THE WORLD OF THE UNKNOWN: GHOSTS: PART 3 ADAM NEVILL

To celebrate the rerelease of Usbornes' World of the Unknown: Ghosts, Ginger Nuts of Horror has invited some of the UK's finest horror writers to tell us about their encounters with Ghosts.   First published in 1977, this cult classic has been reissued for a new generation of ghost-hunters. This book is for anyone who has shivered at shadowy figures in the dark, heard strange sounds in the night, or felt the presence of a mysterious 'something' from the unknown.

Ghost stories are as old as recorded history and exist all over the world. Many of the different kinds of ghosts that are thought to haunt the Earth and their behaviour are described here. You will meet haunting spirits, screaming skulls, phantom ships, demon dogs, white ladies, gallows ghosts and many more.

This book also explains the techniques and equipment of ghost hunting and tells how lots of 'ghosts' have been exposed as fakes or explained away as natural events. Also included are some theories that attempt to explain the possible existence of ghosts.

With a brand new foreword by BAFTA-winning writer, comedian and actor Reece Shearsmith, otherwise the book remains unchanged from the original.

Today we welcome author Adam Nevill 

Adam L.G. Nevill was born in Birmingham, England, in 1969 and grew up in England and New Zealand. He is the author of the horror novels: ‘Banquet for the Damned’, ‘Apartment 16’, ‘The Ritual’, ‘Last Days’, ‘House of Small Shadows’, ‘No One Gets Out Alive’, ‘Lost Girl’, and ‘Under a Watchful Eye’. His first short story collection, ‘Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors’, was published on Halloween, 2016, and won the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. His second collection of short fiction, ‘Hasty for the Dark: Selected Horrors’ was published on Halloween 2017.

His novels, ‘The Ritual’, ‘Last Days’ and ‘No One Gets Out Alive’ were the winners of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. ‘The Ritual’ and ‘Last Days’ were also awarded Best in Category: Horror, by R.U.S.A. Several of his novels are currently in development for film and television, and in 2016 Imaginarium adapted ‘The Ritual’ into a major motion picture.
Adam also offers three free books to readers of horror: ‘Cries from the Crypt’ (downloadable from his website), ‘Before You Sleep’ and ‘Before You Wake’ (available from major online retailers).

Adam lives in Devon, England.

I can't claim to have seen a ghost, but I have had a few uncanny experiences. One of these occurred during a holiday with friends in a very old thatched-roofed cottage in Dorset in the early 90s; an adjacent barn had a big heated swimming pool inside it. Lovely place. And this was an old building, for sure, and one that incited some mischievous behaviour from a couple of the guys later in the week, in which they tried to manufacture something eerie. And yet, without any human intervention, the eeriness seemed to occur naturally, or supernaturally, from the first night.

The recurrent traipsing of footsteps upstairs, when everyone was downstairs, none of us could explain. Temperature changes affecting the bending or straightening of floorboards or timber? It is physically possible, but the rhythmic nature of the footsteps that we heard traversing the first floor, through the ceiling, no one could explain. It happened so often that by the end of the holiday we were ignoring it, or even joking about it - the first few times it happened we all assumed one of us had gone to the loo upstairs. I remember the evening - we were playing Trivial Pursuit - when we all realised that everyone in our party was in the same room, downstairs, so who was walking upstairs? We even searched for an intruder.

I am sure I would not have been able to stay there alone. In a group of 8, yes. But not alone.
On the last evening we were awoken by the slamming of cupboard doors in the kitchen downstairs - everyone was in their room, two to a room - and a couple of people became so upset that had it been a joke, it wouldn't have stayed funny for long. There was no one downstairs when we were brave enough to investigate the ground floor. To me, this final commotion had felt like an intensification of the activity in the house; once the footsteps were no longer having any effect something wanted our attention and was prepared to get it the hard way. I'm glad that was our final night, because the final disturbance suggested agency from something that none of us could see.

I called the owners to let them know we'd vacated, posted keys etc, at the end of the week and sheepishly asked if other holidaymakers had ever reported a disturbance in that property. Without  a pause, the owner said, "Are you asking me if it's haunted?" She went on to say that she believed it was haunted. That nearly everyone who stayed there told them something similar to our experience.  And someone even took a photo of the ghost looking through the window of the pool room.


I heard an interesting story recently, from a baker in the old part of Paignton. She's had a bakery for nearly 30 years on the same premises and told me that the upper part of the building was once used for a small, private school, with about a dozen children attending, taught by one man - the master, or headmaster. Local elderly people remembered the school when they were children; the teacher even taught local kids until he was very elderly.

Tenants who have since rented the upper part of the building, which is now a flat, occasionally glimpse an old man wearing a formal suit, sitting in a chair in one of their rooms as if he never left his place of work.

CLICK HERE TO READ PART ONE FROM TIM LEBBON 

CLICK HERE TO READ PART TWO FROM MATTHEW CASH