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Announcing my latest book, ‘Paranormal Gloucestershire’ which is out on Monday 15 September 2025!

‘Paranormal Gloucestershire‘ is my fourth book for Amberley Publishing and is now available through all online retail stores and also through your local high street bookstore. You’ll find it in Waterstones branches and it can be ordered through indie bookshops too (of which there are many fabulous examples especially those I’ve visited in Gloucestershire, including Borzoi Bookshop in Stow-on-the-Wold and the Yellow-Lighted Bookshop in Tetbury). In Warwickshire you’ll definitely find it stocked in Warwick Books and Kenilworth Books.

The book is highly illustrated with 100 original colour photos and will be a treasured item not only for ghost hunters and history buffs but also for all those who love books of travel photography and unexplained mysteries.

I shared the task of photographing locations with my talented photographer son, Jamie Robinson.

Jamie Robinson Photographer & SC Skillman Author with new book Paranormal Gloucestershire Jamie Robinson PhotographerFrom the publisher’s burb:

Gloucestershire is a county rich in beauty, history, and a high level of
spiritual, mysterious, and paranormal activity. With a profusion of haunted
inns, castles, houses and landscape features, the presence of the past is
absorbed into the fabric of places as diverse as the Neolithic burial chamber
of Belas Knap Long Barrow, the prisons at Gloucester and Littledean, and
the 12th century Ancient Ram Inn at Wotton under Edge.

Hauntings have been reported at Sudeley Castle, Chavenage House, St Briavels Castle, Woodchester Mansion and Owlpen Manor; and many report unsettling
experiences at the Abbeys in Gloucester and Tewkesbury, the villages of
Prestbury and Arlingham, and in the Montpelier and Pittville areas of
Cheltenham.

In this book I visit eerie locations around Gloucestershire to unearth a selection of chilling tales about them, and explore the strangeness of the hauntings of this fascinating county.

‘Paranormal Gloucestershire’ takes the reader into the world of ghosts and
spirits in the county, following their footsteps into the unknown. These tales of
haunted places, supernatural happenings and weird phenomena will delight
the ghost hunters, and fascinate and intrigue everybody who knows
Gloucestershire.

Here are some useful links to some of the places where you can find the book:

Amazon

Waterstones

Warwick Books

Kenilworth Books

Direct from the publisher

If you are tempted by ‘Paranormal Gloucestershire’, and enjoy reading the stories and browsing the photos, please do leave a review on Amazon! Author SC Skillman

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Today, I’m delighted to share news that my next nonfiction book will be released by Amberley on 15th September 2025.

View of Owlpen Manor from the garden (photo credit Sheila Robinson)

‘Paranormal Gloucestershire’ explores a county rich in beauty, history, and a high level of spiritual, mysterious, and paranormal activity.

With a profusion of haunted inns, castles, houses and landscape features, the presence of the past is absorbed into the fabric of places as diverse as the Neolithic burial chamber of Belas Knapp Long Barrow, the prisons at Gloucester and Littledean, and the 12th century Ancient Ram Inn at Wotton under Edge.

The Plough Inn, Prestbury, Gloucestershire (photo credit: Sheila Robinson)

Hauntings have been reported at Sudeley Castle, Chavenage House, St Briavels Castle, Woodchester Mansion and Owlpen Manor and many report unsettling experiences at the Abbeys in Gloucester and Tewkesbury, the villages of Prestbury and Arlingham, and in the Montpelier and Pittville areas of Cheltenham.

Snowshill Manor, Gloucestershire (photo credit Sheila Robinson)

During my research for this book I visited eerie locations around Gloucestershire to unearth a selection of chilling tales and explored the strangeness of the hauntings of this fascinating county.

It’s on preorder right now, so if you’d like to make sure of getting an early copy on the day of publication, do click here for the publisher and here for Amazon.

Belas Knapp Long Barrow, Gloucestershire (photo credit Jamie Robinson) View of Berkeley Castle from the Inner Courtyard (photo credit Jamie Robinson) Invitation to support author JOIN MY MAILING LIST

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About Me

I live in Warwickshire, a county in central England, just south of Birmingham, together with my husband and son; and my daughter currently lives and works in Australia.

I was born and brought up in Orpington, a town on the southeastern edge of London. My first job was as a production secretary with the BBC. Later I lived for five years in Australia before returning to live and work in England.

My published output includes two novels Mystical Circles and A Passionate Spirit, and four highly illustrated nonfiction books Paranormal Warwickshire, Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire, A-Z of Warwick and Paranormal Gloucestershire.

Author SC Skillman

Currently the UK news and social media are focussing on Raynor Winn and the truthfulness or otherwise of certain accounts in her highly successful nonfiction book ‘The Salt Path’ (first published by Penguin 2019).

Out of this has come a fascinating discussion about our expectations of truth and factual accuracy in memoirs and nonfiction books. As a nonfiction author myself, I’ve been following readers’ opinions with great interest.

Many people are using the phrase ‘it’s easy to say that in hindsight’ as they change their opinions of the book, in view of recent revelations by an investigative journalist in The Observer: either that, or they claim that they always thought certain parts of the book were dodgy.

Since then, Raynor Winn has published her own new account of events on her website.

Here lies the value of writing a book review soon after you’ve read a book – then you have authentic evidence of what you actually did think at the time!

I read the book about a year after it was published and here is my original review, which I then uploaded, as usually, to Amazon. So this is what I actually did think of it, without claiming any foresight !

MY 2020 REVIEW OF ‘THE SALT PATH’ BY RAYNOR WINN

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

This is one of those books for which the one-star reviews on Amazon are almost more revealing and fascinating than the book itself. For those who would like insights into how the residents and the business-owners of Cornwall and Devon feel, this book and its most critical reviews are worth reading!

Personally, I found it a gripping read; and as a nonfiction writer myself, I know that is no mean feat. However, I don’t own a small West-Country coastal business and rely for my livelihood on tourist custom. As for the financial disaster that precedes the decision to go on the walk, I don’t have a close knowledge of the UK law or the benefits system. Many of the one-star reviewers of this book do, and some of them also have experience of a family member with a tragic life-limiting degenerative illness.

Although I have walked tiny bits of the Southwest Coastal Path and used to go on 50 mile sponsored walks from my local area and have climbed mountains in the Lake District and in Wales, I’ve never attempted such a walk as the one described in this book. I’m not a resident of Cornwall and Devon and have never enjoyed camping. I don’t believe I would dare to pitch a tent for free in a paid-for camping site with the intention of not paying; and even if I was tempted by desperation, I probably still wouldn’t do it; deeply engrained values would hold me back, and I’d choose wild camping in the gorse instead. So there are some aspects of this story which readers have doubted; and some of them reflect so poorly upon Raynor herself, I tend to feel they must be true. Though I would in her place have been highly motivated to exclude them from my book (which is easy enough to do).

Nevertheless, the psychological turmoil Raynor described herself as taking with her on her journey is highly relatable, and many of us would have felt that ourselves, when life turns bad and frustration, loss and perceived injustice comes our way. It was clear to me that the arduous walk she and Moth took, which did require dogged persistence and endurance, would have ultimately burned away those negative emotions.

By the time they had arrived at Lizard Point, Raynor seems to have reached a point of calm acceptance and to have shed the worst of her bitterness and self-pity. They stop at Polruan then take up an invitation to spend all winter at a friend’s Midlands sheep farm, doing renovation work, living in a shed, and working on the farm. Warm weather again finds them at Poole, ready to walk 250 miles back to Polruan.

They are persistent and dogged though I don’t think much of their survivalist skills especially as they live on a diet of rice, noodles, tuna and chocolate bars, by her own account.

At Talland Bay breakthrough comes: the moment of transformation. They meet a lady called Anna at a café. Anna offers them her flat to rent in Polruan, not far from the university at Portsmouth where Moth has decided to sign up as a mature student.  We have a feeling they are saved at last, and as Raynor points out, they end up living where their path ends. I do like the end of the book.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Do let me know what you think. For instance, in a nonfiction book which is ‘confessional’ in style and purpose, do we have the right to expect 100% factual accuracy, and is the publisher morally reponsible to check that to the best of their ability? I’d love to have your comments!

Invitation to support author Mailing LIst sign up invite – SC Skillman

Join me on my writing journey and receive a monthly newsletter straight to your inbox, in which I share gems and snippets from my research and news and insights from the writing and publishing worlds, plus you’ll be the first to know when I have a new book coming out.

For regular readers of this blog, if you enjoy my articles and would like to support me, you can do that here, and I’ll be very grateful.

Author SC SkillmanAbout Me

I live in Warwickshire, a county in central England, just south of Birmingham, together with my husband and son; and my daughter currently lives and works in Australia.

I was born and brought up in Orpington, a town on the southeastern edge of London. My first job was as a production secretary with the BBC. Later I lived for five years in Australia before returning to live and work in England.

My published output includes two novels Mystical Circles and A Passionate Spirit, and four highly illustrated nonfiction books Paranormal Warwickshire, Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire, A-Z of Warwick and Paranormal Gloucestershire.

Today I review a new Australian novel.

This novel is set in a Catholic community in the Monaro Plains, south east of Sydney. The weary first person narrator, separated from her husband, moves there from Sydney, initially for a short-term retreat. Having left and returned home, she later returns permanently.

Book cover design of ‘Stoneyard Devotional’ by Charlotte Wood

The most fascinating thing about Stoneyard Devotional is the dry, unemotional, one might almost say ‘drained’ voice of the narrator, which is profoundly compelling.

I initially felt that I perfectly understood her desire to retreat to this quiet, uneventful place, observing the rhythm of the nuns as day-by-day they carry out the various elements of the ‘divine office’. Yet the narrator is avowedly atheist, still in grief for the death of her parents years before, and she is following this rhythm almost out of a sense of numb despair.  The atmosphere of the novel captivated me, against all reason, you might say, with the flatness of the landscape, the unsentimental observations of the daily routine, and the sheer repetitiveness of the routine.

The narrator intersperses her account with continuous memories of her past life, and I felt these to be wholly convincing; past events do indeed intercede in this way, especially if you choose to go aside from your life of busy-ness and ‘doing’ for a time of retreat. Foremost in her memories seems to be a past schoolmate called Helen Parry who haunts her because Helen was seen as an oddball, treated cruelly by her contemporaries, and the narrator numbers herself among those who abused her. Then, as luck would have it (and often does) Helen Parry comes into her life again and arrives to spend time at the community awaiting the arrival of the bones of a murdered nun, her former friend, for reburial at ‘Stoneyard’.

From this point on I became more and more aware of the narrator’s unquenchable sense of guilt; yet Helen Parry herself seems to have forgotten her and considers the cruellest incident at school almost to be disregarded. I became drawn in by the question of ‘when will the narrator actually open up to Helen and have a proper talk with her and resolve this burden of misunderstanding and guilt?’ The answer to that lies ahead for the reader. I kept turning the pages driven by a quest to truly understand both the narrator and Helen, all through a horrific plague of mice which afflicts the community and to which the author devotes some of her most detailed and graphic descriptions.

A remarkable novel which somehow defies all conventional understanding of such literary devices as ‘high emotional stakes,’ ‘suspense’ or ‘the black moment’ in story structure and yet retains its strange power and truthfulness.

Invitation to support author SC Skillman at a book fair

Do join my supporters and sign up to receive my monthly email packed with gems and snippets from my research, and news and insights from writing and publishing scene plus you’ll be the first to hear when I have a new book coming out.

And for my regular supporters if you enjoy my books and articles and would like to express your appreciation you can do that here and I’d be very grateful !

About me

I live in Warwickshire, a county in central England, just south of Birmingham, together with my husband and son; and my daughter currently lives and works in Australia.

I was born and brought up in Orpington, a town on the southeastern edge of London. My first job was as a production secretary with the BBC. Later I lived for five years in Australia before returning to live and work in England.

My published output includes two novels Mystical Circles and A Passionate Spirit, and four highly illustrated nonfiction books Paranormal Warwickshire, Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire, A-Z of Warwick and Paranormal Gloucestershire.

Author SC Skillman book signing in Kenilworth Books

Here are a few photos from our visit to Tulleys Tulip Garden at Hatton Country World, Warwickshire,  a few days ago.

Complete with a Dutch windmill and delicious Dutch mini pancakes (poffertjes) we enjoyed our experience without travelling to Holland!

Poffertjes – Dutch pancakesSigns on Dutch pancake stall at Tulley Tulip Garden, Hatton Country World, Warwickshire, showing the Menu

I can also attest to the fact that the 10 tulip stems I bought from the tulip boutique at the end of our visit are strong and upstanding and still look beautiful!

Tulip stems from Tulleys Tulip Boutique

Writers write, yes? So what about all the other stuff – publicity, marketing etc? Once upon a time – when I was first published – the author’s job was simply to deliver the manuscript on time, to the agreed length and basically close enough to what was written on the contract. Then you sat back […]

And after the writing?

Today I share my review of ‘Ghosts of the British Museum’ by Noah Angell, which I read over Christmas and New Year.

Book cover image: Ghosts of the British Museum by Noah Angell

This author seems to have two agendas: 1) to share a vast array of ghosts and spirit experiences at the British Museum and 2) to decry those cultural thieves and looters at this august institution, and shame them into giving all their artefacts back to their original owners and dismantling the entire museum.  A rather bizarre dual motive, but it still makes for a fascinating and highly readable nonfiction book.

I often found the author’s stance political and highly partisan, and some may consider him to have an ‘over-developed sense of the dramatic’, but it comes across as a crushing attack on the whole ethos of the British Museum. However, many would not consider his claims – the presence of numerous aggrieved, unquiet ancient spirits – as a reason to empty the place and close it down. At one point he correlates the macabre enjoyment of tourists today viewing the mummified human remains in the Upper Egypt Galleries, to the mindset of those who used to go for a fun day out to watch the public hanging.

I found the book a mixture of annoying, shocking, fascinating, and always captivating. I have to give it five stars for gripping me throughout and also inspiring me with new ideas on how to research a nonfiction book. He interviews museum workers past and present in person and on the phone, corresponding with some by email and chatting with others in the local pubs and cafes. He cites seminars, websites, books, news reports, unpublished MA theses, journals, YouTube videos, museum talks, TV programmes, archival documents, online articles, Ghost Club Minutes, museum catalogues, traditional songs, sermons, the quarterly statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the British Medical Journal.

Packed with his own strong opinions and backed up by numerous detailed first person testimonies gathered from museum workers, curators, warders, cleaners, and night security staff, this book is thought-provoking, engaging and controversial and cannot but provoke an emotional response on the subject from readers, one way or another.

I feel sure the readership must be divided between those who are now fired up anew to visit the British Museum again as soon as possible, and those who resolve never to go near the place again… or just stick to the occasional special exhibition in or off The Great Court (as in my case).

Noah Angell knows the collections, galleries and rooms of the British Museum extremely well and I was very impressed by that. He also succeeded in chilling me with his information about a vast number of uncatalogued items lying in mournful Storage on the levels well below the museum’s public halls. His style is highly colourful and imaginative, and very readable.

From the paranormal point of view, depending on your own worldview, you could find the contents of the book disturbing, creepy, deeply unsettling and sad, and feel angry about injustice and the misuse of power. Others may just find it amusing and intriguing.

Such comments are included as ‘The Director of the British Museum plays prison keeper to the house of spirits’ and ‘The colonial museum must be dismantled; it is a colonial-era relic, a  cursed object, unfit for sacred presences… It is the ghost of a bygone age, a ghost that deserves to be put to rest.’

Unfortunately for his avowed intentions, his book may well serve to greatly increase the numbers visiting the museum, thus supporting and validating their ethos and continued success and prosperity even further, regardless of the feelings of the aggrieved ancient spirits.

Sign up to join me on my writing journey and receive my monthly newsletter straight to your inbox. I share gems and snippets from my research, and news and insights from the writing and publishing worlds, plus you’ll be the first to know when I have a new book coming out.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this, and would like to support me on my writing journey, why not buy me a coffee, and I’d be very appreciative.

I found this book review fascinating, as it followed the 1st episode of the BBC mini series of ‘Miss Austen’. How moving it is to consider Cassandra Austen’s motivation for burning her sister Jane’s letters. I found myself torn between regretting Cassandra’s action, and understanding why she chose to do it, and believing that she did the right thing.

I also cannot help hoping a secret, hitherto-unknown hoard of letters from Jane still remains, somewhere, waiting to be discovered…