Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country

I bought and read Ghostland because it's written by my tutor Edward Parnell. I'm currently studying 'Creative Writing non-fiction' online at the National Centre For Writing (part of the University of East Anglia).'Ghostland' shows elements of what I'm being taught so is a useful addition to my study materials.Those interested in the supernatural will find it interesting and informative.

I found reading this book to be a profoundly affecting experience. On one level a delightful ramble through the dark and esoteric influences on children of the 70s and 80s and their enduring legacy on those of us who remain inclined to the darker side of life. Edward Parnell explores the landscape and literature of M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood and many others, the TV and film that so many of us in our 40s remember with a great fondness whether The Wicker Man, Ghost Stories for Christmas, The Spirit of Dark Water information film shown to many of us in school. If you haven't heard of or read some of the authors or seen some of the films/TV you will be seeking them out after reading this. Throughout Edward's journey he tells a deeply personal story of loss and grief that beset his immediate family and how the world of ghosts and our mysterious landscape, as well as his love of birdwatching was a comfort. I found so many personal parallels in the book, so many shared or similar experiences, that it allowed me to re-assess my own experiences afresh. A truly remarkable book.

Not what I was expecting at all, but I found it totally riveting, and I am really pleased to have discovered it.A superb blend of travelogue and bibliography, indulging (in my case) my passion for the genre.Stuffed with fascinating insights into what may or may not have been intended, this really is a fab read for anyone who has ever felt the hairs on their neck rise as they read a ghost story.

Combining elements of nature writing, personal memoir and a lifelong passion for ghost stories and cult horror films, Edward Parnell brings together all three in a moving account of a life darkened with tragedy while simultaneously lifted by birdwatching and the delights of the ghost story. Having read other reviews here I can understand why some readers have wondered whether too many elements are in play, but personally I think the mixing of the different strands makes for something startlingly original while never losing coherence. The manner in which Parnell can move deftly from one subject to the next, for example between pages 160 and 161 there’s a transition from The Whicker Man to Robin Redbreast and Penda’s Fen is , to my mind, reminiscent of Peter Biskind at his best. The prose itself shows all the descriptive power of a skilled nature writer.The book is a trove of wonderful, unexpected facts, especially in the footnotes. These range from the irreverent and funny to insightful, for example the one about the Overlook Hotel (i.e. the hotel in The Shining); overlook being an archaic term for the Evil Eye. The footnotes are also useful for drawing the connections between many of the different works and authors under discussion, often in erudite and wholly unexpected ways.Although I’ve long been a fan of MR James and William Hope Hodgson (both well discussed in their own chapters), Ghostland is also a source of a number of writers I’d either never heard of or were only on the periphery of my knowledge such as Algernon Blackwood, Robert Aickman, EF Benson etc. For this reason alone if you have any interest in ghost/weird fiction I’d recommend the book. It will direct you to new authors.Overall, a stimulating, moving and erudite read. Great cover too.

I really wanted to enjoy this book from what I'd read but I struggled to get to the end. It never really seems to get going in any particular direction. I think the author tries to do too much. It's a series of biographies of writers of strange fiction, it's a memoir, it's a travelogue, random bird observations and it's nature writing about the British landscape. But it suffers because nothing ever has any depth to it, everything is very superficial. Even the author's own personal story, which he hints at all the way through, never really gets there. Which is a shame, Parnell writes very well especially about his home around the Fens. But so much is glossed over. The section on The Wicker Man left me wondering if he'd actually visited Galloway because it's treated so superficially. The author really needed to pick what he wanted the book to be, it goes in so many directions that I just couldn't get into it and ends up repetitive and a bit gimmicky. In the end I called it a day about two-thirds of the way through.

I've had a keen interest in ghost stories, books, TV series and films since childhood. I also love nature and birdwatching, and I am in love with the haunting East Anglian landscape where I have lived for many years. (The book is not soley focussed on East Anglia). All of these elements are perfectly combined in this book and exquisitely and gently bound together with the overarching theme of loss and grief. It's a book I found difficult to put down, a book that in several places made me sob, not only for the author's own losses, but for how my own chimed so much with his, and a book that sent me down many hours of enjoyable rabbit holes where I chased long forgotten tv series, plays, short stories, and novels. It's not a ghost story in itself (or is it?) but there were many times when I felt that delicious sense of unease that particularly English folk horror can bring. It's interesting that I always feel a sense of loss when I finish a book I've hugely enjoyed, but the author's discussions of the many pieces of literature and the many films and series that link with this wonderful Ghostland we live in, will keep me going.

Now this is what I call writing! Fascinating and moving account of travels across Britain to connect with the author's beloved weird fiction as he comes to terms with personal loss. If you you enjoyed this, you may also like Neil Oliver's book "Ghosts and where to find them" which is an account of a similar journey, seen through the lens of folklore rather than literature.

Lange habe ich nachgedacht, wie man "Eerie stories" eigentlich am besten auf Deutsch überträgt, denn "Unheimliche Geschichten" oder "Gruselige Geschichten" trifft es nur zum Teil.Der Autor macht eine sehr persönliche Reise (nach dem Tod seiner Eltern) durch Teile Englands, in denen er aufgewachsen ist oder die er als Kind und Jugendlicher mit seiner Familie besuchte und verbindet aufkommende eigene Erinnerungen mit biographischen Schnipseln klassischer britischer Autoren wie z.B. M.R. James. Die Schnittstelle ist dabei immer die Landschaft, denn dort, wo der Autor gerade seinen Besuch macht, spielen auch die Geschichten, auf die Bezug genommen wird, oder wurden Verfilmungen gedreht.Man kann das Buch eigentlich nur vollständig genießen, wenn man zumindest die allermeisten der Autoren kennt, die hier erwähnt werden. Man muss nicht alles gelesen haben, doch die Namen und wichtigsten Werke sollten zumindest vertraut sein. Dann erlebt man eine geradezu mystische Reise durch Moore, Wälder, Marschlandschaften und zu Seen, Hügeln und Küsten.Bereichert wird der Band durch eine großzügige Bebilderung mit Fotografien und Illustrationen.

GHOSTLAND: IN SEARCH OF A HAUNTED COUNTRY (2019; 468 pp. with a Selected List of Sources and Index) by Edward Parnell has to be one of the most unusual and intriguing pieces of non-fiction related to weird fiction recently published. Portions of the book read like a travelogue. At times it reads like the personal memoir of a bibliophile with countless references and analysis of books, stories, and writers of the supernatural from the United Kingdom with keen observations on how environment can inflame imaginations and inspire creativity. It is also the journal of a life-long birdwatcher. Finally, GHOSTLAND is a very personal memoir about dealing with and learning to cope with almost impossible painful, personal grief. Although the entire book takes place in the past, the story is told in a fairly linear fashion, but it also contains an almost stream of consciousness style of writing with Parnell moving from topic to topic covering the various aspects of his book. As such, readers may need to read a few chapters to adjust to the writer’s style and the book’s content. Once they do, most are sure to be mesmerized.Parnell’s text gives evidence to the fact that he is an extremely well read individual and has also done a considerable amount of research to exactingly conceive GHOSTLAND. His writing is extremely descriptive, creating mental visuals which match or exceed the multitude of black and white photographs (most of which he took himself on his excursions) which are placed appropriately throughout the text. Geography, the extremes of nature and weather, and bird wildlife are of obvious appeal to the author and come startingly to life in the book.Unlike what one frequently encounters in memoirs in which writers amazingly and somewhat unbelievably recall all sorts of details and bits of conversation, Parnell takes a totally different approach and readily admits when such details are no longer a part of his recall. This is especially true when he recounts information about the scarring tragedies which strike his immediate family.Perhaps the most vivid descriptions in the book are those having to do with locales at which writers lived or visited. Parnell’s specifics and the images he creates show a distinct link between various landscapes and how they inspired some very haunting tales which maintain their power to impress readers to this day.Most readers will be drawn to pick up GHOSTLAND in search of information and stories about Great Britain’s illustrious writers of the supernatural and Parnell does not disappoint. Intrigued by ghost stories since his childhood, Parnell’s journey across the UK has him discussing, at times in depth, a number of very well-known as well as lesser known writers, their biographies, and their work. He frequently summarizes portions of tales and even provides appropriate quotations from many.M. R. James (August 1, 1862 – June 12, 1936) who spent many years living in Great Livermere, a village in West Suffolk which Parnell visits (as he does all of the homes, villages, and sites associated with the authors in the book), is among the first and probably most repeatedly referenced writer in the book. Parnell states James is his “favourite—and arguably Britain’s finest—writers of ghost stories.” Parnell markedly focuses on James’ “Lost Hearts” (1904) with almost as many references to "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" (1904) and "Casting the Runes" (1911) among others.Robert Aickman (June 27, 1914 – February 26, 1981), “author of forty-eight hard to classify ‘strange tales’” and L. P. (Leslie Poles) Hartley (December 30, 1895 – December 13, 1972) are given considerable coverage, especially the latter’s novel, THE GO-BETWEEN (1953). Parnell states the poems and stories of Walter de la Mare (25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) “have a timeless quality, redolent with existential unease” and declares “Seaton’s Aunt” to be the author’s “finest and most-antholognised supernatural stories.” Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865 – January 18, 1936), famous for so many novels and stories, has his ghostly tale “They” from TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES (1905), singled out for its beautiful writing “about the enclaves of the Sussex countryside.”While visiting the grave of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22, 1859 – July 7, 1930), Parnell dives deep into the writer’s belief in spiritualism arguing “it’s difficult to imagine how the man responsible for the creation of the arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes” could have been so easily convinced fairies and other supernatural phenomenon existed. Parnell also spends considerable time looking at the work of Algernon Blackwood (March 14, 1869 – December 10, 1951), “a prolific Edwardian writer of ghost stories often classified as ‘weird fiction.’” Parnell quotes Robert Aickman’s belief that Blackwood’s novella THE WENDIGO (1910) is “one of the (possibly) six great masterpieces in the field,” but Parnell explains his own preference for “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” (1912) and “The Willows” (1907), “considered to be the greatest of Blackwood’s supernatural stories.”While visiting Alloway Auld Kirk near Glasgow, Parnell finds the grave of William Burns (November 11, 1721 – February 13, 1784) which leads to a discussion of “Tam o’ Shanter” (1791) by William’s famous son and poet, Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796). The narrative poem is set on “a night on which the Devil himself has ‘business on his hand.’” Another Scottish writer, John Buchan (August 26, 1875 – February 11, 1940), “most famous for his novel of adventure and international intrigue set in the months before the First World War, THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS,” is also known for “a number of supernatural stories that utilised his knowledge of his native landscape and its wildlife.” Parnell says “Skule Skerry” (1928) and “No Man’s Land” (1899) are his favorites, the latter painting “a vision of an ancient stunted race still holding out among the Highland hills that could pass for the work of Arthur Machen.”Difficult as it proves to be, Parnell eventually finds “the Welsh house in which one of the greatest English writers of weird fiction wrote a significant amount of his work, including my favourite of his four novels, THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND” (1908). Parnell thoroughly discusses “the strangeness” of this novel in depth along with THE BOATS OF THE ‘GLEN CARRIG’ (1907) by William Hope Hodgson (November 15, 1877 – April 19, 1918) along with his “finest short sea-set tale of the fantastic,” “The Voice in the Night” (1907).No discussion of weird stories from Great Britain would be complete without an analysis of the work of Arthur Machen (March 3, 1863 – December 15, 1947), “one of the most remarkable writers of the supernatural: one whose work reaches out with an inherent strangeness, straddling a landscape of the recognisable and another, concealed world of the sort of ‘sequestered places’ and beings that M. R. James alludes to in “A Vignette” (1936). Parnell discusses Machen’s most famous and influential work, THE GREAT GOD PAN (1894), “his semi-autobiographical THE HILL OF DREAMS” (1907), “his most memorable of …dark tales, “The Novel of the Black Seal” (1895), and the “mesmerizing” “The White People” (1904), among others.One final writer I will single out for this review who Parnell discusses at length is E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson (July 24, 1867 – February 29, 1940). Parnell singles out “Negotium Perambulans” (1923), “Caterpillars” (1912), and “Pirates” (1934) as among the writer’s creepiest, atmospheric stories.In addition to the writers and works mentioned above, Edward Parnell also discusses A. L. Barker, Lucy Boston, Ithell Colquhoun, Susan Cooper, Charles Dickens, Alan Garner, John Gordon, Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Paul Nash, Amyas Northcote, W. G. Sebald, and Graham Swift. He also touches upon writers outside of the UK whose work is influenced or tied to the British writers including Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and H. P. Lovecraft.Once discussed in full, Parnell often makes additional references to most of the writers and works in GHOSTLAND throughout the book, tying them to other writers, their themes, and accomplishments. Equally important, Parnell proves to be well versed in film and television adaptations of the writers’ works with numerous discussions about films such as THE WICKER MAN, A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS, LOST HEARTS, CHILDREN OF THE STONES, THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS, THE CHILDREN OF GREEN KNOWE, DEAD OF NIGHT, NIGHT OF THE DEMON, and THE HALFWAY HOUSE as well as other eerie films with atmospheric settings such as the original SUSPIRIA, SALEM’S LOT, and CARNIVAL OF SOULS. [Note: Many of the British TV films mentioned in the book can be found on YouTube.]Meandering throughout GHOSTLAND like a moorland stream is a sense of melancholy as Parnell chronicles the very reason for his pilgrimage throughout the United Kingdom to spots of importance to his childhood and life-long enjoyment of ghost stories. These intermittent portions of GHOSTLAND about the illnesses and deaths of his mother, father, and brother—all of whom he is quite close— are heart-wrenching. “Reality,” Parnell admits, “was like some nightmare out of weird fiction. Like the chaotic, unspeakable horrors in a William Hope Hodgson or H. P. Lovecraft story.”GHOSTLAND: IN SEARCH OF A HAUNTED COUNTRY will provide readers with copious amounts of information, stunning visuals, insightful comments about diverse ghost stories, an impressive list of stories to read and films to watch, all the while appealing to the reader’s imagination and heart. It is an impressive accomplishment. [NOTE: Most of the dates given in this review come from secondary sources, not GHOSTLAND: IN SEARCH OF A HAUNTED COUNTRY. Errors, if there are any, are mine or due to the resources used, not Edward Parnell’s.]

I am normally not a reader of ghost stories or sci fi, but have found this book fascinating. References to writers and films from days gone by has caused me to to stop frequently to look up the references and read and/or view them - a treasure trove of historical media I would never have known about or seen without this book. Add to that the wonderful travel descriptions as the author searches out the authors/stories origins and I was captivated. I had no idea what to expect when I started this book (the author is a friend of a family member so gave it a go), but am delighted by the outcome.

This is not what I expected. The title and description of this book are very misleading. I forced myself to read through the first three chapters and it left me clueless about what this book actually is. A travel log combined with some information of books and movies? Unfortunately I don’t know most of them, since I’m not from England. If you hope, like I did, to get your hands on some ghost stories and eerie tales from the english countryside, you’ll be greatly disappointed.

The book is good, well-worth purchasing, but not the Kindle version. The file Amazon, or their subsidiary, created for this is faulty. There are missing pages and pages from the first chapter are randomly repeated throughout the book. You'd be well-advised to stay away from this version and save your money.