Ghost, paranormal and folklore books
Books about ghosts, folklore, witchcraft, paranormal research, dark history and the unexplained across Britain and Ireland.
1,217 books found
The Dark Spirit: Sinister Portraits from Celtic History
The Dark Spirit presents a selection of sinister figures, beliefs and episodes drawn from Celtic folklore and mythology. Bob Curran considers the darker side of Celtic tradition, bringing together portraits of beings, stories and historical…
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Cover unavailableThe Derby Ghost Walk
Sheila Walsh and MJ Wayland guide readers through buildings and streets associated with Derby’s ghost stories. Accounts range from Roman Little Chester to tales of monks around Friargate, connecting the city’s history with reports of…
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Cover unavailableThe Devil Is an Irishman
The Devil Is an Irishman gathers four Irish stories about encounters with the Devil, drawing on a tradition in which infernal figures appear amid ordinary rural life. Eddie Lenihan’s collection includes “Larry and the Devil”,…
View book details →The Devil's Bible
The Devil's Bible examines demonology through Fred Batt’s personal experiences, historical material and accounts associated with reported demonic activity. The book discusses possession, exorcism, protective practices, ritual traditions and the claimed dangers of summoning or…
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Cover unavailableThe Discovery of King Arthur
Geoffrey Ashe examines whether the Arthur of medieval legend may preserve memories of a real 5th-century British leader. The book traces the evidence through early chronicles, Welsh tradition and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century history, separating…
View book details →The Druids
The Druids examines the historical evidence for the religious, intellectual and social role of Druids in ancient Celtic society. Peter Berresford Ellis draws on archaeology, etymology and surviving written references to consider their origins, training,…
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Cover unavailableThe Druids: A History
The Druids: A History examines how Druids have been imagined, discussed and reconstructed in Britain from the 16th century onwards. Ronald Hutton follows the changing influence of antiquaries, historians, poets and religious thinkers, showing how…
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Cover unavailableThe East Yorkshire UFO Files
This regional investigation surveys reports of unidentified aerial phenomena across East Yorkshire. Mike Covell draws on historical records and reported sightings to explore the area’s UFO history, extending the geographical scope of his earlier Hull…
View book details →The Enchanted Land: Myths and Legends of Britain's Landscape
The Enchanted Land examines British folklore attached to the physical landscape, organising its material around seven types of land and water feature. Hills, rivers and springs provide the settings for stories that explain how particular…
View book details →The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered Animals
The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered Animals surveys reported zoological discoveries and rediscoveries from the 20th and 21st centuries, bringing together documented species, animals once thought extinct and creatures known chiefly through cryptozoological accounts. It…
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Cover unavailableThe Encyclopedia of the Occult
Lewis Spence’s reference work gathers information on occult sciences, magic, demonology, spiritism, mysticism and metaphysics. Its entries range across astrology, alchemy, witchcraft, clairvoyance, ghosts, secret societies and accounts of psychic phenomena, alongside figures associated with…
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Cover unavailableThe End of Borley Rectory
Harry Price’s sequel to The Most Haunted House in England assembles his account of reported disturbances at Borley Rectory, the Essex house associated with footsteps, moving objects, bell-ringing and the apparition of a nun. It…
View book details →The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Nation's Customs and Festivals
The English Year records England’s customs and festivals in calendar order, moving from New Year celebrations through Easter, harvest traditions and the approach of Mischief Night. Steve Roud explains when customs occur, how they developed…
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Cover unavailableThe Exeter Companion to Changeling Lore: The West Eurasian and Mediterranean Tradition
The Exeter Companion to Changeling Lore brings together international scholarship on one of folklore’s most unsettling traditions: the belief that a human child could be taken and replaced by another being. Edited by Davide Ermacora…
View book details →The Fabled Coast: Legends & Traditions from Around the Shores of Britain & Ireland
The Fabled Coast gathers legends, customs and superstitions from around the shores of Britain and Ireland. Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood range from pirates, smugglers and ghost ships to sea-serpents, fishermen’s prayers and sailors’ rituals,…
View book details →The Faerie Isle: Tales and Traditions of Ireland's Forgotten Folklore
The Faerie Isle presents 15 figures from Irish fairy folklore, bringing together familiar beings and lesser-known spirits, heroes and villains. Síne Quinn’s subjects include selkies that come ashore to dance every ninth day, mermaids whose…
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Cover unavailableThe Fairies in Tradition and Literature
The Fairies in Tradition and Literature surveys how fairy belief developed through tradition, folklore and writing. Katharine Briggs considers the different peoples and beings associated with fairy lore, including tutelary spirits, nature spirits, hobgoblins, giants,…
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Cover unavailableThe Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries records reported beliefs about fairy beings across Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. W. Y. Evans-Wentz combines field research with testimony from local witnesses, alongside introductions…
View book details →The Flying Cow
The Flying Cow presents Guy Lyon Playfair’s investigations into reported psychic phenomena in Brazil, drawing on his involvement with the Brazilian Institute for Psychobiophysical Research. Its subjects include celebrated and controversial figures such as Chico…
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Cover unavailableThe Folklore of Ancient Wiltshire
The Folklore of Ancient Wiltshire examines the legends and traditional beliefs attached to the county’s ancient landscape. Its main sections consider the folklore of round barrows, long barrows and barrow hills, linking burial mounds and…
View book details →The Folklore of Devon
The Folklore of Devon examines how the county’s beliefs, customs and traditions have been recorded, interpreted and reshaped over more than a century. Mark Norman considers the collecting work associated with Devon, then turns to…
View book details →The Folklore of Discworld
The Folklore of Discworld examines the real-world folklore behind Terry Pratchett’s imagined universe, pairing his comic observations with Jacqueline Simpson’s knowledge of British and European traditions. Legends, customs, superstitions and belief systems are considered alongside…
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Cover unavailableThe Folklore of Gloucestershire
Roy Palmer’s county study brings together Gloucestershire tales shaped by landscape, village life and local tradition. Its subjects include legends and superstitions, with reported encounters involving devils, fairies, witches and ghosts, alongside the customs that…
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Cover unavailableThe Folklore of Hereford & Worcester
The Folklore of Hereford & Worcester surveys the traditional culture of the former county through ten themed chapters. Roy Palmer covers places, people, churches, everyday life, supernatural beliefs, work, music, drama, sport and calendar customs,…
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Cover unavailableThe Folklore of Sussex
The Folklore of Sussex gathers traditional stories, customs and beliefs from across the county, linking local lore with its landscapes, villages and churches. Jacqueline Simpson discusses tales of lost bells, buried treasure, dragons, fairies and…
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Cover unavailableThe Folklore of the Cotswolds
Katharine Briggs examines the traditions, stories and beliefs associated with the Cotswolds, linking folklore to particular villages, towns, landscapes and historic sites. The book includes historical traditions, local tales and legends, customs, festivals, songs, dances…
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Cover unavailableThe Folklore of Warwickshire
Roy Palmer’s county study brings together Warwickshire traditions about celebrated figures, legendary characters and the places associated with them. Shakespeare, Charles I, Lady Godiva and Sir Guy of Warwick appear alongside accounts rooted in the…
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Cover unavailableThe Founders of Psychical Research
Alan Gauld’s study centres on Henry Sidgwick, Edmund Gurney and Frederic Myers, whose work helped shape the early Society for Psychical Research. It begins with modern Spiritualism in America between 1848 and 1855, follows its…
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Cover unavailableThe Frighteners: A Journey Through Our Cultural Fascination with the Macabre
Peter Laws examines humanity’s attraction to monsters, ghosts, death, gore and horror, combining personal memoir with psychology and religious theory. Writing as an ordained Baptist minister with a longstanding love of frightening fiction and folklore,…
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Cover unavailableThe Fylde Witch
Chris Newton retells the legends of Meg Shelton, the Witch of Woodplumpton, as a dark fairy tale rooted in Lancashire folklore. Following her from youth to old age, the novel brings together shapeshifting, boggarts and…
View book details →The Gaelic Otherworld
The Gaelic Otherworld gathers John Gregorson Campbell’s records of Gaelic belief and storytelling from the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Its first part considers fairies, fairy women, tutelary beings, the urisk, blue men, mermaids and water-horses,…
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Cover unavailableThe Geek's Guide to the Strange & Unusual: Poltergeists, Ghosts, and Demons
Rick E. Hale examines reported hauntings and unusual cases from around the world, with ghosts, poltergeists and demons at the centre of the collection. Written for a general audience, the book introduces paranormal accounts and…
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Cover unavailableThe Geller Effect
The Geller Effect combines Guy Lyon Playfair’s investigative account with Uri Geller’s own narrative of his career and claimed abilities. Its three-part structure follows Geller’s activities from around 1975, including work in Mexico, encounters involving…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Book
The Ghost Book: Strange Hauntings in Britain gathers reported encounters from across England and Scotland, arranged as a series of individual accounts rather than a continuous history. Its sections include “The Haunted Farmhouse” and “Haunted…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Files
Mike Covell examines reported hauntings in Hull’s shops, restaurants, hotels, theatres, factories and educational buildings. Each location is approached through its history as well as the supernatural stories associated with it. Contemporary records, timelines, activity…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Hunter Chronicles: The House in the Woods
The first book in The Ghost Hunter Chronicles follows Eve, Clovis and Tom after they decide to conduct a ghost hunt on Halloween night. Armed with a Ouija board, the three friends enter an abandoned…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Hunter Chronicles: The Ripper of Whitechapel
The second book in The Ghost Hunter Chronicles follows trainee ghost hunters Eve, Clovis and Tom as they investigate reports of two young children haunting a local school. What begins as a case involving restless…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Hunter Chronicles: The Vampire of Whitby
A young archaeologist vanishes during a dig at Whitby Abbey, drawing ghost hunters Eve, Clovis and Tom into a dangerous investigation. As fog settles over the Yorkshire coast, more disappearances are reported and the trio…
View book details →The Ghost Hunter Chronicles: The Witches of Pendle
A new family moving into a house in Pendle discovers a witch’s bottle containing curses, releasing the reported spirits of people accused during the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials. Their arrival brings a modern haunting into…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Hunter's Almanac
The Ghost Hunter’s Almanac gathers reported hauntings from across the United Kingdom, arranged around the places associated with them. Its entries identify haunted properties, describe where apparitions were reportedly seen and consider the probable identity…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Hunter's Guide
The Ghost Hunter’s Guide presents ghost hunting as a practical investigation, beginning with different types of ghosts, hauntings and locations. Peter Underwood outlines methods for gathering evidence, using specialist equipment, photographing reported apparitions and recording…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Hunters
The Ghost Hunters profiles notable figures in psychical investigation, examining who they were, how they worked and what they concluded about reported hauntings. Peter Underwood considers ghost hunters from earlier periods alongside more recent investigators,…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Lab: Paranormal Meets Science
The Ghost Lab: Paranormal Meets Science examines how scientific concepts are applied to reports of ghosts and other paranormal experiences. Steve Higgins discusses the electromagnetic spectrum, instrumental transcommunication and electronic methods used in attempts to…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghosthunter's Guide to England
The Ghosthunter's Guide to England gathers reported hauntings from across the English counties, linking apparitions and other manifestations with the human stories attached to particular places. Its coverage includes ghosts, phantoms, poltergeists, black dogs and…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghosts of Borley
The Ghosts of Borley records the reported hauntings associated with Borley Rectory in Essex, tracing the case from the building’s origins in 1863. Peter Underwood follows the successive incumbencies of the Reverend Harry Bull, the…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghosts of Exeter
The Ghosts of Exeter gathers reported hauntings and ghost stories associated with the Devon city and its surrounding districts. Sally Barber and Chips Barber focus on local places where apparitions, lingering legends and other uncanny…
View book details →The Ghosts of Soho: Tales of the Haunted Quarter and Its Restless Spirits
The Ghosts of Soho gathers legends, interviews, anecdotes and half-remembered tales from one of London’s most storied districts. Ima von Wenden approaches Soho through fieldwork, walking its streets, speaking with local people and recording the…
View book details →The God of the Witches
Margaret Murray presents witchcraft as the surviving trace of an organised pre-Christian religion in Western Europe. Her argument centres on the Horned God, whom she identifies behind figures and traditions recorded across European history, and…
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