The Ghost That Joined The Tour

 

My novel – In Darkness, Shadows Breathe – spends a significant amount of time in the frighteningly haunted Royal and Waverley Hospital whose walls conceal many dark secrets. Although a fairly modern hospital, my creation is built on land formerly occupied by a hospital, asylum and workhouse and is fairly typical in this. Many of today’s hospitals had multiple functions in their past – or are built on the foundations of earlier institutions whose practices would not be considered appropriate in this day and age.

Liverpool’s Newsham Park Hospital shares this murky heritage. Situated not far from the city centre, this crumbling and derelict building once housed an orphanage, hospital wards, a Bell Tower, an attic lined with 18 punishment cupboards where children who misbehaved would be incarcerated alone in the pitch dark, a schoolhouse, mortuary, nurses’ accommodation and chapel. 

Built in 1869, it variously served as an Orphanage, Psychiatric Hospital and finally an Old People’s Home before closing and being finally abandoned in 1992 when it quickly fell into disrepair. Plans to redevelop it into flats fell through, owing to local opposition, but, since then, stories began to circulate. Strange ghostly phenomena were reported. It wasn’t long before word got around and numerous haunted event companies began organising night-time vigils and trips around its desolate corridors that are still littered with broken beds, commodes, wheelchairs, peeling walls and tons of rubbish and detritus – a kind of decrepit Marie Celeste of the medical world.

One of these event companies is Haunted Happenings. Newsham Park is a regular venue for them, and Philip Barron is one of their most experienced ghost hunters and guides. In more than twenty trips around the former hospital, he had witnessed his fair share of the unusual and unexplained and become accustomed to the many individual different experiences members of the same party might report But, on one fateful night, something happened that he had no way of explaining. It all started when, at the beginning of the all-night vigil, the group posed for the obligatory photograph.

Image: Phil Barron

The vigil passed off spookily as usual. Everyone had a great time and went home satisfied.

The next morning, Philip uploaded the photograph – again, as usual. What happened next wasn’t usual. Have a look at the above photograph. See it? There were all the smiling, happy faces. The problem was there was one too many smiling faces. No one – and I mean no one – remembered the additional member of the group, a smiling girl. She wasn’t on the tour, well, not officially anyway. Maybe she had somehow sneaked in, and gained entry for free. Except...the simple fact was, she lacked substance somehow. Now, have another look:

Image: Phil Barron

The photograph went viral. The team tried to find a logical explanation and failed. Equally no one else has come up with one either. It remains one of the many mysteries of the stubbornly haunted Newsham Park Hospital.

Maybe she’s one of the former orphans, or a nurse from its psychiatric hospital days – maybe a patient. Whoever she is, she doesn’t seem too upset by being there.

The mystery ghost joins an ever-expanding collection of phenomena that includes: mischievous poltergeist activity such as workmen’s tools being moved and objects being disturbed when essential work was being carried out on the premises, the sighting of a small child in the attic along with voices heard coming from there, shadowy figures seen in one of the former wards, dragging noises coming from the former dining room, eerie screams and crying coming from the basement and other parts of the building. Then, there’s the overall heavy feeling of dread experienced by many visitors from the minute they cross the threshold. Only to be expected, I would have thought!

Want to see more? Here’s a clip to whet your appetite:

https://youtu.be/mC30MpVymkM

You’re next…

Carol and Nessa are strangers, but not for much longer.

In a luxury apartment and in the walls of a modern hospital, the evil that was done continues to thrive. They are in the hands of an entity that knows no boundaries and crosses dimensions – bending and twisting time itself – and where danger waits in every shadow. The battle is on for their bodies and souls and the line between reality and nightmare is hard to define.

Through it all, the words of Lydia Warren Carmody haunt them. But who was she? And why have Carol and Nessa been chosen?

The answer lies deep in the darkness…

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and other outlets, online and in the High Street

(With thanks to Phil Barron for kind permission to use the Newsham Park Ghost photograph. You can follow Phil on: Instagram: @philip.barron TikTok; @barron2511 Facebook: Phil Barron)

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Matilda's Retreat - The House from Hell

 

The house kept its secrets – until someone disturbed it

Alone and isolated on a windswept moor, the centuries’ old building had seen its fair share of owners and more than its quota of dark legends when Lynn Schofield and her husband visited their friends there. From the moment they cross the threshold, it’s clear there is something very wrong here. Behind the walls is a house unlike any other and the horrors it has witnessed are embedded in its very fabric, ready and waiting for the next victim.

Decades later, another couple own the now ruinous house. For Diana, her initial reluctance to move in soon takes a leap forward when she sees something that shouldn’t be there. But as major renovations proceed – and the library starts to reveal its secrets - her mounting fears prove to be only the beginning of her nightmare.

Soon, she will discover the legends of Matilda’s Retreat are not consigned to the annals of history, as her life changes forever.

 

There's something about a lonely house, situated on a bleak and windswept moor. It conjures up images of a kind of timeless desolation where everything is possible, only restricted by the limits of our imaginations. Seasons change, lives come and go, yet the elements continue. The cycles of wind, rain, sun, snow... Nature's routine, relentlessly repeating itself. Such is the landscape of this house. Its blessing and its curse is to remain there, standing sentinel, steeped in the imprint of all it has witnessed.

Until someone else moves in...

Matilda's Retreat

published by Crossroad Press on 10th February 2026

Available now for pre-order from:

These online outlets

 

Swansong for Quintillus?

 

Dr. Emeryk Quintillus. 

Alive or dead, he is my favourite. Of all the villains I have created over the years, he is the one that has stayed with me the longest and in the most vivid of ways. I have dreamt about him, almost seen him out of the corner of my eye on scary occasions and, when I have been writing about him, he has haunted both my waking and sleeping hours. So when it came to penning the last in the trilogy that began with Wrath of the Ancients, the task was bittersweet for sure.

But it wasn't meant to be like this.

There was never supposed to be a trilogy. Wrath of the Ancients was written as a standalone novel. It was the original publisher that demanded a series of at least three books, and, as a result, the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy was born.

Fast forward some nine years later and here I am again. Bidding him farewell in this latest incarnation of Damned by the Ancients. A cat and a child feature prominently here. The cat, though, is no pussycat. Just thought I would warn you in case you are tempted to pick her up.

Is this really Quintillus's swansong? I couldn't possibly say. 

I shall leave that for the gods to decide...

Dare to defy the gods and you will pay the price…

 Vienna, 1908 – Quintillus, brings Gabriele Ziegler to the studio of Gustav Klimt. The artist will paint the troubled girl as Cleopatra, with whom Quintillus is infatuated, but the painting is cursed and the girl is possessed by the spirit of Cleopatra’s long-dead sister, the vengeful Arsinoe.

Now Arsinoe and Quintillus begin their unholy alliance.

Vienna 2018 – nine-year-old Heidi Mortimer can see things others cannot. Her almost cat-like vision enables her to see the mysterious man in the basement. He asks for her help but her parents will not believe her. Yet in the basement, Quintillus is trapped, but not for long. He knows the little girl will help him.

Whatever the cost.

“Gothic historical settings that grab you and hurl you back to the past.” Book Nook Retreat

You can find Damned by the Ancients here:

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Quintillus - Fed With My Own Demons

 

Quintillus is back, bringing all his evil with him, infesting the magnificent house that his damned and obsessed spirit will not leave. 

Emeryk Quintillus has been part of my life for a long time now - around ten years in fact. When I created him, it was during a challenging time in my life. In early 2015, I was seeing rather more of the medical profession than I would have chosen. My body was telling me that what I had hoped would sort itself out wasn't going to, and my symptoms caused differences of opinion between specialists and consultants who examined me. Biopsies were taking place. Need I say more? Cancer is always a devastating diagnosis. I would have a fight on my hands.

Through five drafts of Wrath of the Ancients, Quintillus developed. The worse my personal news became, the more evil I poured into him. It was a catharsis of sorts and it is altogether possible that the fully formed Quintillus that stalks the pages of the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy wouldn't be half the demon he is without his creator having to fight her demons.

Waking the Ancients -  part two of the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy - is now back in beautiful new ebook and print editions. Here's what to expect:

Egypt, 1908

University student Lizzie Charters accompanies her mentor, Dr. Emeryk Quintillus, on the archeological dig to uncover Cleopatra’s tomb. Her presence is required for a ceremony conducted by the renowned professor to resurrect Cleopatra’s spirit—inside Lizzie’s body...

Vienna, 2018

 

Paula Bancroft’s husband has leased Villa Dürnstein, an estate once owned by Dr. Quintillus. Within the mansion are several paintings and numerous volumes dedicated to Cleopatra. But the archaeologist’s interest in the Egyptian empress deviated from scholarly into supernatural, infusing the very foundations of his home with his dark fanaticism. And as inexplicable manifestations rattle Paula’s senses, threatening her very sanity, she uncovers the link between the villa, Quintillus, and a woman named Lizzie Charters. 

And a ritual of dark magic that will consume her soul . . .

I am hugely indebted to Crossroad Press (under their Macabre Ink imprint) for these lovely new editions of the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy now in ebook and print and available from:

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Amazon

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Waterstones

Other Online Retailers

and elsewhere

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Passages to the Past

In my novel, Saving Grace Devine, my main character – Alex Fletcher – finds herself cast back to 1912. Clearly, my story is a work of fiction, but I have long been fascinated by the concept and reports of timeslips. 

What causes these doors to the past to open – apparently with such ease? It seems a lot depends on how you view the whole dimension of time. In history, we talk about timelines, assuming time is linear. What is past, stays in the past. The present is where we are now and the future is an unknown country. Yet many eminent scientists, from Einstein to Professor Brian Cox, challenge the finite nature of time and suggest it may be a lot more flexible than we were led to believe at school.

Certainly, an extraordinary number of accounts from seemingly perfectly sane people attest to some very strange experiences that defy conventional explanation. Some may have involved a trigger factor – such as being keenly interested in historical aspects of a particular place. See what you think.

In Leeds Castle, Kent, Alice Pollock was exploring Henry VIII’s rooms, touching objects and trying, mentally, to project herself back in time to experience events in that room from an earlier age. For a while nothing happened. Then, suddenly, the room changed. Instead of a modern comfortable space, it became cold and bare. Logs burned on the fire, the carpet had vanished. She saw a tall woman, dressed in an old-fashioned long white dress, walking up and down the length of the room. The woman appeared to be unaware of her visitor and seemed to be concentrating hard on something.

Then, as quickly as it had happened, the room changed back to its original state.

Alice conducted research and discovered that the room had been part of a suite used to imprison Queen Joan of Navarre, Henry V’s stepmother, whose husband had accused her of witchcraft.

Did Alice touch some object that resonated with this era? Did she just will herself into some kind of hallucination? Or did her enthusiasm set of a trigger of some kind, allowing her to glimpse a snapshot of a time long past.

Joan Forman, author of a number of books on ghosts, mysteries and the supernatural, wrote of a Warder at the Tower of London who had an extraordinary experience when he was on duty in the Byward Tower. One night he saw five or six Beefeaters seated around a log fire, smoking pipes. They appeared to be from a much earlier era and the whole room had transformed. Unnerved, the warder left the room, but returned moments later whereupon it had reverted to its original state. There was no sign of the Beefeaters.

Forman wrote of many other experiences, and then had one of her own. At Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, she paused to admire the surroundings. Suddenly, she saw four children playing outside. She watched them, especially captivated by the oldest girl, who had blonde hair, wore a high Dutch hat and a long green-grey silk dress with a white collar. Clearly not of this era. She was certain she was watching them with some kind of inner vision, rather than with her physical sight. Believing that the little girl might actually have existed, she searched the ancestral portraits until she found her. She succeeded and found herself looking at a portrait of Lady Grace Manners who died in the 1640s.

Through her own experience and those she documented, Joan Forman became convinced that the theory of a trigger factor, instigating the ‘timeslip’ was true. She had been caught up in the atmosphere of the place, had let her mind drift for a second or two, and allowed the past to slip into the present.

Whatever the truth of the many well-documented occurrences of apparent timeslips, they simply won’t go away, and accounts are found from all over the world. With scientists telling us that bending time is indeed possible, who knows?

Here’s a flavour of Saving Grace Devine: - which is now back in print, as well as ebook:

Can the living help the dead...and at what cost?

When Alex Fletcher finds a painting of a drowned girl, she’s unnerved. When the girl in the painting opens her eyes, she is terrified. And when the girl appears to her as an apparition and begs her for help, Alex can’t refuse.

But as she digs further into Grace’s past, she is embroiled in supernatural forces she cannot control, and a timeslip back to 1912 brings her face to face with the man who killed Grace and the demonic spirit of his long-dead mother. With such nightmarish forces stacked against her, Alex’s options are few. Somehow she must save Grace, but to do so, she must pay an unimaginable price.

Saving Grace Devine is now back in print, as well as ebook and is available here:

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When An Imaginary Friend Crosses The Line

When you were growing up, did you have an imaginary friend? Did they seem real to you? Maybe sort-of-real. You could talk to them, imagine their responses, play with them but you probably kept the ‘relationship’ within certain boundaries – however young you were. In my case, I invented an entire family of siblings – three sisters (two older, one a few years younger) and an older brother who looked out for us girls. Being an only child, I found them comforting, and fun, but I never imagined them to be real. They, in turn, kept themselves firmly lodged in my own mind and never attempted to cross any boundary into the real world.

In my novel, The Devil’s Serenade, my central character also had an imaginary family when she was a child. Scarily for her, they now start to appear in her real adult world.

Of course, my story is fiction, but there have been a number of accounts of small children making ‘friends’ with most unsuitable imaginary characters – who then cross the line. They can do this because they are not really imaginary at all – just invisible, at least to all except the child itself.

One instance involves the story of a four-year-old boy called Jayden and the strange events that began during the height of summer when his mother heard him apparently talking to someone. She didn’t think too much about it at the time as he was playing with his toys and she assumed it was part of the game he had invented for himself that day. “C’mon, Jack! You’re the bad guy!” her son said.

A few days later, her son had a vivid dream and told his mother about it. In it, he had been going away somewhere with his friend, Jack. From then on, Jack seemed to be his major topic of conversation. Eventually his mother became so irritated by the constant repetition of his name that she demanded to know who this ‘Jack’ was.

Immediately, her son pointed behind her and said, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” 

She turned, but there was no one there. The mother was momentarily unnerved but then decided there was no harm in it. Jack was obviously an imaginary friend.

A week later, Jayden was in his room and started yelling. His mother dashed upstairs to find his room in chaos. Toys, books and clothes were strewn everywhere. His mother demanded he clean up the mess rightaway, but Jayden was in a furious temper. “It was Jack!” he insisted.

“It wasn’t Jack,” his mother said. “There is no Jack!”

Soon after that, Jayden’s mother came into his room to find him standing on top of his cupboard. She was perplexed as to how he could have got up there by himself as it was a metre and a half high.

“Jack told me to jump,” Jayden said. “I have to be nice to him or he will hurt me.” His mother helped him down and cuddled him close, as her mind raced. What was happening here?

All was quiet for a few days until she was passing his room and saw Jayden playing. To her horror, she saw toys and books move by themselves across the room. Her little boy cried, “No, Jack, no!”

She dashed in to comfort her child. Instantly, the activity ceased.

Jayden’s mother installed a baby monitor in his room. She didn’t have to wait long for a result. Listening downstairs, she heard Jayden’s voice on the monitor. White noise or static followed and every so often she could make out another voice. She couldn’t understand what it was saying, but it was clear Jayden could.

Suddenly over the monitor, a strange male voice boomed out. “I will hurt you!”

A loud thud echoed around the house. When Jayden’s mother reached him, she found her son lying on the floor, injured, crying and in pain. She rushed him to the hospital, where they found he had a sprained wrist and a fractured rib.

“Jack pushed me off the cupboard,” he said.

His mother called in a priest, who conducted a house cleansing and, mercifully, this seemed to do the trick because Jayden has never mentioned Jack since and life has returned to normal.

Imaginary friends. They can be innocent good fun – but some of them clearly have alternative agendas.

Maddie had forgotten that cursed summer. Now she’s about to remember…

“Madeleine Chambers of Hargest House” has a certain grandeur to it. But as Maddie enters the Gothic mansion she inherited from her aunt, she wonders if its walls remember what she’s blocked out of the summer she turned sixteen.

She’s barely settled in before a series of bizarre events drive her to question her sanity. Aunt Charlotte’s favourite song shouldn’t echo down the halls. The roots of a faraway willow shouldn’t reach into the cellar. And there definitely shouldn’t be a child skipping from room to room.

As the barriers in her mind begin to crumble, Maddie recalls the long-ago summer she looked into the face of evil. Now, she faces something worse. The mansion’s long-dead builder, who has unfinished business—and a demon that hungers for her very soul.

The Devil's Serenade, published by Crossroad Press, is available in ebook and print from:

Wordery

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Crossroad Press

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Quintillus Returns - In A Brand New Edition!

 

1913. Storm clouds gather over Europe – and in a basement in Vienna, an unquiet spirit stirs…

Adeline always dreamed of visiting the Austrian capital, so the chance to work there seems like a dream come true. But, from the moment she sets foot in the elegant mansion that belonged to the late archeologist Dr. Emeryk Quintillus, she senses a presence—one so menacing and evil, she fears for her sanity and her life.

Strange noises from behind the walls, shadowy figures that cannot be there, hieroglyphics that appear on the wall, and an enigmatic portrait of a long dead Egyptian queen. Quintillus had made the discovery of the century—so why did he hide it?

Ancient enemies are at war in this mysterious house, and Adeline’s fate is inextricably woven to theirs.

Of all the nasty characters I have created over the years, one stands out for me. Dr. Emeryk Quintillus's obsession with Cleopatra, his total, single-minded determination to bring her back to life, and to possess her for all eternity - combined with his total lack of humanity - make him the villain who keeps on giving to me as his creator.

He will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Even death cannot thwart him.

Now, for a writer, when a book goes out of print, that's a kind of death. And when that fate befalls a trilogy...  You see, Wrath of the Ancients started out its publishing life as Book One of the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy and was soon followed by Waking the Ancients and Damned by the Ancients which completed the set.

Fast-forward a few years and the trilogy was united in one large volume, entitled Nemesis of the Gods. When this also went out of print, Quintillus wasn't having any of it. Hell hath no fury like a demon archaeologist scorned.

Now he has risen again. The trilogy is being re-released in the original three volumes with stunning new cover art, all courtesy of lovely publishers, Crossroad Press (in their Macabre Ink imprint).

Available in ebook and print editions:

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and elsewhere

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Crossroad Press

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Who Would Be...The Second Wife

 

Emily Marchant died on Valentine’s Day. If only she’d stayed dead…

When Chrissie Marchant first sets eyes on Barton Grove, she feels as if the house doesn’t want her. But it’s her new husband’s home, so now it’s her home as well. Sumptuous and exquisitely appointed, the house is filled with treasures that had belonged to Joe’s first wife, the perfect Emily, whom the villagers still consider the real mistress of Barton Grove.

A stunning photograph of the first Mrs. Marchant hangs in the living room, an unblemished rose in her hand. There’s something unnerving and impossibly alive about that portrait, but it’s not the only piece of Emily still in the house. And as Chrissie’s marriage unravels around her, she learns that Emily never intended for Joe to take a second wife…

In print for the first time!

'Highly recommended for fans of gothic horror, ghost stories, or anyone looking for a chilling read.' - Little Miss Zombie

'The Second Wife is a story of both the persistence of the Supernatural and of psychological horror, so finely tuned that the approach of the horrendous is gradual but implacable. I'm so glad I read this in the daylight; although I expect to have nightmares tonight. I literally have chills.' - The Haunted Reading Room

'Wonderfully creepy and intriguing. I think the moral of this story is... don't be the second wife. Bad things will happen to you.'- Reading the Paranormal

'This story is a fantastic choice for anyone who prefers to allow their imagination to inflate certain horrors instead of asking the author to spell everything out in bright red letters.' - Long and Short Reviews

The Second Wife is available in ebook and print editions here:

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and elsewhere

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Now You Can See, Hear and Hold...The Devil Inside Her

When dreams become nightmares, someone will die

Haunted by the death of her husband and only child, Elinor Gentry’s recurring nightmares have left her exhausted. She’s crippled by debt, and only the remnants of her former life surround her, things she can’t bear to sell, and wouldn’t make much profit from if she did. Then, for no apparent reason, the nightmares transform into pleasant dreams. Dreams that lead her to take back control of her life.

A string of horrific and unexplained suicides–and an unnerving discovery about Elinor herself—lead her best friend to seek help from the one person who has seen all this before, and things begin to spiral out of control. Hazel Messinger knows that Elinor’s newly found well-being is not what it seems, and Hazel’s not about to let the demon inside remain there permanently.

'A great - and very different take - on a demon possession story.'  -  Cat After Dark

'With lovely, dark imagery and a terribly twisted way of killing innocent people, Marnie and Elinor's story skates between true friendship and horror. Creepy, just the way I like it.' - Reading the Paranormal

Now available for the first time in print, as well as ebook and Audible!

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and elsewhere

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Miss Abigail's Room - First Time in Print!

It wasn’t so much the blood on the floor that Becky minded. It was the way it kept coming back…

As the lowest-ranking parlour maid at Stonefleet Hall, Becky gets all the dirtiest jobs. But the one she hates the most is cleaning Miss Abigail’s room. There’s a strange, empty smell to the place, and a feeling that nothing right or Christian resides there in the mistress’s absence. And then there’s the blood; the spot that comes back no matter often Becky scrubs it clean. Becky wishes she had somewhere else to go, but without means or a good recommendation from her household, there is nothing for her outside the only home she’s known for eighteen years. So when a sickening doll made of wax and feathers turns up, Becky’s dreams of freedom and green grass become even more distant. Until the staff members start to die.

A darning needle through the heart of the gruesome doll puts everyone at Stonefleet Hall at odds. The head parlour maid seems like someone else, the butler pretends nothing’s amiss, and everyone thinks Becky’s losing her mind. But when the shambling old lord of the manor looks at her, why does he scream as though he’s seen the hounds of hell?

Stonefleet Hall hides many secrets...

But the worst of them reside in Miss Abigail's Room.

"Catherine Cavendish has consistently given me a case of the creepy crawlies with her books and this story is no different. It starts with the blood on the floor and it just gets worse and worse for poor Becky until you don't know who she should trust or who she should be running from... Paranormal horror. There's nothing more terrifying" - Reading the Paranormal

 "This is one of those books that, once begun, you want to stay in until the final page"- Horror After Dark

Now in print FOR THE FIRST TIME

and available from:

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and elsewhere

Images:

Crossroad Press

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Some Dinner Invitations Are Best Ignored...

'This was one of those stories that snuck up on me. It was nicely dark, moved quickly and kept me guessing as to what was going to happen right up to the end.' - Reading the Paranormal

For no apparent reason, Nadine, Maggie, Gary, and Nick are invited to dinner at the lavish home of top fashion writer, Erin Dartford. But why has she invited them? Why doesn't she want her guests to mingle? And just what is it about the mysterious Erin that makes them want to run for their lives?

Little do they know that as they prepare to eat their first course, an evil as old as mankind is about to be unleashed. And revenge really is a dish best served cold…

I am delighted to announce that Crossroad Press has just published the paperback version of my first novella. Thirteen years on from its first release, Cold Revenge was only available in ebook versions but now, for the first time, it's in print!

Don't get me wrong, I love my Kindle. It's great for vacations. But, let's face it, there's nothing like the sight, feel and smell of a real book.

Cold Revenge was borne of a chance conversation about...well...revenge (in concept, rather than practice, I hasten to add). 'Revenge is a dish best served cold' said author Eugene Sue in Memoirs of Matilda first published in 1846 (although he may not have been the first). In my story, you can make your own minds up as to who deserves vengeance (if anyone).

Erin Dartford has already determined her choices...

Cold Revenge is available in paperback and ebook from:

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(Text) Messages from Hell and Other Bad Infuencers

You all remember Annabelle, right? That scary, murderous doll eventually caught, trapped and locked away for posterity by demon-hunting duo Ed and Lorraine Warren. (Or was she?). There are numerous other accounts of the devil and his cohorts inhabiting inanimate objects and bringing them to life in all sorts of evil ways, but this is the 21st century and it would appear the devil is also a dab hand at using our everyday technology for his own dastardly ends. Nothing is safe or immune from his attention. Not even the humble text message. We've seen fictional examples in horror movies of recent years but it couldn't happen in real life, could it?

Well... Take this strange case in Poland:

In 2014, priest Marian Rajchel carried out an exorcism on a teenage girl. It failed. Instead of leaving her soul, he somehow managed to drive the demon into the girl’s mobile phone whereupon he started to receive threatening text messages from it.

He replied and received the response, “Shut up, Preacher. You cannot save yourself. Idiot. You pathetic old preacher.” Even more sinister, one message said, “She will not come out of hell. She’s mine. Anyone who prays for her will die.”

Father Rajchel was convinced the author of the text messages was the same demon that possessed the girl’s soul and, furthermore, asserted that this was no isolated incident. He believed many such cases like this were going undetected because people didn’t realise they were being used in this way.

He went on record saying that the young girl was in need of further help to rid her of the evil inhabiting her. Sadly, the priest died in 2021.

But Father Rajchel is not alone in his belief that the devil is working through technology. Back in 2000, in Savannah, Georgia, Reverend Jim Peasboro wrote a book entitled, The Devil in the Machine; Is Your Computer Possessed by a Demon? This now appears to be out of print but in an article published in The Journal Record, it would seem that, in his view, any computer built after 1985 has the memory capacity to house a demon. He believed then, ‘one in ten computers in America now houses some type of evil spirit.” Now, if he is correct, that number must be close to one hundred percent worldwide. Pretty scary stuff - if true. However, he quotes as evidence for this, many instances of formerly happily married men unable to stop themselves from visiting pornographic websites and of women drawn into internet chat rooms where they behaved totally out of character, using foul language and debasing themselves in a way that would hitherto have been abhorrent to them. One such woman wept as she told of feeling that whenever she was using her computer, someone else was controlling her actions. Convenient excuse perhaps?

 

When challenged that this is simply the result of the easy availability of so much unsavoury – and worse – material on the internet, Reverend Peasboro insisted that he knew for certain demons were at work – because he had come face to face with them.

He told a story of inspecting a computer believed to be possessed by an evil spirit when it began openly ‘talking’ to him. It typed out, “Preacher, you are a weakling and your God is a damn liar.” It then started to go berserk and printed out what looked like nonsense. He then consulted an expert in dead languages who studied it and reported back that the text contained a stream of obscenities written in a 2,800 year old Mesopotamian dialect.

Of course more recently, we are being warned to be wary of our smart household appliances. They are spying on us, apparently. That air fryer sitting so innocently in a corner of your kitchen awaiting its next batch of fried chicken is actually quietly amassing (and passing on) data on your eating habits and maybe much more.

Do you ever find yourself thinking you just fancy a glass of refreshing, chilled white wine only to boot up your laptop and up pops an ad with some special offer on a case of Chardonnay? Is this the devil at work? More likely Alexa has been eavesdropping on you or that pesky air fryer again, or maybe, just maybe, you inadvertently visited some supermarket website recently and lingered a little in the drinks 'aisle'. None of these? Well, did you discuss your desires with anyone - and was the air dryer or maybe the washing machine 'listening'? Of course, if it's only shopping ideas, you probably haven't much to worry about...but if something more sinister manifests on your screen, start with an IT technician. If that doesn't work, find out the number of your local exorcist. 

Are we looking at demons possessing our technology? You decide.

Meanwhile...

‘Fear her now, fear the queen,

As in her stone she reigns supreme'

When Jonathan agrees to accompany his girlfriend, Nadia, on a trip to Landane, he imagines a short relaxing break in the countryside. But he quickly discovers that Nadia isn’t just drawn to the ancient Neolithic stone circle, she is obsessed by the megaliths. One in particular holds a fascination for her. Within hours, her personality begins to change, and it isn’t long before Jonathan starts to fear for her sanity.

Reaching far back into the past and up to the present day, those same stones have demonstrated powers beyond reason and, as Jonathan’s girlfriend becomes increasingly distant from reality, some of the ghosts of the past begin to reappear.

Now it isn’t only Nadia who is in danger.

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