Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236961 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

Not complete enough...
I'm afraid this was a distinct disappointment. The title raises great expectations and a cover endorsement by none other than Colin Wilson adds to them. I suppose I was expecting something a little more ... complete. The book does cover a lot of haunted ground but in rather a shallow way (I felt similarly about the Idiot's Guide to Ghosts); more pages would maybe have allowed greater depth and development of themes. It begins well enough with a look at early societies' views on phantoms and the Fox sisters 'contribution' to the field, which are often disregarded in these sort of books, then begins to follow a generally chronological path.

Things get rapidly ensnared in a popular culture approach to ghosts and more or less stays at that level. Film star hauntings, celebrity psychics, possession, some of the more florid haunts from around the world (more foreign ghosts would have been useful to make a comparison with British cases), ouija boards, with too much on some of these and too little on others. There's an interesting little section on London Underground ghosts and a great story about C.S. Lewis (what an interesting person to become a ghost). But the question of just what a ghosts are and how they may be categorized is sketchy.

A chapter including how to conduct a ghost hunt and ghost hunting equipment is far too short. There seems also to be nothing about the premier ghost hunters - O'Donnell, Underwood, Holzer, Green, Forman, Mackenzie, Lyon-Playfair - except a little on Harry Price (mainly Borley and only alluding to the controversies there). The Ghost Club and SPR get a few paragraphs - too few. To add insult to this injury there is a section concerning the dubious antics of a certain tv show involving the oleaginous Mr Acorah.

This is best suited to ghost novices as long as the contents are not taken as complete 'gospel' on the subject. Better alternatives would be the Spencers' Encyclopedias and also Guiley's Encyclopedia, which is much more complete, albeit with still fairly brief entries and arranged in alphabetical form.

A ghost hunters must
This is like a bible to all ghost hunters out there.I have been ghost hunting for a while but this book taught me more.Some great accounts.A must!