Join Ross Andrews on his journey through the magical haunted Forest of Dean.

At one time or another, most people have experienced a creepy, spine-tingling sensation they can’t explain. Science may rationalize these fears, blaming a natural fear of the unknown, an open window or a drafty doorway, but millions of people believe there is much more to it than that – and who can say they are wrong? Glamis Castle in Scotland, made famous by Shakespeare’s Macbeth is said to be haunted by a whole host of ghostly residents. Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, another spooky literary hub, is perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking places on earth. Ghosts traces the cultural and literary origins of the paranormal, uncovers the dark secrets beneath the myths and untangles the enigma of the supernatural. Contents: ghosts and poltergeist, the afterlife and immortality. Ghost messengers paranormal/supernatural:exorcisms, vampires. ghost-hunting Halloween, seances, ouija board. True ghost stories: Amityville Murders, Tower of London, Resurrection Mary, Pendle Hill, Glamis Castle, Dracula’s Castle. Films: Ghost, The Ring, The Grudge, The Woman in Black, Poltergeist, The Sixth Sense, What Lies Beneath, Just Like Heaven, Sleepy Hollow, White Noise, Ghostbusters.

Covers various aspects of the Forest of Dean. This title describes the successive invasions from Romans to tourists.

This anthology explores the spatial dimension and politics of haunting. It considers how the ‘appearance’ of absence, emptiness and the imperceptible can indicate an overwhelming presence of something that once was, and still is, (t)here. At its core, the book asks: how and why do certain places haunt us? Drawing from a diversity of mediums, forms and disciplinary approaches, the contributors to Spectral Spaces and Hauntings illustrate the complicated ways absent presences can manifest and be registered. The case studies range from the memory sites of a terrorist attack, the lost home, a vanished mining town and abandoned airports, to the post-apocalyptic wastelands in literary fiction, the photographic and filmic surfaces where spectres materialise, and the body as a site for re-corporealising the disappeared and dead. In ruminating on the afteraffects of spectral spaces on human experience, the anthology importantly foregrounds the ethical and political imperative of engaging with ghosts and following their traces.

This book covers cases throughout history, including malign spirits and gentle ghosts, apparitions, wraiths, haunted houses and spooky urban myths. Each entry gives details of the date, location and course of events, as well as providing a historical context and analytical assessment of the phenomenon.