True Stories of Ghosts

Usborne True Stories

by Paul Dowswell, Tony Allan

Is there really such a thing as a true ghost story? The strange tales in this book are all based on actual reports by people who believed they had been haunted by ghosts or poltergeists. You can make up your own mid after reading their stories ...

True stories?
The vengeful Voodoo phantom
The Cock Lane killing
Writing on the wall
The house of strange happenings
Faces on the floor
The most haunted house in England
The jinx on UB-65
The Bell Witch
The restless tomb
Messengers from beyond the grave
The Tedworth drummer
The house that ghosts built

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction, Horror, Ghosts, Short Stories, Anthologies

122 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Paul Dowswell is a British writer of nonfiction and young adult novels who has written over 70 books for British publishers. He was a senior editor at Usborne Publishing, then went freelance in 1999.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My boyfriend challange me to read this book in 3 hours time if I managed to do so I was promised a new book if not I have to give him R100 😂

Time it took me to read this book: 1 hour and 23 minutes.

It has only now come to my attention that this is a wonderful book to be reading on Halloween 😂😂

I really enjoyed the stories! All of the stories are alleged true events that happened. I really enjoyed the notes after each story basically encouraging you to draw your own conclusions as all of the stories took place from the 1600s up until the latest one which was during WW2.

Some of them are quite unsettling others are... Not so much.

Really enjoyed this. Quick and interesting.

[Katie Kerns · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. A lot of unsolved mysteries and a few creepy tales that were unexplainable. I wouldn't recommend reading at night if you're a scaredy cat like me!

[Adia · Rating 4 out of 5]

over 12 tales of the most credible hauntings, including the Amherst mystery, the Bell witch, the Rose Hall ghost, the Chase family tomb, and the curse of the UB-65.

[C. (Don't blank click my reviews, comment please! · Rating 4 out of 5]

The spirit exists and I love enchanting and educational presentations of them. One does wonder if accounts are verified. I agree with those who praise Paul Dowswell's "Usborne True Stories, Ghosts" as the real deal. No dumping story scraps which abruptly end with a hyped climax: we are granted the satisfying afterward of each location's state of affairs today. In numerous instances, we are told where we might go forth and behold these houses and in some cases, the phenomena, for ourselves! That is inarguable.

The wide-spanned selection of circumstances and varied nature of ghostly phenomena is also a factor to praise. To the pleasure of other aficionados digesting large quantities of this fare, most of the accounts are new. Nova Scotia’s Esther Cox is recounted widely but there is another woman who dealt with spectral harassment as publicly as she, in England, about whom I hadn’t heard. The floor faces in Spain sound familiar but now, I am well versed in the full story. It was titillating to read that the spectral faces today, hypothesized to be from a defunct graveyard below, continue appearing. What’s more, the same homeowner incredibly still goes about her business there.

A place easily visited in the United States, is the architectural cacophony of Sarah Pardee Winchester, constructed in 1884. It’s absurd that she based an expensive, lifelong penance on the word of one psychic. I would have sought satisfactory explanations and second opinions. She however, believed herself cursed by the gun legacy of her husband’s ancestors if she didn’t keep building. It’s especially loony that her building was useless folly, even disassembling to futilely repeat the process. She could fulfill the silly advice by building homes and businesses for San Francisco’s needy. I got a lot out of Paul’s thorough and well-told compilation.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of 12 stories from all over the world from the 1600’s to the 1970’s, a good portion of them are UK based. All were stories that I had never heard of and I found the book to be of great interest, giving witness accounts long ago recorded that have been found in archives and newspapers of the time.

The one thing I found was a common thread in the connection in the book is the “ghosts’ continued attachment to teenagers or young woman which they say is due to their high energy levels.

I found it very hard to put down once I started to read it and each story had me completely intrigued, most stories also have a follow up on any after events that added interest, which was a rather unique feature of this book.

The first story was the one that really hooked me a ghost who took the form of an Irish lass called Annie who married well and who’s husband died in mysterious circumstances and left her young and wealthy, not a very nice woman she married twice more before being murdered and “haunting” her own residence to the point that it laid empty for almost 100 years and the rest you will have to find out yourself.

Each story will grab you if you like real ghost accounts and leave you wanting more as you turn the last page.

I really enjoyed this book, it really left me wanting more of the same

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a wonderful book. it had twelve ghost stories that were very interesting and some of them were kind of freaky. it has stories of haunted houses talking about killings and floating objects to stories about the winchestor house where sarah winchestor built and built onto her house that once had 7 story turrets. if you are a person that likes to read ghost stories then this is a book for you. i give it a ten out of ten!

[Dusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book for my kid, who is always demanding I look up REAL GHOST STORIES. After a few chapters (and a few nights of scary dreams), he said he didn’t want me to keep reading it to him. I finished it myself, though, and learned a bit about the history of places I didn’t know about, like the Winchester House in San Diego.

[Siri Olsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was one of my favourite library loans growing up, and I am so happy to finally have my own copy. The book contains accounts of "true" ghost stories, meaning reported cases of hauntings from history. Each chapter details a specific case, among them the haunting of the Chase family tomb and the Bell Witch-occurrence. The chapters are relatively brief and don't contain longer accounts, either of the events themselves or of more critical interpretations, but the format is very engaging, and I was just as hooked reading this book as an adult as I was when I was a child. Saying that, I fully attribute a lot of my enjoyment to sheer nostalgia, but I would still argue that, if you enjoy reading true ghost stories, this book must definitely come highly recommended.

[Jiva Cern · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter always wanted me to read on to the next ghost story, which is a mark of an entertaining book. After we finished reading, it was always important for us to Google our favorite stories to find them debunked, or see any spooky old images which might be floating about regarding the original material. These were well-crafted retellings, suspenseful little chapters, which allowed my daughter and I creep ourselves out.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good ghost story and I was not disappointed. Interestingly, the authors provide a section after each tale in which they provide other explanations for those who are a bit skeptical of paranormal happenings. I still believe that ghosts are to blame in each of these occurrences, but to each their own.

[Susan Wahlborg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I thought it was going to be. Found this on a shelf in the Young Adult section of Goodwill. I'm in my 30's and I was worried this book wasn't going to be too spooky. Nope it was spooky and full of lots of history. Glad that I bought it.

[Shazza Maddog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of short stories about "true ghosts", mostly which appear to be poltergeists, from various parts of the world.

I was pleased to see the anchor story was about Sarah Winchester and her Mystery House, as I've at least visited that.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories of ghosts and haunting, including the unsuccessful attempts made to explain away the events. The reader is left to wonder and interpret for himself. Some of the stories are chilling, and leave you with a lasting uneasiness. Fun read.

[Alexis Hilgert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really cute book of ghost stories!

[Dana Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a few and didn't like a few of the stories which is normally the case in a book compiled of short stories. It was an interesting read. Not really scary but a quick fun read.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of accounts of 'ghostly' encounters.

A couple of the pieces were interesting, but overall this book was a bit dull.

Reading time around one hour.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not many truly scary stories but a fun read of 12 short stories of unexplained events

[Tiffany Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this for my kids. Some stories I thought were not kid Friendly.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and researched. First story was the best one, but all were entertaining.

[Diana Dunlap-lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories and glad I read it. That’s about all I can say about that. A couple of them were fascinating.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories themselves are good stories however the book doesn't cover them in detail. It's very brief. However it's an easy, quick read.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was a good collection of stories. Some where ones I had heard many times before, but some where lesser known ghost stories.

[Some Nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt like I was reading Reddit as a book. The stories were definitely collected from various sources like Reddit is. I like turning pages more than scrolling, I've found.

[Desireè Wingate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big lover of ghosts and all things paranormal. So it’s not a surprise I enjoyed this book. It even has me wanting to take trips to these haunted locations!

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viihdyttävä ja mielenkiintoinen kirja.

Kirjassa väitettiin monen tapahtumapaikan ja -talon olevan edelleen pystyssä (enemmän tai vähemmän) ja auki yleisöllekin. Tekisi kyllä kovasti mieli käydä katsomassa niitä itse. Harmi vain kun suurin osa on juurikin Amerikoissa.

Onhan nuo kummitustarinat aina jänniä ja outoja. Joistakin on tehty isoja tutkimuksiakin ja silti jotkut ovat jääneet mysteereiksi. Itse suhtaudun aika skeptisesti moniin asioihin mutta uskon silti, että yliluonnollisia asioita tapahtuu. Jokainen yliluonnollinen tapaus pitäisi tutkia perusteellisesti ja jos ei yksinkertaisesti pystytä näyttämään toteen että kyseessä olisi huijaus, luonnonilmiö tms. on pakko uskoa asialla olleen jokin muu tuntematon. Kuitenkin tässä maailmassa on vielä monta ihmeellistä asiaa jota tiede ei pysty kokonaisuudessaan selittämään vaikka tieteellä on kyllä perusteltuja ja tutkittuja vastauksia useimpaan tapaukseen/ilmiöön.

[Joey Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

True Ghost Stories is exactly what you’d expect... a collection of “true” ghost stories. As a fan of ghost stories, I found this collection to be well-written, albeit a bit uneven. Some stories had much longer conclusions from the authors than others, and only a few included some visual reference (a diagram of the house for example) that no other story did. I would have liked more conclusion input from the authors, as their determination on how “true” each story was would have been interesting, but overall, I found each story to be entertaining, and there were a few I had never heard before.

Worth grabbing if you like ghost stories!

[Evan Ponstingle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing I did not like about this book was the several errors in the chapter about Rose Hall. Annie Palmer killed John Rose Palmer by pouring arsenic in his coffee, not by smothering him by his pillow. And he was murdered in 1827, seven years after Annie moved in, not a few months after the marriage. Annie herself was murdered in 1831, not 1833. She was strangled to death in her sleep, not smothered while still awake. Other than that, the book was pretty good.

[Erin O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fine for middle-grade readers. There's nothing too scary or gory about these allegedly true ghost stories, although the "Writing on the Wall" story was a little harrowing. I wasn't the target audience for this book and didn't find it particularly compelling, but younger ghost hunters might get into it.

I purchased this book with my own funds from my neighbor's Usborne Books party. I was not obligated in any way to review it.

[Layla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some really good stories in this book, and non that I had read before in other true ghost books.
well worth a read if you enjoy these types of books there are 12 separate stories in this book.
Stories ranging from the UK across to the USA. A nice selection of different stories. If you want this book I got it in the Children's section of my local library so it is for young readers too.

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great so far