Give it a chance and An Illustrated History of Ghosts will take you on a spooky journey around the world - but not the kind you’re used to. This isn’t a collection of ghost stories so much as a beautifully designed reference book you can dip in and out of. It sits somewhere between a coffee-table book and an accessible, well-researched guide to ghosts, hauntings, and our relationship with death.
Instead of chasing jump scares, you’re lurking in the darker corners of history, exploring different societies’ relationships with death and whatever might come after it… ghosts. This illustrated study of ghosts and hauntings digs into our long-standing fascination with death and the dead in a way that spans time and cultures. From Spiritualism to exorcisms, ghost towns, time slips and (boo hiss) even skeptics, An Illustrated History of Ghosts leaves no haunted stone unturned (which, as M. R. James warned us, is not always wise).
The book is organised thematically rather than chronologically, with each section focusing on a different theme. You move through self-contained chunks - séances here, exorcisms there, a detour into time slips - each paired with Adam Allsuch Boardman’s distinctive illustrations, which are eerie, charming, and utterly captivating.
Crucially, the information throughout is both engaging and factually accurate - a rare and welcome combination in paranormal publishing. It’s a genuinely absorbing book that’s also accessible, making it suitable for curious younger readers as well as grown-up ghost geeks who want something solid to get their teeth into.
If you’re looking for in-depth case studies or a heavy critical takedown of specific ghost hunters, this isn’t that book; it’s a wide-angle introduction to how ghosts and hauntings appear across cultures and history, not a forensic sceptical investigation. Personally, I think it fills its chosen niche very well.
One tiny detail I adore: at the back, just before the glossary, there’s an illustrated guide to People of Ghostlore and, if you look closely, there’s a tiny little me. I am, apparently, a person of ghostlore, and I’m very flattered.
Tiny illustrated ego boost aside, this is one of the few ghost books I’d happily recommend to both believers and non-believers alike.
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