A grand tour of the haunted house through art, architecture, ghost stories and more

A CRIB NOTES MUST-READ FOR SPOOKY SEASON AND BOOKSELLER TOP OCTOBER PAPERBACK PICK 'Glorious' PHILIP HOARE 'A supernatural safari - just the sort of book to read over Halloween' DAILY MAIL Do you have what it takes to cross the threshold? Crumbling turrets, crenelated walls, creaking floorboards. We all know a haunted house when we see - or feel - one. That creeping sense of wrongness. An icy shiver stealing down the spine. But why do certain structures set this super-sensory alarm bell jangling, while others leave us unmoved? Can a house be purpose-built to be haunted? And does a building need a bloody legacy to set the skin tingling? Tiptoe through the haunted gallery at Hampton Court Palace, encounter the spectral residents of Chillingham Castle and lose yourself in the labyrinthine layout of Winchester Mystery House as Caitlin Blackwell Baines unravels the psyche, the history and the folkloric fabrication that make a haunted house take on a life of its own. Enter if you dare... 'Every horror fan, coffin boffin and certified creep needs to read this book' ALICE SLATER

"Fascinating, elegant and unexpected" - SPECTATOR

"Real-life violence isn't essential to the creation of haunted houses, Baines argues, but it does make ghostly visitations more likely (or perhaps just easier to sell to others). A relatively recent, Anglo-American phenomenon ... Baines is good on people's motivations for believing in haunted houses: comfort, intrigue, but most of all money [with] the rise of what she calls 'Gothic tourism' in the UK during the 20th century ... [though] preserves a degree of credulousness in the face of all the historical evidence she assembles, effectively inviting us to make up our own minds" - LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

"An intriguing read that delves deep into the cultural obsession with the haunted house, and while Baines isn't afraid to play devils advocate, she's more than happy to scare the reader to death in the process. Perfect Halloween fodder" - BUZZ MAGAZINE

"Entertaining ... we pick up all sorts of fascinating titbits on this supernatural safari. This is just the sort of book to read over Halloween, as the shadows lengthen and the candle flickers ... the author, an art historian, is less interested in whether ghosts are real than in how they and their dwellings gained such a grip on our imaginations" - DAILY MAIL

"Why are the British so fascinated by haunted houses? Baines suggests that collectively we cannot stand the idea of grand houses standing empty or only partially used, and we must, therefore, populate these empty houses with the inhabitants that we believe should rightly be there. As a nation, we still have an anxious attachment to the past ... The more things change, the more they could yet stay the same. Whether that is a comforting thought or a horrifying one is in the eye of the beholder." - THE TELEGRAPH

"A pleasure to read ... stimulating, erudite and carefully constructed" - FORTEAN TIMES

"A timely exploration of why certain buildings prompt us to think they are haunted, examining the pscyhe the history of folkloric fabrications of the haunted house" - BOOKSELLER