Ye Otis Ghost and Dorian Gray - Two Sides of Oscar Wilde

 

Back when I couldn't have been more than ten years old, I saved up my pocket money and bought a paperback called Mystery and Imagination, containing the stories dramatised in the TV series of the same name. Naturally, I was far too young to be allowed to stay up late and watch that, so I eagerly devoured the wonderful short stories of the likes of Sheridan le Fanu, my soon-to-be-hero M.R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker and many more. But a little gem stood out from the rest, as much as anything because it made me smile. I had my introduction to Oscar Wilde, and the short story was The Canterville Ghost.

The exploits of the hapless ghost of Sir Simon Canterville - as he attempts to frighten off an American invasion of the Otis family into his ancestral home - are a delight. And when poor old long-dead Sir Simon is faced with modern detergents used to clean up his recurring bloodstains and Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator applied to his rusting chains, it's enough to make any spectre swear. But the ultimate insult occurs when, his best efforts having failed to raise even the slightest squeak of fear from the unwanted residents, they have the gall to taunt him with a 'ghostly' creation of their own: 

YE OTIS GHOST
Ye Onlie True and Originale Spooke
Beware of Ye Imitationes
All others are Counterfeite.

Over the years, I have read and re-read that story countless times and it still raises smiles to this day.

I came across The Picture of Dorian Gray some years later. In fact I saw the film (the version made in 1945) before I read the story. In life, Oscar Wilde worshipped youth and beauty. He loved to surround himself with beautiful, young, vibrant people. Even more so the older he grew. This is evident in his liaison with the much younger Lord Alfred ('Bosie') Douglas and in his friendships with the beauties of the day such as Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill (American-born mother of Winston) and the Jersey Lily herself, Lily Langtry. He is famously quoted as remarking, "Youth is wasted on the young."

 

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, a talented artist is commissioned to paint a portrait of the wealthy young man of the title. As years go by and Gray leads an increasingly debauched life, he remains young, while in the attic, his picture reflects the ravages of time and sin. The story went through various edits, and in the longer version we now know, Oscar wrote a challenging preface to his readers. He entreated them to judge 'art for art's sake' and stated, 'there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.' With typical Wilde immodesty, he also remarked, 'Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.'

The Picture of Dorian Gray was released to a storm of protest and outrage from reviewers, bordering on the hysterical. He was even threatened with possible criminal investigation as a result of his writing - a sad portent of what was to come a few years later. 

It remained Oscar's only full-length published novel.

Pamela Courtney encounters ghosts whose intents are far from clear, when she is sent to live with her aunts at Chanterlands...

“You don’t belong here. None of you do. None but us….”

1940. Fourteen-year-old Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands where she will live with her two spinster aunts: Jilly, the eccentric one, who dreams of her days as a star of the silver screen, and Bunny, ever practical and down-to-earth.

But Chanterlands is home to more than just the living and some of them do not rest in peace. There’s the long-dead lonely boy whose room she sleeps in - and that’s only the start.

Pamela discovers the long-neglected attic and, as she sorts through the assorted detritus accumulated over generations of her forebears, more ghosts stir, and an ancient feud reveals just one of the sinister secrets of this once-great house.

But, in the grounds, there is much more danger awaiting Pamela during that summer long ago when war waged all over Europe and the safety her mother had wished for her took a dark and fatal turn.

Here is what they are saying about Ghosts of Chanterlands:

‘Insidiously eerie, sinuously unpredictable and compellingly chilling, Ghosts of Chanterlands is a spectacularly spectral saga that leads us deep into a labyrinth of dark myth and mystery. It deserves to win Catherine Cavendish many new readers." Ramsey Campbell

'A classic ghost story in the vein of Susan Hill’ – Priya Sharma, World Fantasy Award Winner

“Unspooling like a lost silent-era Hollywood film, Catherine Cavendish’s lushly gothic Ghosts of Chanterlands is like waltzing with lost spirits as they whisper their secrets and melancholy stories in your ear.” - John Palisano, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of Requiem and All That Withers

“Ghosts of Chanterlands captures everything I love about classic gothic horror. Reminiscent of The Woman in Black, it weaves an eerie haunted house mystery through generations of family tragedy and loss. Catherine Cavendish creates an atmosphere so vivid and unsettling that I felt as though I were wandering the shadowed corridors of Chanterlands myself. A beautifully crafted ghost story that is both chilling and deeply poignant.” Gaby Triana, Gothic suspense author of Moon Child

‘Fans of creepy, suspenseful gothic ghost tales will absolutely love this book’ – JG Faherty, author of Ragman, The Wakening and Sins of the Father

‘This story has it all: family secrets, ratcheting tension, misplaced trust, history, and stunningly written ghostly encounters. I could read this book ten times and still love every word.’ – Somer Canon – Imadjinn Award-winning author of The Killer Chronicles

'Fans of classic haunted house stories, Gothic fiction, and ghostly mysteries will find plenty to love here. Ghosts of Chanterlands is a chilling, beautifully crafted novel that lingers long after the final page. ‘— Melissa Prusi, co-author of the Stoker’s Wilde trilogy

' A chilling tale of ghosts, revenge, loss, and terror. With a plot that weaves and loops through the pages just like the otters dancing in the lake, the reader is swept away in the story’ – Cat Mowat, author of Fragments

Coming out on August 18th 2026, available for pre-order at:

https://mybook.to/GhostsOfChanterlands

https://mybook.to/GhostsChanterlandsHB

Images:

Shutterstock

Nick Wells/Flame Tree Press Studio

Detecting the Ghosts of Baker Street

Say the name ‘’Baker Street’ to most people and their immediate thoughts will turn to Sherlock Holmes, the seemingly infallible detective of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s extraordinary (if occasionally flawed) imagination. Ask them to name anything else connected with this street and many (including me) will mention the haunting and poignant autobiographical song by Gerry Rafferty.

Baker Street is in Marylebone in the heart of the bustling city. It has an underground station (on the Bakerloo line) and right around the corner stands Madame Tussaud’s and the London Planetarium, but Baker Street itself is an unprepossessing thoroughfare, with seemingly little but legend to recommend it.

Named after the builder, William Baker, who laid out the street in the eighteenth century, it started life as a high-class residential area but is now comprised mainly of commercial premises; oh, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum, situated at – you guessed it – 221B (which isn’t even a real address!). Confusingly, the museum is actually located between numbers 237 and 241.

A number of famous real people have lived in Baker Street –and some appear not to want to leave it. The eighteenth century actress, Sarah Siddons, is one of them. Her house was where number 228 stands today. She is seen walking through walls on the first floor.

Meanwhile, nearby, the (now closed) two-hundred-year-old Kenwood House Hotel, not only had sightings of an apparition dressed as a Cavalier gentleman, it also possessed that most fascinating of supernatural entities -  haunted furniture. Specifically, the drawers opened and closed by themselves and the mirror…poltergeist activity has been reported. With no guests to tease or terrify, it is not known if the ghosts still haunt.

At 245-247, the Volunteer Gastropub not only feeds and refreshes its visitors, but guests can also look out for the ghost of Rupert Nevill, whose family owned a large manor house on that site which burned down in 1654. He is said to appear in the cellar – indeed, the cellars are the originals so would be familiar to him.

Deep underground isn’t free of apparitions either. Travellers on the Bakerloo line have reported seeing the reflection of a ghostly figure in the window, sitting next to them. But there is no one there…

Pamela Courtney is surrounded by ghosts when she is evacuated to Chanterlands. And they're not shy in coming forward...

“You don’t belong here. None of you do. None but us….”

1940. Fourteen-year-old Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands where she will live with her two spinster aunts: Jilly, the eccentric one, who dreams of her days as a star of the silver screen, and Bunny, ever practical and down-to-earth.

But Chanterlands is home to more than just the living and some of them do not rest in peace. There’s the long-dead lonely boy whose room she sleeps in - and that’s only the start.

Pamela discovers the long-neglected attic and, as she sorts through the assorted detritus accumulated over generations of her forebears, more ghosts stir, and an ancient feud reveals just one of the sinister secrets of this once-great house.

But, in the grounds, there is much more danger awaiting Pamela during that summer long ago when war waged all over Europe and the safety her mother had wished for her took a dark and fatal turn.

Here is what they are saying about Ghosts of Chanterlands:

‘Insidiously eerie, sinuously unpredictable and compellingly chilling, Ghosts of Chanterlands is a spectacularly spectral saga that leads us deep into a labyrinth of dark myth and mystery. It deserves to win Catherine Cavendish many new readers." Ramsey Campbell

'A classic ghost story in the vein of Susan Hill’ – Priya Sharma, World Fantasy Award Winner

“Unspooling like a lost silent-era Hollywood film, Catherine Cavendish’s lushly gothic Ghosts of Chanterlands is like waltzing with lost spirits as they whisper their secrets and melancholy stories in your ear.” - John Palisano, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of Requiem and All That Withers

“Ghosts of Chanterlands captures everything I love about classic gothic horror. Reminiscent of The Woman in Black, it weaves an eerie haunted house mystery through generations of family tragedy and loss. Catherine Cavendish creates an atmosphere so vivid and unsettling that I felt as though I were wandering the shadowed corridors of Chanterlands myself. A beautifully crafted ghost story that is both chilling and deeply poignant.” Gaby Triana, Gothic suspense author of Moon Child

‘Fans of creepy, suspenseful gothic ghost tales will absolutely love this book’ – JG Faherty, author of Ragman, The Wakening and Sins of the Father

‘This story has it all: family secrets, ratcheting tension, misplaced trust, history, and stunningly written ghostly encounters. I could read this book ten times and still love every word.’ – Somer Canon – Imadjinn Award-winning author of The Killer Chronicles

'Fans of classic haunted house stories, Gothic fiction, and ghostly mysteries will find plenty to love here. Ghosts of Chanterlands is a chilling, beautifully crafted novel that lingers long after the final page. ‘— Melissa Prusi, co-author of the Stoker’s Wilde trilogy

‘A chilling tale of ghosts, revenge, loss, and terror. With a plot that weaves and loops through the pages just like the otters dancing in the lake, the reader is swept away in the story’ – Cat Mowat, author of Fragments

Coming out on August 18th 2026, available for pre-order at:

https://mybook.to/GhostsOfChanterlands

https://mybook.to/GhostsChanterlandsHB

Images:

Shutterstock

Nick Wells/Flame Tree Press Studio

The Grieving Ghost of Boom Hall

 

Northern Ireland – or Ulster if you prefer – boasts some particularly scary and creepy haunted houses. None more so than the derelict Boom Hall in Derry. Built in 1779 by John Alexander (one of the family who founded of the Bank of Ireland), the Hall stands on the banks of the River Foyle. 

The land on which it stands is itself haunted, apparently by Captain Browning. His ship -the Mountjoy - was one of three that managed to break through the wooden boom, which Jacobean forces had erected as a barrier across the river, to prevent food reaching the besieged city in 1689. Sadly, Captain Browning died of the wounds he received in the battle to relieve the city.

His ghost can be seen when the weather turns misty over the water. He appears as a tall, upstanding – if almost transparent - figure dressed in a dark blue tailcoat trimmed with gold braid.

The estate of Boom Hall passed through a number of hands, from John Alexander’s grandson to Lord Caledon (a distant relative), and then onto a wealthy merchant named Daniel Baird. Eventually it was requisitioned by the Navy for use by the WRNS during World War II. 

Latterly, the house fell into disrepair, ending up with the daughter of the last owner, Michael Henry McDevitt. She closed most of the Hall while she lived there. Now it is in a dangerous state, but proves to be a magnet for paranormal investigators who sometimes get more than they bargained for. A few years ago, the online newspaper, Derry Now, reported that two ghost hunters became trapped there and had to be rescued by the Northern Ireland Fire Service! But back to the ghosts.

One tragic story of the house concerns a young girl related to the house’s owners. She became romantically involved with a young groomsman employed in her home in England and her parents decided that such an unsuitable match could not continue. They removed her to Boom Hall. The young man was determined not to give her up and followed her there. He hid in the stables where they secretly met until they were discovered whereupon the girl was confined to her bedroom with the door locked. The young man appears to have given up at this stage - or was threatened so badly he was too terrified to stay. As might be expected, the poor girl grieved for her lost love.

A few weeks later, her bedroom went up in flames and all efforts to save her failed.  When the flames were eventually extinguished, the family fully expected to find her poor charred body – or at least the ashes of it. But nothing was found of her. Maybe she escaped and eloped with her young man, for she was never heard of or seen again. Well, not alive anyway.

It wasn’t long before people started reporting ghostly sightings of her, walking along the corridor at the top of the house. One servant said the girl had appeared to her, whispered something unintelligible and then taken her by the hand to the stables. There the servant found a brooch which had belonged to the girl. She took it to her mistress who identified it and took it to mean the girl had escaped.

She has been sighted on a number of occasions since and ensures the diehard ghosthunters’ fascination with the Hall remains firmly in place.

Ghosts have walked and lived at Chanterlands for centuries. As young Pamela is about to discover...

“You don’t belong here. None of you do. None but us….”

1940. Fourteen-year-old Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands where she will live with her two spinster aunts: Jilly, the eccentric one, who dreams of her days as a star of the silver screen, and Bunny, ever practical and down-to-earth.

But Chanterlands is home to more than just the living and some of them do not rest in peace. There’s the long-dead lonely boy whose room she sleeps in - and that’s only the start.

Pamela discovers the long-neglected attic and, as she sorts through the assorted detritus accumulated over generations of her forebears, more ghosts stir, and an ancient feud reveals just one of the sinister secrets of this once-great house.

But, in the grounds, there is much more danger awaiting Pamela during that summer long ago when war waged all over Europe and the safety her mother had wished for her took a dark and fatal turn.

Here is what they are saying about Ghosts of Chanterlands:

‘Insidiously eerie, sinuously unpredictable and compellingly chilling, Ghosts of Chanterlands is a spectacularly spectral saga that leads us deep into a labyrinth of dark myth and mystery. It deserves to win Catherine Cavendish many new readers." Ramsey Campbell

‘A classic ghost story in the vein of Susan Hill’ – Priya Sharma, World Fantasy Award Winner

“Ghosts of Chanterlands captures everything I love about classic gothic horror. Reminiscent of The Woman in Black, it weaves an eerie haunted house mystery through generations of family tragedy and loss. Catherine Cavendish creates an atmosphere so vivid and unsettling that I felt as though I were wandering the shadowed corridors of Chanterlands myself. A beautifully crafted ghost story that is both chilling and deeply poignant.” – Gaby Triana, Gothic suspense author of Moon Child

‘Fans of creepy, suspenseful gothic ghost tales will absolutely love this book’ – JG Faherty, author of Ragman, The Wakening and Sins of the Father

Coming out on August 18th 2026, available for pre-order at:

https://mybook.to/GhostsOfChanterlands

https://mybook.to/GhostsChanterlandsHB

Images:

Shutterstock

Nick Wells/Flame Tree Press Studio

No Rest for the Spirits of Comlongon Castle

 

Boasting a reputation as Scotland’s ‘most important and complete example’ of a 15^th century Medieval Scottish castle, it would be strange if the beautiful Comlongon Castle did not have its resident ghosts. 

Sir Cuthbert Murray built it as a border outpost and its walls – an impressive thirteen feet thick – were certainly designed to keep out unwanted visitors.

'But what about the ghosts?' I hear you cry. I'm coming to that: 

The tragic spirit of Marian Carruthers is said to haunt the castle. She originated from nearby Borthwick Castle but, in 1564, her father arranged a marriage for her. Rather than face a loveless union, she ran away and sought refuge under Sir Charles Murray’s protection at Comlongon. He took her in and, in gratitude she awarded him half her estate. Her father wasn’t to be deterred though and some versions of the story state that he pursued a legal case to force her into the marriage against her will. And it didn't end well.

She fell from the highest window in the castle’s tower – whether by accident or design is not known for sure although there is a theory that Sir Charles was greedy enough to want his share of her estate sooner rather than later and pushed her to her death. Others say she threw herself off the tower rather than acquiesce to her father’s demands.

Whatever the truth of it, her father refused to pay for a proper burial and she was interred in an unmarked grave in the woods nearby – in unconsecrated ground.

On the spot where her body landed, nothing will grow and her ghost walks in the garden on the anniversary of her death – September 25^th – every year. She has also been seen in various locations in the castle itself.

She also appears nearby at an inn and the owners have encountered her on a number of occasions.

But she isn’t the only ghost of Comlongon. 

A small child has been reported in various locations and, as part of the castle was used during the war to house evacuated pre-school age children, could it be one of them? The sound of childish laughter has been heard when there are none present or staying at the castle.

It's certainly an interesting place to lay your head at night. Guests staying in the beautiful 4-poster rooms have reported banging noises, the sound of furniture being dragged across the floor and various other phenomena they could not explain. In the room said to have been used by Marian Carruthers, a honeymoon couple was awakened by noises including what sounded like a heavy bottle (champagne?) being banged against a solid object – maybe furniture or the floor.

There have also been a number of manifestations in the Great Hall, including actual physical sightings, and smells ranging from cigarette smoke to apples.

Whether for a creepy night of supernatural mayhem, a visit to a place of particular historical interest or a special celebration, it seems Comlongon Castle delivers on all fronts. Until a few years ago, the privately owned castle was run as a hotel and top wedding venue, but, sadly, it has now ceased trading. The ongoing costs of renovation and upkeep of such a magnificent building proved too much.

Let’s hope poor Marian finds rest though. She has been wandering there for far too lon

Meanwhile, in 1940, Chanterlands is having its fair share of hauntings too...

“You don’t belong here. None of you do. None but us….”

1940. Fourteen-year-old Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands where she will live with her two spinster aunts: Jilly, the eccentric one, who dreams of her days as a star of the silver screen, and Bunny, ever practical and down-to-earth.

But Chanterlands is home to more than just the living and some of them do not rest in peace. There’s the long-dead lonely boy whose room she sleeps in - and that’s only the start.

Pamela discovers the long-neglected attic and, as she sorts through the assorted detritus accumulated over generations of her forebears, more ghosts stir, and an ancient feud reveals just one of the sinister secrets of this once-great house.

But, in the grounds, there is much more danger awaiting Pamela during that summer long ago when war waged all over Europe and the safety her mother had wished for her took a dark and fatal turn.

Coming out on August 18th 2026, available for pre-order at:

ebook: https://mybook.to/GhostsOfChanterlands

 

Hardback: https://mybook.to/GhostsChanterlandsHB

 

Images:

Shutterstock

Nick Wells/Flame Tree Press Studio