Thursday, July 5, 2018

Book Review for Haunted Leicester

Title: Haunted Leceister
Author: Andrew James Wright
Published 2005 by Tempus Publishing
Amazon Purchase Information

I am such a lucky girl!  My boyfriend, Aaron, does a podcast with his friend called Amigos!  Amigos! is dedicated to the old Amiga system and its games, and has developed quite an impressive following over the relatively short time they've been doing this.  Much of the fan base and the website staff live in Europe, so I'm often given the opportunity to share in some of the goodies that are sent in to the show.  I've tried lotions from Australia, various candies from at least 4 different countries, and now...I've been gifted a totally awesome book from the UK!  Aaron sometimes mentions what I do on the show, so one of his awesome connections sent me a copy of Andrew James Wright's Haunted Lecicester and I couldn't be happier.

Haunted Leicester is a slim, 95 page volume jammed with the spooky goings-on of Leicester and surrounding areas.  I've never been to Leicester, but after reading this book, I feel like I've walked its supernatural streets and visited some of its most haunted inns, pubs, churches, and homes in person.  I'm always fascinated by the history of the UK---people live in, work in, and regularly visit buildings that are hundreds of years old, while here in West Virginia, we're lucky if we have access to places that date back before the Civil War.  No wonder that England has such a rich, full history of ghost lore!

Several places that especially sparked my interest were the Wygston's House, or Costume Museum, where a ghostly young boy by the name of Jonathan likes to cause a bit of mischief, and the Fish Market, where a man accidentally slipped back into another time while perusing the modern market.

All of the stories were really interesting, though, and the book was well-written. There was an appropriate amount of history added to enhance the stories, but not so much that it bogged down the casual reader.  This is a definite must-read if you plan on visiting the Leicester area, if you're an Anglophile, or if you just appreciate a good, old-fashioned collection of regional ghost tales.

I'd like to extend a very big, heart-felt THANKS to Chris Foulds for sending me this book!  It has become an appreciated part of my international ghost stories library. 

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