Halloween

Eight Ghosts Book

We teamed up with eight of today's leading authors to create a new collection of eight ghost stories inspired by our sites.

About the book

Eight Ghosts is a book of new spine-tingling tales written by eight award-winning contemporary authors and inspired by our historic places.

In an English Heritage first, we challenged the writers to visit our sites and create original fiction based on their experience.

The book also features a chapter by author and journalist Andrew Martin on our historic places and their supernatural legacies.

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THE AUTHORS OF EIGHT GHOSTS

Eight of the country's leading contemporary authors visited our historic places to create a unique story for Eight Ghosts. Learn about the authors here.

  • Kate Clanchy - Housesteads Roman Fort

    Kate is the author of Meeting the English, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and the much-acclaimed memoir, Antigona and Me.

  • Stuart Evers - Dover Castle

    Stuart's first book, Ten Stories About Smoking, won the London Book Award in 2011 and his highly acclaimed novel, If This is Home, follwed in 2012.

  • Mark Haddon - York Cold War Bunker

    An author, illustrator and screen writer, Mark has written 15 books for children and won two BAFTAs. His novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, was published in 2003.

  • Andrew Michael Hurley - Carlisle Castle

    Andrew's first novel, The Loney, was originally published as a limited-edition. It's now been republished and has won the Costa Best First Novel Award and Book of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards in 2016.

  • Sarah Perry - Audley End House and Gardens

    Sarah's most recent novel The Essex Serpent was Waterstones Book of the Year in 2016 and won the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and Overall Book of the Year in 2017.

  • Max Porter - Eltham Palace and Gardens

    Max is the author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers which won the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Sunday Times PFD Young Writer of the Year Award.

  • Kamila Shamsie - Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden

    Kamila has written seven novels including Home Fire. Burnt Shadows which has been translated into more than 20 languages and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

  • Jeanette Winterson OBE - Pendennis Castle

    After publishing her first book Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit at just 25, Jeanette later scripted the novel into a BAFTA-winning BBC drama. She also writes regularly for the Guardian.

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