Get spooky with Chrissie Manby!

As a child, I was a huge fan of ghost stories.  I subscribed to a comic called ‘Scream’ (long before the film) and even sent off a drawing of a corpse in my first ever bid for publication.  As I got older, I would spend time earmarked for exam revision reading Edgar Allan Poe and watching Hammer Horror films.  Vampires, werewolves and Frankenstein’s monster were fascinating but I can’t honestly say they ever really frightened me.

What I find scary is that little twist on the ordinary. Such as the scene in Serena Mackesy’s excellent ghost story Hold My Hand, when the heroine realizes that someone has rearranged the ornaments on the mantelpiece. Adam Nevill’s Apartment 16, set in an ordinary London apartment block, so much like the one I was living in, had me so terrified I had to leave the flat where I was reading alone and sit in a café until someone came to keep me company.

There’s something about reading a ghost story that is so much more evocative that seeing it on film. I think it’s because when we’re reading, we tailor the word-drawn horror to fit our very own worst nightmares and they’re actually rarely giant monsters created from the body parts of a dozen dead peasants. I could face down a werewolf dressed in a clown outfit no problem.  I eat enough garlic to invite Dracula to ‘bring it on’ without fear.  But am I the only one who can never look at a cupboard door that’s slightly ajar without worrying that something is looking right back at me? Now that is what I call really spooky.

Not a fan of creatures that go bump in the night? Get your hands on Falling Leaves and Fireworks for a heartwarming story set around Hallowe’en and Firework Night.