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
Cover unavailableBoggarts, Trolls and Tylwyth Teg
Boggarts, Trolls and Tylwyth Teg gathers folk tales about hidden people and lost lands, placing Welsh traditions alongside stories from further afield. The Grimms’ Quiet Folk, Māori Patupaiarehe and the Welsh Tylwyth Teg appear as…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBorley Postscript
Borley Postscript revisits the reported haunting of Borley Rectory in Essex, adding further material to Peter Underwood’s earlier account, The Ghosts of Borley. The book centres on the evidence, recollections and investigations associated with the…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBotanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland
Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland gathers traditional stories about the trees, flowers and plants woven through Britain and Ireland’s landscapes. Lisa Schneidau arranges the collection around the growing year, beginning with winter’s yew,…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBrehons and Brahmins
Brehons and Brahmins examines reported connections between Irish and Indian culture through language, mythology, social organisation and law. Manchán Magan considers how similarities between Irish and Sanskrit vocabulary, the status of druids and brahmins, and…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBristol Urban Legends
Bristol Urban Legends gathers stories that have circulated through the city’s families, streets and waterways, where gossip, humour and uncertainty often blur together. Wilf Merttens and Lis Groenveld give particular attention to tales that resist…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritain's Living Folklore
Roy Palmer examines the customs, beliefs and informal traditions that have shaped everyday life across Britain. The book ranges from older rural practices and local celebrations to more recent forms of behaviour, showing folklore as…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritain's Paranormal Forests
Peter A. McCue examines reported encounters in Britain’s woods and forests, including mysterious lights, strange animal sightings, ghostly experiences and UFO claims. The cases range from troubling reports in a Kentish wood to incidents associated…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritain's Paranormal Forests: Encounters in the Woods
Peter McCue investigates reports of unusual experiences in Britain's forests and wooded places. The cases include apparitions, strange animals, UFO-related phenomena and other anomalies, with attention to both witness testimony and possible explanations.
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritain's X-traordinary Files
Britain's X-traordinary Files examines official British records relating to paranormal claims, unexplained incidents and persistent historical mysteries. David Clarke draws on files from The National Archives and other collections, including reports investigated by military intelligence,…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritain’s Ghostly Heritage
The second volume in John West’s survey of British hauntings follows reports from Edinburgh Castle to St Albans and York. A spectral mummy in London, Suffolk time-slip accounts and Welsh phantoms broaden the selection. West…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritain’s Haunted Heritage
John West collects twenty accounts of reported hauntings and supernatural traditions from England, Scotland and Wales. Subjects include the Roman soldiers associated with York, Borley’s ghost stories, the Croglin vampire and the Hexham heads. Historical…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritain’s Haunted Land
John West’s third collection of British ghost reports explores a varied landscape of apparitions and uncanny traditions. Black Shuck, spectral soldiers, Grey Ladies and time slips appear alongside haunted ships, a phantom bus and accounts…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritish & Irish Mythology
British & Irish Mythology is an alphabetical reference to the myths, legends and legendary figures of Britain and Ireland. Its entries range across Arthurian material, Welsh traditions and Irish cycles, bringing together figures such as…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritish Dragons
British Dragons traces the changing image of the dragon from classical mythology into the legends, folktales and local traditions of Britain. Jacqueline Simpson begins with serpents and sea-monsters in ancient stories, then considers how later…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritish Fairy Origins
British Fairy Origins examines how fairy legends developed within British tradition, asking where ideas about these beings came from and how they changed over time. Lewis Spence considers the origins of fairy belief alongside the…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritish Goblins: The Realm of Faerie
British Goblins: The Realm of Faerie presents Wirt Sikes’s account of Welsh fairy lore, beginning with the Tylwyth Teg and related supernatural beings. Its classifications include the Ellyllon, Pooka, Coblynau or mine fairies, and the…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBritish Goblins: Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions
British Goblins gathers Welsh accounts of fairies, ghosts, legends and customary beliefs, arranging them across several themed sections. Sikes discusses the Tylwyth Teg and related beings, including the Ellyllon, mine-dwelling Coblynau and household Bwbach, alongside…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBuckinghamshire Folk Tales
Buckinghamshire Folk Tales gathers stories from across the county, arranging them around south Buckinghamshire, north Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes. The collection brings together accounts of witches, dragons, highwaymen, ghosts, monks and the folkloric Black Dog,…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBullets, Booze & Babes: The Haunted History of Chicago & Illinois
Chicago native Rick Hale explores the city's ghost lore and the wider supernatural traditions of Illinois. The book connects reports of hauntings with gangland violence, murder and other episodes from the region's past, including stories…
View book details →
Cover unavailableBygone Suffolk: Its History, Romance, Legend and Folk-Lore
John Cuming Walters surveys Suffolk’s past through its churches, monasteries and parish traditions, combining local history with legend, romance and folk-lore. The book ranges across the county’s religious heritage, literary associations and stories attached to…
View book details →
Cover unavailableByways of Ghostland
Byways of Ghostland brings together Elliott O'Donnell’s theories, reports and folklore concerning ghosts and a broad range of occult phenomena. Its 12 chapters move from questions about the brain and spiritual experience to obsession, possession,…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCambridge Ghosts
Cambridge Ghosts gathers reported apparitions and haunting traditions from the university colleges, city-centre premises, suburban locations and the wider district. Its arrangement follows these geographical groupings, making the book suitable for tracing Cambridge’s ghost lore…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCambridgeshire Folk Tales
Cambridgeshire Folk Tales gathers stories from the county’s contrasting landscapes, linking Cambridge, Huntingdonshire and the Isle of Ely with the people and traditions attached to them. Maureen James includes accounts of Hereward the Saxon, the…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCambridgeshire Folk Tales for Children
Cambridgeshire’s giants, legends and local heroes appear in sixteen stories shaped from the county’s folklore and history. Chip Colquhoun retells tales of Gogmagog, the Wisbech and Histon giants, King John’s jewels, an eel catcher’s daughter…
View book details →
Cannock Chase: Ghosts, Monsters and the Mystery of a Haunted Landscape
Lee Brickley revisits the reported ghosts and strange creatures of Cannock Chase, drawing on nearly twenty years of collecting and investigating accounts from the Staffordshire landscape. The book returns to original cases and examines how…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCardiff Folk Tales
Cardiff Folk Tales gathers stories rooted in the city’s landscape, communities and long history of oral storytelling. Cath Little ranges from the Celtic Silures who resisted Roman rule to the working people who mined, carried…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCarlow Folk Tales
Carlow Folk Tales gathers more than eighty traditional stories from rural County Carlow, collected and retold by local storytellers Aideen McBride and Jack Sheehan. The selection ranges across the county, presenting folklore shaped by local…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCarmarthenshire Folk Tales
Carmarthenshire Folk Tales gathers traditional stories from across a county shaped by the hills of Bro Dinefwr and the coastal wetlands around Laugharne. Its accounts include ghostly happenings in Carmarthen, described as Wales’s oldest town,…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCats of Magic, Mythology and Mystery
Cats of Magic, Mythology and Mystery gathers reports and traditions concerning feline anomalies from Britain and around the world. Karl P. N. Shuker ranges across cryptozoology, folklore and animal mythology, considering mystery cats, alleged out-of-place…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCavan Folk Tales
Cavan Folk Tales gathers stories linked to the county’s history, landscape and living storytelling tradition. Gary Branigan brings together accounts of Bishop Bedell, the Great Hunger, the Black and Tans, and the Beaufighter crash on…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCeltic Lore & Legend: Meet The Gods, Heroes, Kings, Fairies, Monsters, and Ghosts of Yore
Celtic Lore & Legend brings together tales from the great Celtic myth cycles, introducing gods, heroes, legendary kings, fairies, monsters, witches and ghosts. The material draws on the story traditions associated with Celtic lore rather…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCeltic Myths and Legends
Celtic Myths and Legends gathers traditional tales from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany. Its stories feature gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, enchanted weapons, fabulous beasts and beings associated with…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCeltic Warriors
Celtic Warriors examines the armies and martial culture of the ancient Celts, placing their warfare within the wider history of Iron Age Europe. Dáithí Ó hÓgáin draws together classical accounts of Celtic tribes, campaigns and…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCeredigion Folk Tales
Peter Stevenson gathers thirty tales rooted in Ceredigion’s landscapes, communities and storytelling traditions. The collection moves from the submerged kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod and the Devil’s Bridge to the Holy Grail’s association with Nanteos, blending…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCheshire Folk Tales
Cheshire Folk Tales gathers and retells stories rooted in the county’s landscape, traditions and oral culture. Johnny Gillett brings together tales of mythical heroes, demons, dragons, boggarts and sniddlebogs, linking them with Cheshire’s canals, forests,…
View book details →
Cover unavailableChester, City of Ghosts
Chester, City of Ghosts brings together reported hauntings from the city centre, placing stories of apparitions, poltergeist activity, unexplained sounds and sudden coldness against Chester’s long history. Cameron includes accounts from hotels, pubs, churches and…
View book details →
Cover unavailableChingle: Britain's Most Haunted House
Sally Wallbank’s Chingle: Britain’s Most Haunted House centres on Chingle Hall, the moated Lancashire manor whose reputation rests on generations of reported paranormal activity. The book gathers accounts linked to the building and its history,…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCircles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites
Edited by Katy Soar, this British Library Tales of the Weird collection draws together stories about ancient stones, burial sites and the unsettling traditions surrounding them. Its contributors include Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Lisa Tuttle…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCity of Streams
City of Streams presents folklore and everyday experience in Galway during the 1930s, using material gathered by senior pupils in fourteen National Schools. Guided by their teachers and an Irish Folklore Commission questionnaire, the children…
View book details →
Cover unavailableClare Folk Tales
Ruth Marshall’s collection gathers traditional stories from across County Clare, linking its landscapes with tales of legendary people, heroic figures and otherworldly beings. Biddy Early, the county’s renowned wise woman, appears alongside Brian Boru, Finn…
View book details →
Cover unavailableClarissa's Pig and Other Animal Hauntings
Roger Long’s Clarissa’s Pig and Other Animal Hauntings gathers reports of animal ghosts associated with southern England. Its central case is the haunting named in the title, while the remaining accounts extend the subject beyond…
View book details →
Cover unavailableClassic Devon Ghost Stories
Classic Devon Ghost Stories gathers reported hauntings and traditional ghost tales associated with places across Devon. Paul White draws on several sources, including Sir Ernest Bennet and Mrs Bray, while preserving the character of older…
View book details →
Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape
Cloven Country examines how English folk legends have attached the Devil to hills, valleys, roads, rocks and other features of the landscape. Jeremy Harte traces stories of infernal labour, from stones hurled into place and…
View book details →
Cover unavailableCold Light on Spiritualistic Phenomena
Cold Light on Spiritualistic Phenomena records Harry Price’s investigation of the Crewe Circle, the spiritualist group associated with Crewe medium William Hope. Its subject is spirit photography and the methods used to test claims that…
View book details →Complete Ghosts and Legends of East Lothian
Complete Ghosts and Legends of East Lothian gathers ghost stories, legends and folklore associated with East Lothian, the historic coastal county in south-east Scotland. Its focus is local tradition: accounts and beliefs connected with the…
View book details →
Cover unavailableComplete Guide to Celtic Mythology
Complete Guide to Celtic Mythology surveys the traditions associated with the Celtic world, beginning with background on the Celts and druids before turning to stories of saints, giants, monsters, heroes and sea gods. It also…
View book details →
Cover unavailableConan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light: 1887–1920
Matt Wingett traces Arthur Conan Doyle’s developing interest in psychic questions through his contributions to the spiritualist journal Light between 1887 and 1920. Séances, telepathy, hypnosis and poltergeist reports appear within the wider story of…
View book details →
Cover unavailableConcepts of Arthur
Concepts of Arthur examines the earliest surviving literary and folkloric evidence surrounding Britain’s most enduring legendary figure. Thomas Green assesses the case for a historical Arthur while questioning the assumption that the stories must preserve…
View book details →