Anthony Poulton-Smith

I picked this book as another Halloween read for book group. It is about the Black Country ( part of the West Midlands ) where I live and all the spooky goings on. A lot of the towns and places I know really well and I was surprised how many resident ghosts that we have. A lot of them are pubs and hotels but some grave yards too. The Station Hotel in Dudley is very haunted and I have been there on a ghost walk and down the cellar that is mentioned in the book. My favourite tale is off Edmund Croaker who is buried in the graveyard of St Edmunds in Dudley. Apparantly he was a public executioner and haunts the grounds where he lies. One tale is of a group of lads who dared one to stay by his grave for one hour. The other lads refused to re enter the graveyard so to prove that he had been there he plunged his dagger into the ground. The next morning when the chappie didn’t turn up the other fellas went back to the grave and found their friend dead from fright.

This book was fun to read and I will walk around my local area in future wondering who is beside me, and if I see somemthing out of the corner of my eye, could it really be a ghost !… (mehr)