales of murder, suicide, hidden fortune, and heartbreak in Virginia will haunt you.

Since ancient times, accounts of supernatural activity have mystified us. Ghost stories as we know them did not develop until the late nineteenth century, but the restless dead haunted the premodern imagination in many forms, as recorded in historical narratives, theological texts, and personal letters. The Penguin Book of the Undead teems with roving hordes of dead warriors, corpses trailed by packs of barking dogs, moaning phantoms haunting deserted ruins, evil spirits emerging from burning carcasses in the form of crows, and zombies with pestilential breath. Spanning from the Hebrew scriptures to the Roman Empire, the Scandinavian sagas to medieval Europe, the Protestant Reformation to the Renaissance, this beguiling array of accounts charts our relationship with spirits and apparitions, wraiths and demons over fifteen hundred years, showing the evolution in our thinking about the ability of dead souls to return to the realm of the living--and to warn us about what awaits us in the afterlife.

Star of Kindred Spirits and paranormal investigator Amy Bruni shares stories from her years of experiences with ghosts, organized around thirteen truths that guide her approach to the supernatural. Amy Bruni, co-star of Kindred Spirits and one of the world's leading paranormal investigators, has learned a lot about ghosts over her years of research and first-hand experience. Now, in Life with the Afterlife, she shares the insight she has gleaned and how it has shaped her unique approach to interacting with the spirits of the dead and those who encounter them. From her earliest supernatural encounters as a child, through her years appearing on Ghost Hunters and the creation of her company Strange Escapes, which offers paranormal excursions to some of America's most notoriously haunted destinations, and into her current work on The Travel Channel's Kindred Spirits, this book is full of astonishing and deeply moving stories of Amy's efforts to better understand the dead but not yet departed. With Amy's bright humor and fierce compassion for both those who are haunted and those who are haunting, Life with the Afterlife is an eye-opening look at what connects us as people, in life and beyond. A USA Today Bestseller