I tend to think of stories about the supernatural experiences of the past more a feature of history and beliefs rather than anything weird or supernatural. Ghostly events never just occur randomly. So when a non-fiction book comes up about ghosts I am very excited to take a look.

This is another wonderful guide from the National Trust so I know that it will be detailed and researched well. As happens with most of their guides, the book is organised in regional sections so visits can be planned, with a useful index at the back. It is very well laid out with a spooky colour scheme that includes creative gothic artwork and colour coordinated headers and emphasis paragraphs.

This is quite a comprehensive guide that includes castles and stately homes of course, but also ordinary homes, pubs hotels and outdoor free spirits that dwell in lakes, forests, moorlands and marshes. Not forgetting the famous battlefields of our history. As Groves says, 'Whether you're a believer in ghosts or not, you can't deny the existence of ghost stories, and there is not a part of the UK that doesn't have its stories to tell.'

The author starts by explaining briefly the psychology of telling scary ghost stories and mentions how we deal with them in modern times, featuring documentaries on television and even ghostly reality tv. However, the strength of this book is the collective history these ghost stories give us, showing that there is more than just an ending to a person when they die. The first ghostly site is 'The Bucket of Blood' pub in Cornwall. You just know you want to read on...

​This guide is full of history and folklore and is written well without mocking anything paranormal but not being gratuitously horrific. The tone is right for a book of this type, which deals with murder and deaths of real people in short sections in each region. Interesting to note that there is portal to another world in Cannock Chase, in Staffordshire -not too far from me, so if I disappear for a while you know where I am. Perhaps not.

Excellent book: interesting, informative, accessible and slightly chilling. Recommended for those who love folk history and grand days out.

A really interesting look at Britain's haunted places around the country. from pubs to castles, forests to lakes. I was particularly intrigued by the The Ancient Ram Inn in Gloucestershire - reputedly the 'most haunted building in England'. This is a great introduction to local history as the author kindly fills in the historic details, but it all felt rather surface detail. This is more a gazetteer of haunted places than a discussion about the supernatural. Enjoyable read.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Collins Reference/National Trust Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This was such a creepy read with great information about some very haunted and spooky places complete with beautiful illustrations.

This book is exactly what the title
Describes - short yet interesting couple of pages per ghost with enough info to creep you out but no waffle. Easy read could recommend.

‘’All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.’’
Haunted Houses, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Buckland Abbey, Dartmoor. The crimes of the wreckers, preying upon the North Devon coast, resulting in tragedies too terrible for words and manors that seem to move. In Glastonbury Abbey where Christianity meets legend in St Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur, monks and women drift down the corridors, echoing a past that still fascinates us After all, the Tor hidden in the mists is one of the most beautiful sights you will ever experience. The Ancient Ram Inn, the Tower of London, Canterbury, Preston Manor, Hampton Court Palace with its Anne Boleyn spectre. Houses so cursed that had to be torn down, battlefields echoing the souls that met their end in blood.

Religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants that produced some of the blackest pages in European History. Cannock Chase where portals open, lost in the millennia, and a Black-Eyed child terrorise visitors since the 70s. After all, who said ghosts are meant to stay in the past? High Peak District hides the scene of a tragic love and Newstead Abbey is forever sealed by the fate of its famous inhabitant, Lord Byron himself. Beware of the Lantern Man and the terrifying Black Shuck in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire and see if you can meet the unjustly perished family of the Boleyns in Blickling. Sutton Hoo and Pendle Hill stand witnesses to a glorious and dark past, from the Anglo-Saxon era to the terrible witch-hunting and the cries of the innocent. In Cumbria you may listen to the cries of the Crier of Claife. In North Yorkshire, in Treasurer’s House, spectres appear by the dozen, from ladies to Roman soldiers stuck in the loop of the centuries that go by. The Thackray Museum of Medicine, Bamburgh Castle and Chillingham Castle in Northumberland (with the coolest Torture Chamber ever and the story of a devil in human form that once ‘’worked’’ there as a professional torturer.

From Ceredigion and Caerphilly in Wales to Ballygally Castle in County Antrim and the mythical Mourne Mountains in County Down in Northern Ireland, from Glencoe and the Scottish Highlands to haunting Edinburgh, Britain is there to remind us that life beyond the grave DOES exist in various forms. The nay-sayers can go and read a book or something, their opinion is irrelevant anyway.

I have dozens of books on Britain and its hauntings, its spectres and legends. This volume is going to become THE guide to a troubled, violent, yet enchanting past. And Anna Groves is a brilliant writer!

Thank God for the National Trust.

Many thanks to National Trust Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A slim book that tells the ghostly histories of some of the locations in the UK (NI included).
It is curious, informative and engaging, and has a nice colour palette that matches the topic.
This is a quick read and a great book for inspiration.

One hot tip - do not open this book after a certain hour of the night. For fans of the supernatural and unexplainable, this book will chill your bones.