Book review: A Natural History of Ghosts, By Roger Clarke

Beginning with his own uncomfortable early encounter with an eerie corner of his old family house, Clarke's compelling account of apparitions, phantoms and bumps in the night through the centuries takes us from the Medieval Age through to the current day, and from the science of ghost hunting to the scandals around seances.

There are plenty of chilling anecdotal 'sightings' along the way, evocatively described, though they are counterbalanced by history's biggest hoaxes and charlatons.