Ackroyd's book has its fair share of terrified hauntees and, unless you're a sceptic, there are plenty of scenes that will make the hairs on the back of your neck bristle

A rich and compelling assembly of stories for winter nights

This is a wonderful little book. It's properly old-fashioned and unorthodox, a scrapbook of clues, tittle-tattle, hints and mortal byways

Ackroyd's collection glides seamlessly from terror to humour to downright peculiarity: it is the ideal read as the nights darken and Halloween approaches

A fascinating anthology of sightings of ghosts in England over the centuries

A winning compendium

He has found some sterling stories. It's for life, not just for Hallowe'en

Everybody loves a good ghost story and this selection of spooky sightings, both scary and comical, will certainly satisfy an appetite for eerie reading

The stories have a pleasing strangeness, even, or perhaps especially if one does not believe in ghosts

The story of the phantom hitchhiker did give me the creeps