Waterstones A Natural History of Ghosts
324 ratings
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Price: £10.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: The fascinating true history of ghosts - how we see them and why we believe in them, from Roger Clarke What explains spectral sightings? Why do we fear the supernatural? What proof is there? Growing up in a haunted house, Roger Clarke spent much of his childhood trying to see a ghost. From the terrifying true events behind Henry James's The Turn of the Screw to the frenzy of the Cock Lane poltergeist, he takes us on a journey of belief with ghosts of every kind. Waterstones A Natural History of Ghosts - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9780141048086
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9780141048086
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Author: M A H
Rating: 5
Review: I really enjoyed the book. I did a spell of "ghost hunting" in my youth and reading the history of the subject was absolutely fascinating. My one niggle about this book is the punctuation. It's so bad it's distracting and made for some hard and confusing reading at times. So many unnecessary commas!
Author: Dr Peter A. McCue
Rating: 2
Review: Roger Clarke’s interest in ghosts goes back to his childhood. His book is wide-ranging, covering not just apparitions, but also related topics, such as poltergeist phenomena and physical mediumship. As the title suggests, its focus is mainly historical. He discusses, for example, the haunting of a house at Hinton Ampner, Hampshire, in the 18th century, the ‘Drummer of Tedworth’ case in Wiltshire in the 17th century, the mediumship of Daniel Dunglas Home in the 19th century, and the alleged haunting of Borley Rectory in Essex in the 19th and 20th centuries. The book reflects a considerable depth of research on Clarke’s part, for which he deserves credit, but there are some omissions and errors. For example, he mentions a pamphlet (published in January 1643) that claimed that there’d recently been apparitional re-enactments of the Battle of Edgehill in the area concerned (pp. 228-30). (The battle was the first major clash of the English Civil War, and was fought near Kineton, Warwickshire, on 23rd October 1642.) However, there were, in fact, TWO pamphlets that made such claims, although they depicted the events somewhat differently. Clarke seems to be unaware that a colleague (Dr Alan Gauld) and I published a detailed examination of this case in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research in 2005, and concluded that the claims in the pamphlets may well be false. On pp. 155-6, Clarke alludes, fleetingly, to a debate as to whether hypnosis should be construed in ‘state’ or ‘non-state’ terms. Unfortunately, he displays a serious misunderstanding of this issue. Briefly, and to put the record straight, ‘state’ theorists contend that hypnosis involves a special state of consciousness (often referred to as a ‘hypnotic trance’), whereas ‘non-state’ theorists contend that the behaviour and experiences of hypnotic subjects can be explained without recourse to the notion of a 'hypnotic state'. The book contains numerous endnotes (pp. 311-43). But in my view, it would have been better if the content of most of them had been incorporated in the main text. Helpfully, there’s an index, and there are numerous illustrations. Oddly, though, the chapters aren’t numbered. For me, the worst aspect of the book – and the reason I’ve given it only two stars – is that it's not very clearly written. Indeed, I nearly gave up when I reached the tenth chapter, although it seemed to get a bit more lucid after that. Part of the problem is Clarke’s predilection for using pretentious (‘literary’?) language. His text is peppered with arcane words, such as 'commingled' (p. 6), ‘iatrochemist’ (p. 83), ‘phasmophobic’ (p. 133), ‘fossicking’ (p. 137), ‘chapbooks’ (p. 149), ‘tumbrel’ (p. 171), ‘caparisoned’ (p. 223), and ‘vchemical’ (p. 245). There’s even a bit of public school-speak: ‘Michaelmas Half’ (p. 84). All told, I felt that reading the book was like swimming through treacle!
