This is the 14th Peter Ackroyd book I've read. They can vary from being so good they knock all competition aside as in my 2002 Book Of The Year "London- The Biography" (2000). They can get pretty close to that standard (6 more appearances in my end of year Top 10s) and they can also be so-so, and that can apply to both his fiction and non-fiction works and this is the group that this book fits into,
A lot of it is to do with intention. Some of his works including "London"; his 6 volume history of England and the original version of his biography of Charles Dickens are ambitious, massive undertakings. My favourite of his novels "Dan Leno & The Limehouse Golem" (1994) fizzles and enthrals for its duration. In a publishing career that has spanned over 50 years and has incorporated 18 novels, poetry and close to 50 non-fiction works on a range of subjects not everything needs the same attack and depth. This is a much slighter affair, as it was no doubt intended to be.
Subtitled "Spectres Through Time" the author collects published eye-witness accounts of experiences with ghosts. These span the centuries and take in haunted houses, wandering spirits, religious spooks, ghosts of animals, poltergeists and premonitions of death. There's a lot to choose from as Ackroyd states in his introduction that the English see more of these visitations than anyone else, with not surprisingly the Victorian period being the most significant. I found it quite fascinating that removed from any greater context and analysis how much these accounts seem to blend into one another with common threads and patterns and how although obviously very scary for the individuals concerned at the time seem rather detached when recorded as factual events. Most ghosts seen are not known by the haunted. There's lots of knocking and banging sounds, objects thrown hit but do not hurt individuals (but thrown against walls and floors etc. do cause damage) and messages either fail to be conveyed effectively or mean very little. Obviously there's exceptions to all of these but that provides a general picture and if it sounds like I'm being disparaging towards these (not always) night-time visitors I'm not because there's no getting around their mystery. These stories are all unexplained- often witnessed by upstanding members of the community, whole households or groups of individuals and that makes this mind-bending, compelling and, I must admit, without some kind of explanation a tad disappointing.
I'd been wanting to read this book since publication and I think I thought it was more of an examination of the role of the ghost in English culture, because that feels like something Peter Ackroyd would do whereas it is merely a record of hauntings and I think that this is why I wasn't blown away by it but for a perspective of ghostly visits over the centuries and the power these had over those who witnessed such events it's certainly worth seeking out.
The English Ghost was published by Chatto & Windus in 2010. I read the 2011 Vintage paperback edition.
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