New Books and Media

Amberley Publishing is one of the most significant producers of regional paranormal books in the country, issuing them at a prodigious rate. I’ve rounded up a few titles, but this is just a sample, and I would recommend visiting their website to see if there is one for your area, or an area you plan to visit. You can find reviews of some of the other titles on this website. Paranormal Anglesey, by Bunty Austin, 2013, ISBN 9781848683150 Paranormal Bath, by Malcolm Cadey, 2010, ISBN 9781848681767 Paranormal Eastbourne, by Janet Cameron, 2010, ISBN 9781848689961 Paranormal Leicester, by Stephen Butt, 2011, ISBN 9781848687523 Paranormal Surrey, by Marq English, 2011, ISBN 9781848688964 Haunted Wiltshire, by Sonia Smith, 2012, ISBN 9781848684027

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: A twelfth century Gilbertine priory, a Chrysler car factory, a de-sanctified church and a Georgian period lavatory-just a few of the haunted localities from the case files of 1970s ghost buster Tony Broughall. Here you will find some of the most interesting and unusual of our native British ghosts, from a headless witch and a spectral plague cart through to the sinister shade of a clawed monk and the apparition of a Second World War tank. This practical guide covers over 150 notorious and lesser known hauntings of both Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire in an easy to access A-Z format and includes original accounts of paranormal investigations by one of this country's senior and highly experienced figures-perfect for practical researchers and armchair ghost hunters alike. Foreword by Peter Underwood FRSA. 
 
Tony Broughall has over forty years experience as an investigator of paranormal activity. Paul Adams is a paranormal historian and co-author of The Borley Rectory Companion (2009)

Review by Melvyn Willin

From the publisher’s website: For the first time, the best articles from "The Skeptic" in one volume. The collected writings from over 20 years of the publication, with articles by eminent academic researchers, and contributions from sceptics including Stephen Fry and Paul Daniels, and a foreword by Guardian political writer, Simon Hoggart. Why do statues weep? Did Nostradamus really predict 9/11? Is it true that we only use 10% of our brain power? Does quantum theory explain the mystery of consciousness? For 21 years, questions like these have been posed, and answered, in the pages of The Skeptic magazine, Britain’s foremost and longest-running skeptical magazine, dedicated to the pursuit of truth through reason and evidence. This collection brings together the best articles from the magazine’s archive in one myth-busting volume. It covers a wide range of topics, including psychic fraudsters and claims of psychic healing and alien abduction; near-death experiences, false memories, and much more.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: The Roman scholar Pliny the Younger was one of the first to write about ghost hunting: 2,000 years later, and the hunt still goes on. For all the thousands of hours spent by investigators in cold, dark houses, ghosts remain elusive and unproven.

This book sets out to be a practical guide to ghost hunting. Examining cases from the distant past and the present day, this book asks if it is possible to find the truth in this age-old quest. A detailed history of the three major paranormal societies is complemented by advice on which one to join, and when. If you have ever wondered how to organise your own ghost hunt, a list of essential equipment and a step-by-step guide to choosing your ideal spooky location is also included.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: With this issue, The Anomalist seeks to provide sudden jolts of illumination to spark the imagination. "Electricity of the Mind" is instant CPR for the head.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: Join Ross Andrews on a paranormal journey around not only the city of Oxford, but also the towns and villages of Oxfordshire. A ghost hunter for over twenty years, he was chairman of the Parasoc society, the paranormal research society as well as running his own paranormal nights at St Briavel’s castle - the Most Haunted building in the world! So with this pedigree in the paranormal it’s no surprise he was drawn to investigate the historic spooks of Oxfordshire.  The book has a variety of aspects to it, there are ghost walks that you can do for free around the centre of the city, as well as telling you which spooks to spot throughout the colleges. There is also a large section on the surrounding areas of Oxford for you to go to, so that you can investigate for yourselves. He will offer rational explanations wherever possible, and if not then let you decide for yourself. There are also handy hints should you wish to follow in his footsteps and become a ghost hunter.  Ideal for anyone curious about the unexplained, or even for the tourist who wants to see something different on a visit to Oxfordshire. Ross has tried to concentrate on stories and places that you can have access to, pubs, streets, fields, castles, museums. and many more. So join him on a journey into the unknown and explore the paranormal throughout Oxford, and Oxfordshire.

A ghost hunter for over twenty years Ross takes us on an adventure through the heart of the Forest of Dean, this book concentrates on haunted tourist attractions so that you too can go into them and investigate for yourself. So join us and prepared to be scared as we venture through haunted castles, pubs, mines, and woodland in the Forest Full of Frights.  This book has a variety of aspects to it. Firstly, it takes you on a trip around the centre of the forest to several museums, castles and pubs. The second part of the book is a about what is possibly the UK’s most haunted building, St. Briavel’s castle, it tells you how to stay in some of the most haunted rooms, and even how to join in with a ghost hunt. The third part of the book is a further guide on how to be a ghost hunter yourself, giving you examples and experiments to do.  An ideal book for anyone curious about the unexplained, or even a paranormal tourist travelling through the Forest of Dean, this is a truly frightening glimpse into the unknown . Turn the pages if you dare, and join Ross on the adventure of your life….or afterlife! 

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: Despite the scientific and intellectual advances of the past five hundred years, populist belief in the supernatural, as evidenced by media investigations into the paranormal, continues to be culturally and socially relevant. Throughout history, ghost beliefs have been a source of literary inspiration and learned investigation. They prompted public panics and scandals, and have been manipulated for political and religious purposes. This five-volume reset edition draws together representative and defining printed sources to reveal changing perceptions of ghosts at different social levels from the Reformation through to the twentieth century in Britain and America.

In the face of growing scholarly interest in the history of ghosts, this groundbreaking edition is the first documentary survey of the field from the early modern era through to the industrial age. Sources have been chosen to present a clear chronological story of continuities and changes in the social and intellectual relevance of ghosts. They focus on the key published debates that emerged in each century, and illustrate the full range of literary formats that reported or discussed ghosts. American material is included in the final two volumes to reflect the US birth of nineteenth-century spiritualism.

The edition benefits from full scholarly apparatus, including a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index in the final volume. The set is broadly interdisciplinary and will appeal to those researching Social and Cultural History, History of Science, History of Religion, Literature and History of the Supernatural, as well as Early-Modern, Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century History.

From the cover information: This is the story of an unusual relationship between the woman who calls herself ‘Marine Waterloo’ and Father ‘Jonathan’, the priest who befriended her at their Catholic boarding school in the state of Minas Gerais. They kept in touch after Marine left school, married and raised a family. Following the birth of her second son, Marine was presented with compelling evidence that the boy had memories of incidents that had not taken place in his short lifetime, and of which he could have learned nothing by any normal means.
 
The case, which is strongly suggestive of reincarnation, came to the attention of the pioneer of Brazilian psychical research, Hernani Guimarães Andrade, who promptly carried out a thorough investigation with the full cooperation of Dona Marine, who proved to be an ideal witness.
 
The result is an account of one of the most convincing cases of its kind on record. Andrade examines all possible explanations for it – cryptomnnesia, genetic memory, telepathy, mediumship, deliberate fraud and reincarnation. Only the last of these, he argues, best accounts for the facts.
 

Reborn for Love, although of considerable scientific interest, is no dry academic thesis. It could be called a spiritual love story – an account of how a relationship can endure from one lifetime to another.

From the publisher's website: Evidence of the Afterlife shares the firsthand accounts of people who have died and lived to tell about it. Through their work at the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long and his wife, Jody, have gathered thousands of accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) from all over the world. In addition to sharing the personal narrative of their experiences, visitors to the website are asked to fill out a one hundred–item questionnaire designed to isolate specific elements of the experience and to flag counterfeit accounts. 
 
The website has become the largest NDE research database in the world, containing over 1,600 NDE accounts. The people whose stories are captured in the database span all age groups, races, and religious affiliations and come from all over the world, yet the similarities in their stories are as awe-inspiring as they are revealing. Using this treasure trove of data, Dr. Long explains how medical evidence fails to explain these reports and why there is only one plausible explanation—that people have survived death and traveled to another dimension.

From the publisher’s website: Personalised accounts of out-of-body (OBE) and near-death (NDE) experiences are frequently interpreted as offering evidence for immortality and an afterlife. Since most OBE/NDE follow severe curtailments of cerebral circulation with loss of consciousness, the agonal brain supposedly permits 'mind', 'soul' or 'consciousness' to escape neural control and provide glimpses of the afterlife.

Michael Marsh critically analyses the work of five key writers who support this so-called "dying brain" hypothesis. He firmly disagrees with such otherworldly 'mystical' or 'psychical' interpretations, ably demonstrating how they are explicable in terms of brain neurophysiology and its neuropathological disturbances. The original basis and thrust of Marsh's claim sees the recorded phenomenology as reflections of brains rapidly reawakening to full conscious-awareness, consistent with other reported phenomenologies attending recovery from antecedent states of unconsciousness: the "re-awakening brain" hypothesis. From this basis, Marsh also offers a re-classification of NDE into early and late phase sequences, thereby dismantling the untenable concepts of "core" and "depth" experiences.

Marsh further provides a detailed examination of the spiritual and quasi-religious overtones accorded OBE/NDE, highlighting their inconsistencies when compared with classical accounts of divine disclosure, and the eschatological precepts of resurrection belief as professed credally. In assessing the implications of anthropological, philosophical, and theological concepts of 'personhood' and 'soul' as arguments for personal survival after death, Marsh celebrates the role of conventional faith in appropriating the expectant biblical promises of a 'New Creation'.

From the publisher’s website: The Supernatural North is the latest in a long line of books by Darren W Ritson. This exciting new volume details scores of the most terrifying ghost tales and supernatural legends that the north of England has to offer. From the Scottish Borders to South Yorkshire, from the North West Coast to the North East Coast, this book is sure to delight all ghost enthusiasts.

Featured in this volume is a full chapter devoted to the South Shields Poltergeist case which the author co-investigated with Mike Hallowell in 2006. A large section of the book is also dedicated to the north of England’s most famous haunting, Willington Mill, along with various other chapters detailing spine chilling ghosts and blood curdling hauntings from the North Country. There is also a fascinating and detailed look at the north’s screaming skull legends.

Places visited in the book number into their hundreds and include theatres, castles, public houses, hotels, stately homes, public parks and even a lighthouse or two. With a lengthily foreword by Peter Underwood FRSA – acknowledged as the world’s leading ghost hunter, The Supernatural North promises to be one of the finest ghost books you will ever read.

Review by Tom Ruffles

From the publisher’s website: The first book to explore, in depth, the complete range of paranormal phenomena reported in Cheltenham. Here you will find accounts of well known hauntings, as well as many previously undiscovered locations. 

This fascinating account of local ‘sightings’ looks at traditional historical legends as well as modern day experiences, providing fresh knowledge together with the author’s personal accounts of new and traditional stories. 
Ross Andrews’ ghostly tour of the area is illustrated with many of his own photographs.

Review by Chris Romer