Hachette India

How to Build a Haunted House: The History of a Cultural Obsession

Caitlin Blackwell Baines

A CRIB NOTES MUST-READ FOR SPOOKY SEASON AND BOOKSELLER TOP OCTOBER PAPERBACK PICK

'Glorious' PHILIP HOARE

'A supernatural safari - just the sort of book to read over Halloween' DAILY MAIL

Do you have what it takes to cross the threshold?

Crumbling turrets, crenelated walls, creaking floorboards. We all know a haunted house when we see - or feel - one. That creeping sense of wrongness. An icy shiver stealing down the spine.

But why do certain structures set this super-sensory alarm bell jangling, while others leave us unmoved? Can a house be purpose-built to be haunted? And does a building need a bloody legacy to set the skin tingling?

Tiptoe through the haunted gallery at Hampton Court Palace, encounter the spectral residents of Chillingham Castle and lose yourself in the labyrinthine layout of Winchester Mystery House as Caitlin Blackwell Baines unravels the psyche, the history and the folkloric fabrication that make a haunted house take on a life of its own.

Enter if you dare...

'Every horror fan, coffin boffin and certified creep needs to read this book' ALICE SLATER

Caitlin Blackwell Baines

Caitlin Blackwell Baines is an art historian and author, specialising in Georgian art and architecture. Born in Toronto, she later emigrated to the UK to pursue an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a PhD from the University of York in art history. Upon completing her studies, she moved to the Isle of Bute off the Western coast of Scotland, and worked as a curator at Mount Stuart, a late Victorian Gothic Revival palace. When she isn't visiting haunted houses and recording her ghost story-themed history podcast, Haunted Homes, Caitlin is based in East Sussex.