English Heritage will publish a collection of new ghost stories by award-winning authors including Jeanette Winterson, Mark Haddon and Sarah Perry this October, the charity announced today (14 July 2017). Eight of the country’s foremost novelists and short story writers have written eight new English ghost stories, each inspired by – and set within the walls of – one of English Heritage’s historic properties. Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories, which features sites including the York Cold War Bunker, Dover Castle and Houseteads Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall, will mark the first time that English Heritage has commissioned new works of fiction. Proceeds from Eight Ghosts will go towards the conservation of English Heritage sites across the country.

Many of the historic sites in English Heritage’s care have already inspired great works of literature. The Gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey provided the unforgettable backdrop to the arrival of Dracula in England in Bram Stoker’s novel (Stoker refers to the legend of a white lady, said to be seen in one of the abbey’s windows). Thomas Hardy set the climax of Tess of the D’Urbervilles at Stonehenge, “this vast erection…rising sheer from the grass”. More recently, George RR Martin has said that the huge ice wall in A Game of Thrones was inspired by a visit to Hadrian's Wall.

Bronwen Riley, Head of Content at English Heritage, said: “The castles and stately homes of England have long inspired ghostly myths and legends, after all, white ladies, cursed souls and headless apparitions all need somewhere fitting to haunt. We wanted to challenge today’s writers to use these buildings and come up with a new twist on the English ghost story. Our writers have risen to this challenge magnificently.

“Many of the sites in our care have provided the setting for great poetry and prose including a number of ghost stories. But this is the first time that English Heritage has commissioned creative writing and this collection has partly been inspired by our new role as a charity and our desire to look at these wonderful old buildings in new ways. And by buying Eight Ghosts, the reader can help ensure that these sites will continue to inspire story tellers and ghost hunters for generations to come.”

Sarah Perry, the author of Essex Serpent, returns to that county with an intense tale of possession at the Jacobean mansion, Audley End House, while the post-apocalyptic scenes in Mark Haddon’s ‘The Bunker’ draw on the author’s visit to the York Cold War Bunker. Andrew Michael Hurley (author of The Loney) has penned a more classical ghost story bringing an unforgettably shocking slant to the history of Carlisle Castle and Jeannette Winterson has written of love and loss at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall.

Eight Ghosts’ eight authors and eight sites are:
• Kate Clanchy – Housesteads Roman Fort, Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland
• Stuart Evers – Dover Castle, Kent
• Mark Haddon – York Cold War Bunker, North Yorkshire
• Andrew Hurley - Carlisle Castle, Cumbria
• Sarah Perry - Audley End House and Gardens, Essex
• Max Porter - Eltham Palace and Gardens, London
• Kamila Shamsie - Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden, Warwickshire
• Jeanette Winterson - Pendennis Castle, Cornwall

Eight Ghosts will also include an essay on the tradition of the English ghost story by Andrew Martin and a gazetter of those English Heritage sites with ghostly associations.

English Heritage became a charity in 2015 and has embarked upon a major conservation programme – the largest in the history of the collection of sites and monuments in its care. Profits from Eight Ghosts will go towards this vital conservation work so that the castles, abbeys and historic houses of England will continue to inspire the public for generations to come.

Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories will be published in October 2017 (in time for Halloween) by September publishing.