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Hauntings: Is There Anybody There?
The classic Norah Lofts collection of spooky, creepy haunted house stories.
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
2 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Norah Lofts
106 books309 followersNorah Ethel Robinson Lofts Jorisch (27 August 1904–10 September 1983) was a 20th century best-selling British author. She wrote over fifty books specialising in historical fiction, but she also wrote non-fiction and short stories. Many of her novels, including her Suffolk Trilogy, follow the history of a specific house and the residents that lived in it.
Lofts was born in Shipdham, Norfolk in England. She also published using the pseudonyms Juliet Astley and Peter Curtis. Norah Lofts chose to release her murder-mystery novels under the pen name Peter Curtis because she did not want the readers of her historic fiction to pick up a murder-mystery novel and expect classic Norah Lofts historical fiction. However, the murders still show characteristic Norah Lofts elements. Most of her historical novels fall into two general categories: biographical novels about queens, among them Anne Boleyn, Isabella of Castile, and Catherine of Aragon; and novels set in East Anglia centered around the fictitious town of Baildon (patterned largely on Bury St. Edmunds). Her creation of this fictitious area of England is reminiscent of Thomas Hardy's creation of "Wessex"; and her use of recurring characters such that the protagonist of one novel appears as a secondary character in others is even more reminiscent of William Faulkner's work set in "Yoknapatawpha County," Mississippi. Norah Lofts' work set in East Anglia in the 1930s and 1940s shows great concern with the very poor in society and their inability to change their conditions. Her approach suggests an interest in the social reformism that became a feature of British post-war society.
Several of her novels were turned into films. Jassy was filmed as Jassy (1947) starring Margaret Lockwood and Dennis Price. You're Best Alone was filmed as Guilt is My Shadow (1950). The Devil's Own (also known as The Little Wax Doll and Catch As Catch Can) was filmed as The Witches (1966). The film 7 Women was directed by John Ford and based on the story Chinese Finale by Norah Lofts.
Lofts was born in Shipdham, Norfolk in England. She also published using the pseudonyms Juliet Astley and Peter Curtis. Norah Lofts chose to release her murder-mystery novels under the pen name Peter Curtis because she did not want the readers of her historic fiction to pick up a murder-mystery novel and expect classic Norah Lofts historical fiction. However, the murders still show characteristic Norah Lofts elements. Most of her historical novels fall into two general categories: biographical novels about queens, among them Anne Boleyn, Isabella of Castile, and Catherine of Aragon; and novels set in East Anglia centered around the fictitious town of Baildon (patterned largely on Bury St. Edmunds). Her creation of this fictitious area of England is reminiscent of Thomas Hardy's creation of "Wessex"; and her use of recurring characters such that the protagonist of one novel appears as a secondary character in others is even more reminiscent of William Faulkner's work set in "Yoknapatawpha County," Mississippi. Norah Lofts' work set in East Anglia in the 1930s and 1940s shows great concern with the very poor in society and their inability to change their conditions. Her approach suggests an interest in the social reformism that became a feature of British post-war society.
Several of her novels were turned into films. Jassy was filmed as Jassy (1947) starring Margaret Lockwood and Dennis Price. You're Best Alone was filmed as Guilt is My Shadow (1950). The Devil's Own (also known as The Little Wax Doll and Catch As Catch Can) was filmed as The Witches (1966). The film 7 Women was directed by John Ford and based on the story Chinese Finale by Norah Lofts.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 30, 2015
DNF.
I'm aware that Lofts' novel Gad's Hall is considered a modern classic in the haunted house genre, but this collection didn't impress me. At all. There was no set-up to any of the characters, all of whom sounded the same, & the stories themselves never really went anywhere. Even the longer offerings felt like unfinished vignettes.
I read 6 stories total (roughly half the book). Of those, only 2 were actual haunting and/or residual paranormals. Another centered around a faked haunting & a nasty teenager (who should've been smacked by the noodle-spined narrator -- just sayin'). Two other pieces had nothing to do with ghosts at all -- they were psychological oddities about hallucination & murder -- and the "Victorian Echo" story was just plain lame. (See, I'm listing that one by name so y'all can avoid. It was that bad.)
This is the second time I've been disappointed by Lofts. :/ I'm holding onto Gad's Hall & The Little Wax Doll because they still have potential...but my hopes are officially dimmed.
I'm aware that Lofts' novel Gad's Hall is considered a modern classic in the haunted house genre, but this collection didn't impress me. At all. There was no set-up to any of the characters, all of whom sounded the same, & the stories themselves never really went anywhere. Even the longer offerings felt like unfinished vignettes.
I read 6 stories total (roughly half the book). Of those, only 2 were actual haunting and/or residual paranormals. Another centered around a faked haunting & a nasty teenager (who should've been smacked by the noodle-spined narrator -- just sayin'). Two other pieces had nothing to do with ghosts at all -- they were psychological oddities about hallucination & murder -- and the "Victorian Echo" story was just plain lame. (See, I'm listing that one by name so y'all can avoid. It was that bad.)
This is the second time I've been disappointed by Lofts. :/ I'm holding onto Gad's Hall & The Little Wax Doll because they still have potential...but my hopes are officially dimmed.
June 26, 2016
Read this twice now and enjoyed it both times. I think my favorites are the man who spends the night at an old hotel that does not exist and the man who has to buy the haunted house without his wife knowing as she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The second one is called The Watchers but I forget the title of the missing hotel at the moment.
July 11, 2013
'A ghostly caress in an empty room...A rush of emotions not entirely one's own...A mysterious presence on a dark staircase...' This book is a collection of twelve ghost stories written by an author known for her bestselling historical romance novels, who has "an obsession about houses" and a love of ghost stories. Now, with this book she has combined her two passions with chilling success.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It wasn't the scariest book I have ever read, perhaps, but it was certainly worth my time reading it anyway. None of these stories were written in order to shock and terrify the reader; the horror was of a gentler nature, but I'm glad to have read this book because it was written by Norah Lofts. Overall, I give this book an A+!
I really enjoyed reading this book. It wasn't the scariest book I have ever read, perhaps, but it was certainly worth my time reading it anyway. None of these stories were written in order to shock and terrify the reader; the horror was of a gentler nature, but I'm glad to have read this book because it was written by Norah Lofts. Overall, I give this book an A+!
May 25, 2014
Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...
1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.
2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.
3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.
4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.
5 stars... I loved this book! It had earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.
1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.
2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.
3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.
4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.
5 stars... I loved this book! It had earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.
July 24, 2011
From my understanding, Nora Lofts wasn't often a writer in the realm of the paranormal. Nevertheless, "Hauntings," echoes back works by such authors as Shirley Jackson and Arthur Machen. It was an excellent book.
September 5, 2012
I like some of Norah Lofts' books, but this one is not so much ghost stories, but seems like a handful of odd ideas that don't have much plot or lead anywhere, so (the long-dead) Lofts decided to lump them all into a little volume and label it supernatural. Disappointing overall.
October 15, 2016
Copyright 1965, my copy is from 1974. There are 12 short stories that focus on ghosts. I first read this book as a teenager, next as a young adult.
I just finished reading it for the 3rd time. With the perspective of an older adult, this book was interesting. There's only a few of the stories that actually have ghosts. Most are psychological in nature. Pesticide would have made a good Alfred Hitchcock story.
I liked Mr. Edward & A Visit To Claudia. These actually have a ghost. My favorite is The Watchers, only because the husband is so wonderful. You're also thinking, "was there actually a ghost in this one, or was it just the wife's imagination?"
The cover is awesome!
The forward by the author was also worth reading. She gives you some advice about buying a house & how to tell if it's haunted or not.
I just finished reading it for the 3rd time. With the perspective of an older adult, this book was interesting. There's only a few of the stories that actually have ghosts. Most are psychological in nature. Pesticide would have made a good Alfred Hitchcock story.
I liked Mr. Edward & A Visit To Claudia. These actually have a ghost. My favorite is The Watchers, only because the husband is so wonderful. You're also thinking, "was there actually a ghost in this one, or was it just the wife's imagination?"
The cover is awesome!
The forward by the author was also worth reading. She gives you some advice about buying a house & how to tell if it's haunted or not.
January 27, 2011
12 good ghost stories.
February 10, 2012
Pleasantly ambiguous, understated ghost stories.
November 17, 2025
This one is a deeply atmospheric, meticulously assembled collection that plays into your love for historically textured storytelling, emotional subcurrents, and the kind of supernatural fiction where the ghost is rarely the point—the humans are.
Lofts writes with a clarity and restraint that magnify unease rather than overstate it. Her ghosts are not shrieking phantoms but lingering echoes of trauma, guilt, loneliness, or unresolved desire. For a reader like you, who appreciates psychological shading and historical detail, this collection becomes one of the richest explorations of the ghost story form.
Lofts’ greatest gift is her sense of place. Each story inhabits a setting so carefully observed that the atmosphere becomes indistinguishable from character. Old houses creak under emotional weight; empty roads gather memories; forgotten objects vibrate with a kind of narrative tension. She does not rely on jump-scares or gothic exaggeration; instead, she allows dread to seep through the fabric of the everyday. This slow accumulation of unease aligns beautifully with your preference for subtle, intelligent horror rather than sensational spectacle.
Another remarkable aspect is Lofts' psychological realism. Each haunting emerges not from spectacle but from emotional rupture—marital resentments, childhood fears, wartime trauma, betrayals, the quiet corrosion of loneliness. Her protagonists are flawed, vulnerable, often stubbornly rational even as they are pulled into irrational events.
The ghosts become mirrors: they reveal truths the living refuse to confront. This approach is ideal for a reader like you, who loves stories where the supernatural is a metaphor sharpened into narrative force.
Lofts also excels at pacing. She understands that a ghost story is essentially an act of musical tension. Her stories begin with ordinary concerns—inheritance disputes, new homes, relationships under strain—and slowly introduce dissonance. A noise that shouldn’t exist. A shadow in the wrong place. A detail that contradicts memory. These small fractures accumulate until reality itself begins to warp. Her climaxes are rarely explosive; they are chilling, inevitable, the culmination of an emotional arc rather than a mechanical scare.
What you will appreciate most is her mastery of restraint. She never over-explains. The ambiguity is deliberate; it preserves the haunting. Lofts knows that terror thrives in the unsaid, in the hinted, in the space between reason and fear. She trusts the reader to feel the emotional architecture of her stories without being spoon-fed. This respect for reader intelligence aligns with your own analytical temperament.
The collection’s historical dimension is another strength. Lofts, known for her historical novels, weaves in period detail with precision—Victorian social norms, post-war anxieties, rural superstitions, the shifting roles of class and gender. These contextual layers enrich the stories, giving each haunting a sociocultural resonance. You will enjoy tracing these historical threads, recognising how often ghosts emerge from buried injustices or cultural silences.
Her prose is clean, controlled, evocative. She avoids ornamentation in favour of mood and clarity. A single sentence can alter the emotional weather of a scene. A casual detail can destabilise an entire narrative. This subtlety is rare in ghost fiction, which often relies on excess. Lofts creates fear through precision.
A few stories may feel traditional or less emotionally intense, but even these contribute to the collection’s overall texture. And Lofts’ “quiet stories” often turn out to be the ones that linger the longest—haunting not through shock but through emotional residue.
Ultimately, Hauntings is a masterclass in the psychological ghost story. It offers everything you enjoy in supernatural fiction: atmosphere, restraint, emotional intelligence, historical depth, and the haunting sense that the living are more frightening than the dead. Lofts invites you not just to read ghost stories but to enter them—to inhabit their rooms, breathe their shadows, feel their quiet ache.
Lofts writes with a clarity and restraint that magnify unease rather than overstate it. Her ghosts are not shrieking phantoms but lingering echoes of trauma, guilt, loneliness, or unresolved desire. For a reader like you, who appreciates psychological shading and historical detail, this collection becomes one of the richest explorations of the ghost story form.
Lofts’ greatest gift is her sense of place. Each story inhabits a setting so carefully observed that the atmosphere becomes indistinguishable from character. Old houses creak under emotional weight; empty roads gather memories; forgotten objects vibrate with a kind of narrative tension. She does not rely on jump-scares or gothic exaggeration; instead, she allows dread to seep through the fabric of the everyday. This slow accumulation of unease aligns beautifully with your preference for subtle, intelligent horror rather than sensational spectacle.
Another remarkable aspect is Lofts' psychological realism. Each haunting emerges not from spectacle but from emotional rupture—marital resentments, childhood fears, wartime trauma, betrayals, the quiet corrosion of loneliness. Her protagonists are flawed, vulnerable, often stubbornly rational even as they are pulled into irrational events.
The ghosts become mirrors: they reveal truths the living refuse to confront. This approach is ideal for a reader like you, who loves stories where the supernatural is a metaphor sharpened into narrative force.
Lofts also excels at pacing. She understands that a ghost story is essentially an act of musical tension. Her stories begin with ordinary concerns—inheritance disputes, new homes, relationships under strain—and slowly introduce dissonance. A noise that shouldn’t exist. A shadow in the wrong place. A detail that contradicts memory. These small fractures accumulate until reality itself begins to warp. Her climaxes are rarely explosive; they are chilling, inevitable, the culmination of an emotional arc rather than a mechanical scare.
What you will appreciate most is her mastery of restraint. She never over-explains. The ambiguity is deliberate; it preserves the haunting. Lofts knows that terror thrives in the unsaid, in the hinted, in the space between reason and fear. She trusts the reader to feel the emotional architecture of her stories without being spoon-fed. This respect for reader intelligence aligns with your own analytical temperament.
The collection’s historical dimension is another strength. Lofts, known for her historical novels, weaves in period detail with precision—Victorian social norms, post-war anxieties, rural superstitions, the shifting roles of class and gender. These contextual layers enrich the stories, giving each haunting a sociocultural resonance. You will enjoy tracing these historical threads, recognising how often ghosts emerge from buried injustices or cultural silences.
Her prose is clean, controlled, evocative. She avoids ornamentation in favour of mood and clarity. A single sentence can alter the emotional weather of a scene. A casual detail can destabilise an entire narrative. This subtlety is rare in ghost fiction, which often relies on excess. Lofts creates fear through precision.
A few stories may feel traditional or less emotionally intense, but even these contribute to the collection’s overall texture. And Lofts’ “quiet stories” often turn out to be the ones that linger the longest—haunting not through shock but through emotional residue.
Ultimately, Hauntings is a masterclass in the psychological ghost story. It offers everything you enjoy in supernatural fiction: atmosphere, restraint, emotional intelligence, historical depth, and the haunting sense that the living are more frightening than the dead. Lofts invites you not just to read ghost stories but to enter them—to inhabit their rooms, breathe their shadows, feel their quiet ache.
November 17, 2021
This book can very easily get sidelined by the gore and visceral stuff that dominate the horror genre. It’s not horrific at all. But the stories have an unsettling ability to create a sense of unease among the reader.
Out of the twelve stories, one was about a very nasty person receiving comeuppance (Pesticide). One was psychological (The Bird Bath). And the best as well as bitterest story was medicinal in all sense (A Clinical Case). The rest had ghosts— some terrifying, some edifying., but all leaving their traces.
The penmanship, characterisation, and infusion of humour were superb. The plots, regrettably, were just average.
Good for a read and recall of past era.
Out of the twelve stories, one was about a very nasty person receiving comeuppance (Pesticide). One was psychological (The Bird Bath). And the best as well as bitterest story was medicinal in all sense (A Clinical Case). The rest had ghosts— some terrifying, some edifying., but all leaving their traces.
The penmanship, characterisation, and infusion of humour were superb. The plots, regrettably, were just average.
Good for a read and recall of past era.
January 28, 2023
I enjoy this book every time I read it. To be fair, I was disappointed in one or two stories the first time I read it but the writing is so nuanced that I had to read it again. I'm glad I did! Some of the characters are of a type that Lofts writes about regularly but I like them, so I'm happy to encounter them again in a new plot! I can't take any review seriously if the reader hasn't completed the book. In that case, best to say, "It didn't hold my interest." And leave it at that. For me the characters are very real, the settings fascinating, and the plots unique.
May 9, 2025
This short story collection features twelve tales of a creepy nature but are by no means of the horror genre. Only a few have supernatural elements, whereas the others are eerie in other ways, giving the impression of something otherworldly.
The author explains in her foreword that her intention was never to create a blood and guts chiller. Rather, she wanted to create the atmosphere of one feeling not alone, and such like.
Most stories work well, though two or three felt somewhat off topic, lacking any hint of ghostliness or feelings of being ill at ease.
This is my first taste of Norah Lofts’s short stories and non-historical works. While I prefer her historical novels, I still enjoyed these twelve tales.
The author explains in her foreword that her intention was never to create a blood and guts chiller. Rather, she wanted to create the atmosphere of one feeling not alone, and such like.
Most stories work well, though two or three felt somewhat off topic, lacking any hint of ghostliness or feelings of being ill at ease.
This is my first taste of Norah Lofts’s short stories and non-historical works. While I prefer her historical novels, I still enjoyed these twelve tales.
September 5, 2014
On the bookshelf at Powell's, the world's best book store, is a very used copy of a book by one of my favorite authors which I don't remember. At $3 I have to buy it and read it immediately. Ms. Lofts knows how to write a pithy short story. These are ghost stories or just odd moments. Loved all the old houses and the ways that human beings understand their lives. It goes to the beach house book shelf.
November 26, 2010
The best stories are toward the beginning of the collection. Most have a similar tone and point of view so it's not a book you want to read all at once.
July 19, 2022
Some good stories, but an uneven collection.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews