Ghosts & Legends of Cambridgeshire

Ghosts & Legends

by Polly Howat

128 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite living in Cambridgeshire most of my life, I didn't recognise a large percentage of these villages that were mentioned! How embarrassing!
However, the stories themselves were interesting and well written, and I enjoyed learning about areas of Cambridgeshire that ordinarily would not be relevant to me.

[Tom Jonesman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love finding books like this in my local library, they're so much fun. To my scientific mind, the lack of any solid references beyond "an acquaintance told me with certainty" or "her grandfather's business partner swore this was true" incites an immediate "reflex scoff", except that these stories necessarily lack detail, as they are presented as a way of recording for posterity the oral tradition of tall tales in the fens. These kind of stories can help to educate and embed you in the culture and history of your local area, which I find intriguing and strangely touching.

I especially enjoyed the story of the landlord of a pub in St Neots, who insisted that the strange smell that hung about him and infested him only when he was in a certain room was attributable to the ghost of a person who was found dead hanging in that room some century before, "hence the stench of rotting flesh". Nice.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is certainly some pesky ghosts in Cambridgeshire.