British Christmas Ghost

On Christmas morning in the 1640s, a Scottish minister walked through his parish and looked inside every house in it. He was checking that nobody had roasted a goose. That is British midwinter folklore as its own records describe it. Not snow and spirits — cold, hunger, obligation, and a great deal of enforcement. A household in Shropshire is still blamed, a century later, for an avalanche that killed its neighbours, because it once lent a man a light. A young woman stands in a Nottinghamshire street at one in the morning, locked out of her own home until a male relative can be found to ...

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A disgraced scholar. A dead man's journal. A silence that answers. Winter, 1888. Ruined by a single footnote and out of options, philologist Alastair Finch accepts a charity post arranged by the younger brother he cannot forgive for arranging it: three weeks alone in a stone library above the Welsh coast, cataloguing a dead man's books. In the archives he finds the Vigil-Bell Log — kept night after night for five years by a man who signed himself Silas Davies, Watchman of the Coast, and who walked out of the belfry one Christmas Eve leaving behind a cold bell and a warm chair. It is not a...

★★★★★ “Atmospheric, unsettling, and wickedly clever — the perfect Christmas ghost story.” ★★★★★ “A chilling blend of folklore, grief, and gothic horror.” Bodmin Moor, December 1811. Snow falls. Hunger bites. And something old has awoken at Jamaica Inn. Delivers automatically to your Kindle on release — ready for Christmas Eve Be careful what you wish for. Be very careful... Jamaica Inn, Bodmin Moor. December 1811. 'I have seen him. He came in the night. His face was blackened with peat, his eyes like the hollows of the earth. Diabolus incarnatus. First as a ...

It’s strange what you can miss if you don’t care to look. You really should, you know; you ought to keep your wits about you, lest someone step forth from the shadows and give you a fright. I speak from experience, believe me. One bitterly cold December morning, snobbish theatre critic Lionel Smallwood and his wife Frances find themselves enjoying the wares of the Victorian Christmas market in the Dorset town of Grimstone Peverell. Chilled to the marrow, they retire to the town’s minster where they are accosted by a pious and enthusiastic guide. Eager to acquaint them with every ...

A supernatural tale with a blithe spirit and a humorous twist. The year is 1920, and it's Twelfth Night by the old reckoning. Festivities are about to commence at Hinton St Cuthbert Manor when something sinister stirs from its protracted dormancy, awakened, it would seem, by the arrival of two young guests. The old ways, they find, should not be treated lightly. Also available in the Kindle collection A Ghost Story Omnibus: Collected Ghost Stories 2016-2018, and in the Amazon paperback Anthology: Wry Out West.

Travel along with actor and podcaster Tim Downie as he explores the strange and beautiful places that have shaped British folklore. Tim brings to life the mystical stories that shape the character of our isles. Push through the bramble and briar to embark on a journey through the seasons...

Dana didn’t heed the warning about not using the house on the island at Christmas time. She went ahead and did it anyway. But some doors are better left unopened. When Dana and Sterling decide to escape London’s dreary confines, and spend Christmas at the families island house, they defied a Christmas tradition. No one should spend Christmas day at the cove. When the couple arrive they discover a ghostly Christmas tree, its candles burned to stubs, and a dust-covered copy of A Christmas Carol, relics of a bygone era. But their fascination turns to horror when the veil between the living...

Brought to you by Penguin. YOU SAW IT. YOU WERE TOO SCARED TO ACT. BUT NOW IT’S COMING FOR YOU. From the mind behind the international bestseller The Whisper Man comes a new nightmare… Daniel Garvie was a teenager when he encountered a serial killer: ‘the man made of smoke.’ Unlike the...

A PACY, CHILLING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO STOP READING! A house full of secrets… The McBride house lies on a remote Scottish island, isolated and abandoned. A century ago, a young widow and her son died mysteriously there. Last year a local boy, visiting for a dare...

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Last Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by three festive spirits, and the bleak vision of his future has haunted him ever since. He wants to be a good man, and he never wants to see another ghost as long as he lives. But changing your ways for a day is easy. Changing your ways for ever is a...

You are cordially invited to a Yuletide celebration at Hembry Castle—where tradition, romance, and a bit of metaphysical mischief collide. Victorian England is at its most enchanting during the holidays, but for the residents of Hembry Castle, the season brings more than just snowfall and evergreen boughs. A young couple finds their budding romance tested. Enter a mischievous ghost with a Dickensian flair for timing. In the spirit of A Christmas Carol, this meddling spirit is determined to ensure that the Staton legacy doesn't lose its heart. Witty, sparkling, and deeply festive, ...