The South Shields Poltergeist: One Family's Fight Against an Invisible Intruder

by Michael J. Hallowell, Darren W. Ritson, Guy Lyon Playfair (Foreword)

In December 2005, a family began to experience typical but low-level poltergeist-like phenomena in their home. Slowly but steadily the phenomena escalated, and in July 2006 the authors were asked to investigate the case. During the following four months, the investigators documented on audio tape, video, and still photographs the following phenomena: the male occupant of the house having his upper torso slashed severely, without human intervention; knives, coins, and other objects being thrown around without human intervention; a bottle of mineral water balancing on its edge and defying the law of gravity for several minutes; sinister telephone and text messages being received by the female occupant of the house, whilst the telephones the calls were seemingly coming from were disabled; written messages, seemingly from the poltergeist, being left on a child's "doodle board;" bizarre lights floating in and out of solid objects; and children's toys spontaneously "bursting into life" and speaking to the investigators. The authors have collected many eye-witness statements and have consulted experts in numerous fields. These include graphologists, university lecturers, paranormal researchers, and medical personnel, some of whom have witnessed these startling phenomena for themselves. Here is a chilling diary of an ongoing poltergeist case which rivals any previously documented.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Steve Parcell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book as it was quintessentially English and based on and documented true events BUT I couldn't.

It read like a list of events and did not inject enough tension or passion in to the piece.

Fascinating story of horrifying events in an average house in the North East of England rather dumbed down by prosaic prose. Lots of other events included as a build up but they dragged any tension out. Disappointing.

[Graham Grimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting read .I immensely enjoyed reading and learnt a few things

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's no doubt the paranormal is a fascinating subject. But I do feel some of the alleged events in this book seemed a bit far fetched Reading through it I did wonder if scenes from particular films had been used to to create a story If you can imagine films being ingredients Then this book would have had a large helping of the Scary movie trilogy add some scenes from Ghost and a light sprinkling of The Amityville horror to make a story in a real horror and at times Comedy horror For those who are thinking about picking up this book my apologies for any spoilers I accept there have been cases where entity's have left messages and even physically attacked a living person leaving vicious scratches on the victims body But to throw objects through a closed window without breaking it or send emails and text messages on a switched off phone as well as make calls left me feeling somewhat sceptical. I also noted this had to be a fairly well off poltergeist the amount of coins that it would drop from the ceiling or leave laying around. Just when I thought it couldn't get any more odd. I find this poltergeist also has an incontinence problem Throw in a used scratch card that was put in a public waste bin 11miles away from the house only to reappear later made me wonder how much fact was mixed with fiction

[Jad3 West · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not get enough of this book! An absolute page turner. Each and every account was backed by lots of evidence and had good theories for all the sceptics.
It really did broaden my knowledge on Poltergeists and has given me a thrill to want to go even deeper into this area.
Again, like my last read, this was a book I did not feel comfortable reading alone in my house and out me on edge, but I’m a complete sucker for that scare factor. If this is you also, then you need to delve into this excellent book.

[Sensibly Reckless · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone interested in the paranormal. It's a very well documented poltergeist case and a gripping read. It's a shame that they never really released any of the evidence to other researchers, and it does make me suspect that it was somewhat embellished to make it any entertaining book. Nevertheless, it is indeed an entertaining book.

[Sabrina Rutter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to get through this one, but just could not get into it. I read to page 178 or somewhere around that.
This is about two paranormal researchers who luck into an active poltergiest. They detail all the strange happenings in a very boring way in my opinion. I would much rather have read the story from the perspective of the people being haunted and not the actual investigators. Also going into detail about everything paranormal such as the meanings of poltergiest and where the word originated from drove me crazy. That might be ok for someone new to these kind of books but I have been reading these kind of books since I was a kid.
If this would have been written from the family living in the homes perspective this probably would have been a really terrifying read. Maybe someday I'll give this one another go, but I have given it enough consideration for now and have decided I just don't want to slug through it at this time.

[(shan) Littlebookcove · Rating 5 out of 5]

That book... Ever had a book that you didn't want in the house After reading it? or have been so chilling scared by??
 
I have a list of books I've given away or chucked out because I've been so scared by it and this is That one book i Gave it to a charity shop Last year.
 
I kind of wish I'd kept it now.
 
Your probably wondering why i chucked it away. Well i found it soo shockingly scary, and the fact it only happened to a modern day family that lived down the road from me as a kid. Its also based on real life happenings, and those kinda books really scare me for some strange reason.
 
Give it a read I dare you :p

 

[Rob Addams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like some of the other reviewers I struggled to get into the book. I found it really difficult to relate to what was written knowing the address of the house and the names of the characters had been changed. I read criticisms on some websites with accusations being made about the authenticity of the happenings in the book, and this began to creep into my consciousnesses while I was reading. I found it a real struggle and gave up. I may return to the book at some point, but I can't see it.

[Duncan Barford · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. There's a lot of occultist presupposition about what the investigators are dealing with, instead of allowing the conclusions to be drawn entirely from the experiences themselves.

2. One of the investigators runs a media company, and draws on these resources to get a film made about the case -- which might be regarded as a conflict of interests.

3. It seems that none of the evidence collected during the case has been made available to other researchers.

Meurgh. :-/

[Louise Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a black comedy film here! I couldn't resist the title & it's an interesting read. Very dry, deadpan, and, it seems to me, truthful. I had a slight brush with a polt, once (not mine, thank goodness) and this seemed to tally with my own experience. Some interesting ideas, such as them feeding like wasps. Worth reading.

[theghostwriter · Rating 5 out of 5]

a "meticulously documented" case of poltergeist activity that was seriously documented ad nauseam. this book has it all, written messages by a ghost, full body apparitions, coins falling from the ceiling and cell phone texts from the great beyond ... pretty cool book, worth the $$.

[Amy]

this was a good book to read but a bit long winded in places

[Che Larkin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was going to be a lot better. The story seems to drag on forever. There is an awful lot of pointless information. The ending is a big let down.

[Rachel Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book to be absolutely terrifying and very well documented. A very good read!!