We all know the same ghosts: it’s simply a question of how doggedly they haunt us. Part-chilling tale, part-memoir, part-cultural exploration, Haunted: Ghost Stories and Their Afterlives takes us through some of the most chilling and enduring ghost stories, and discusses what they reveal about the listener, the teller and the times we live in. E. Jay Gilbert has been collecting tales of the supernatural from her local area (a small village outside of Newcastle) for years and what surprised her most is how universal those are: not only in terms of recurring spectres that haunt us the world over (I’m looking at you, White Ladies), but also how similar our experience of ghost-telling is, wherever we grew up. The result is a book which explores more widely the ghosts of the British Isles and how they have endured and changed through the ages: how they reflect the communities in which they originate, and how they are similar to and different from similar stories from across the world. Haunted doesn’t just thrill with the tales of the inexplicable, but also asks why are we so fascinated by ghost stories and what do they tell us about the community and people who cultivate them. Why are some tropes universal, while others are very much unique to the place they haunt? Do we actually care about the identity of the ghost? Or are we more concerned about how the alleged sighting made us feel? Aimed at both believers and sceptics, it’s not only for those who are looking to be frightened a little, but also for those interested in the psychology and history of the long tradition of supernatural storytelling.
