HELEN STRINGER is the author of
Spellbinder, a new novel from Feiwel and Friends that features Belladonna Johnson, a girl who can see ghosts. This is incredibly lucky for her, as her parents are dead, but she can still see them. That is until all the ghosts in the world disappear, and only Belladonna has the power to bring them back. Originally from Liverpool, Ms. Stringer now lives in L.A.
This is the time of year when many people think about ghosts (and a lot of other ghoulies, but we’ll stick with ghosts here), and the existence or otherwise of spectral creatures is more likely to be discussed in October than at any other time of year. That doesn’t mean that ghosts limit their nocturnal wanderings to a single evening once a year, just that we, the living, are more likely to think about them on Halloween.
These days, ghosts are most commonly imagined as people who died with unfinished business and all they need to do is sort it out and walk towards “the light.” But this is a very modern, late twentieth century idea. In former centuries, ghosts were seen as facts of life—a spirit might haunt a bridge or a gate, but there was seldom any attempt to get rid of it, or even to find out who it had been in life. And there was no guarantee that a person’s ghost would even look like them—Europe is riddled with tales of phantom animals, such as horses and white rabbits, that were said to be the ghosts of people. As for the “light,” there is no sign of that whatsoever. Ghosts were basically left to their own devices, unless they became troublesome. In such cases, they were “talked down.” Talking down involved getting a bunch of people—as many as possible and preferably priests—who would then stand around and read a particular Bible passage over and over. It didn’t matter what Bible passage, it seems to have been the repetition that did the trick. The ghost was apparently simply bored out of existence! It would get smaller and smaller and finally be imprisoned in a box or a jar or under a bridge or a lake. There would always be a time limit, usually one hundred years, after which the ghost could return to its nightly wanderings, presumably properly chastened. So basically, we’re talking about a century-long time-out!
I have always loved this old-fashioned idea of ghosts and find the modern concept of unfinished business rather dull and uninteresting. The ghosts in
Spellbinder all stick around because they want to, staying close to the places that were important to them in life. It’s places that really speak to me. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by old places—they have a magic all their own and it was always easy to imagine them in their heyday, still crowded with the people who built, lived, ate, and worked in them.
There are places like this everywhere. For example, the theatre at the back of the electronics shop in
Spellbinder is based on an old vaudeville theatre in downtown Los Angeles. The lobby is now a raucous store, but the theatre is still there behind a door, slowly rotting away. Having said that, though, I have to admit that the area of northwest England where I grew up is an absolute gold mine for potential hauntings.
There’s my hometown of Liverpool first, which, as a venerable port, is awash in stories of ships and sailors wrecked or drowned only to return. And then there are the oddballs (of which Liverpool has more than the usual share!) such as the Liverpool Mole—a wealthy man who created jobs during a time of economic depression in the mid-1800s by paying men to come and dig tunnels under his house. The tunnels eventually extended out across the city, a maze of passageways punctuated by huge, cathedral-like caverns.
On the edge of town, right next to John Lennon Airport, is Speke Hall, a stunning Tudor house complete with an official ghost (this house makes an appearance in
Spellbinder as Arkbath Hall). There’s also Croxteth Hall, an architectural monstrosity built by the Earls of Sefton over four centuries. I worked there years ago, when it was being prepared to open to the public, and it was like being a kid in a candy store. I had the run of the rambling old place, corridors leading off corridors, opening into elegant reception rooms and vast airy bedrooms. There were grand staircases for Lord Sefton and his friends, and narrow, winding back stairs that trailed down to the kitchens and up to the attics where the armies of servants lived. If I had stumbled across the ghost of some under-maid polishing the banisters, I really wouldn’t have been surprised.
But it isn’t just Liverpool, it’s all the things it is close to. Leaving town, a drive of an hour or so brings you to North Wales, which is absolutely awash in fabulous old castles, including my favorites, Conway, Caernarfon, and Harlech. Harlech is perched on an outcropping of rock high above the town and the view from the battlements is of the long-silted-up estuary and the grim and misty mountains of Snowdonia, home to generations of Welsh rebels. Driving out of Liverpool in the other direction takes you first to Lancashire (famous for its witches) and on to Cumbria, where there are ruined medieval abbeys, the well-preserved remains of Roman forts, and numerous ancient stone circles.
In places like these, it’s hardly surprising that the locals had a rather matter-of-fact attitude to spectral visitors. It really is impossible to wander through them without half-seeing people from an older time, hearing their voices and feeling a little bit of what it must have been like. They are places in which our time and theirs seem to nuzzle together, where the stones, carvings, wattle, and daub replay events they have witnessed for anyone with the imagination to listen.
The UK may be overpopulated with such places and they may range in years from the dawn of time to just a few years ago, but it does not have an exclusive claim. Here in America, there are many buildings, roads, and even the countryside itself that exude the lives and emotions of those who have gone before. Once you find out about them and their pasts, your imagination too will populate them with the shades of men, women, and children striving, loving, living, and dying.
Oh, and maybe even the occasional white rabbit.
Pick up a copy of Spellbinder for a spooky Halloween read! It's available at your local bookstore, or here:
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Spellbinder
