Published by English Heritage to celebrate the diversity and maintainence of a series of prperties looked after by them, Eight Ghosts is a treat of a book I came across recently browsing in an Oxfam Bookshop. Eight new stories set in eight not so new locations. From cold War bunkers to sturdily constructed English castles, where the ancient stones and dusty rooms contain so much more than are dreampt off in our pjilosophy, so to speak.
The collection has an impressive list of contributers, set in equally impressive locations. Mood and tone vary, as do the entities caught in the spider webs of their designated haunts.i am not familiar with English Heritage but a brief perusal of their aims would incline me to learn more, presumably this also acted as a draw for those who did contribute a story. The book was published to help raise money for their cause and the quality of the tales between its cover should insure this happens. The book respects the old traditions of English ghost story telling but it also leans into modernity in a series of interesting ways, as does the epilogues of information which follows the stories. Whimsy, tragedy and the supernatural abound, open up the covers and let them out.
