Ghosts

by John Guy

A thrilling new series traces the mystery of and belief in ghosts throughout history, contains photographic evidence, discusses myths, and debunks several ghostly myths. Original.

30 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

John Guy is recognised as one of Britain's most exciting and scholarly historians, bringing the past to life with the written word and on the broadcast media with accomplished ease. He's a very modern face of history.

His ability for first class story-telling and books that read as thrillingly as a detective story makes John Guy a Chandleresque writer of the history world. Guy hunts down facts with forensic skill, he doesn't just recite historical moments as they stand; he brings names and faces to life in all their human achievements and weaknesses. He looks for the killer clues so we can see how history unfolded. Like a detective on the trail of a crime, he teases out what makes his subjects tick. With his intimate knowledge of the archives, his speciality is uncovering completely fresh lines of enquiry. He's never content to repeat what we already know but rather, he goes that extra step to solve history's riddles. He takes you on a journey to the heart of the matter. Forget notions of musty academics, when Guy takes hold of history the case he states is always utterly compelling. Whether it's Thomas More or Mary Queen of Scots, Guy makes these people so real you suddenly realize you are hearing them speak to you. You enter into their world. You feel you can almost reach out and touch them.

Born in Australia in 1949, John Guy grew up in England and by the age of 16 he knew he wanted to be a historian. In 2001 he made an accomplished debut as a presenter for the television programme Timewatch, on the life of Thomas More. Today he's turning history books on their head as he wins universal praise and the 2004 Whitbread Prize for biography for his thrilling account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.

As well as presenting five documentaries for BBC 2 television, including the Timewatch film The King's Servant and the four-part Renaissance Secrets (Series 2), he has contributed to Meet the Ancestors (BBC 2), and to Channel 4's Time Team and Royal Deaths and Diseases. Wolsey's Lost Palace of Hampton Court was a short-listed finalist for the 2002 Channel 4 television awards.

John Guy also appears regularly on BBC Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, BBC World Service and BBC Scotland. In print he currently writes or reviews for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Economist, the Times Literary Supplement, BBC History Magazine and History Today.

His broadcast and journalism experience builds upon his impeccable CV as an academic and author.

Having read History under the supervision of Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, the pre-eminent Tudor scholar of the late-twentieth century, John Guy took a First and became a Research Fellow of Selwyn College in 1970. Awarded a Greene Cup by Clare College in 1970, he completed his PhD on Cardinal Wolsey in 1973 and won the Yorke Prize of the University of Cambridge in 1976.

John Guy has lectured extensively on Early Modern British History and Renaissance Political Thought in both Britain and the United States. He has published 16 books and numerous academic articles.

John Guy lives in North London. He is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge, where he teaches part-time so he can devote more time to his writing and broadcasting career.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, I certainly do appreciate that author John Guy neither believes nor disbelieves in the the reality ghosts and that he thus shows in his picture book Ghosts - The Unexplained precisely that scientists have not been able to prove or to disprove that ghosts, that hauntings, that mysterious monsters and the like exist, that they truly and really occur, and that although there have over the centuries been many cases of hoaxes, of people pretending to be ghosts or presenting artificially created “proof” of ghosts (such as photographic evidence of ghosts using double exposure), there have also and equally been many ghost scenarios that really cannot be all that easily explained away, that therefore the existence of ghosts might be true, but might also of course not be true.

Thus if you have picked up Ghosts - The Unexplained because you hope that John Guy will be textually presenting and showing absolute and unassailable evidence that ghosts, haunted houses, uncanny and creepy animal spirits etc. do actually and in fact really and truly exist, then no, you most likely will not be finding Ghosts - The Unexplained all that much to your reading desires and wants. For (and in my opinion also happily and fortunately), albeit John Guy certainly features in Ghosts- The Unexplained many types of potential spiritual manifestations (including religious based ghosts, phantom armies and ships, poltergeists, time warps and of course also literary and cinematic spiritual entities), he never once claims that this must all be real (he simply presents with Ghosts: The Unexplained interesting nuggets of knowledge and asks his readers to at least consider that ghost sightings, that hauntings might be potentially real, and that yes, academic and solidly intellectual inclined I most definitely do appreciate, celebrate and majorly respect John Guy’s sense of verbal balance).

And thus, three solid stars for Ghosts -The Unexplained, for a nicely multi faceted account that provides multiple examples of ghosts but without the author demanding belief in ghosts (but also with John Guy also not demanding the opposite). But yes, for me to consider four stars for Ghosts - The Unexplained, John Guy would need to provide a considerably more extensive bibliography and more aesthetically pleasant accompanying visuals.

[Kei Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't a book. It's an outline for a book.

"Ghosts" at first look promising, as it covers a lot of interesting ghost-related topics, but each overarching theme gets only a two page spread that's half pictures, with each topic given only a paragraph. Most of these paragraphs could easily be expanded into their own page or two, so it's a bit disappointing.

The other big problem is that the author clearly thinks ghosts are complete bunk. I have no problem with skepticism, and I was interested that each spread offers a scientific explanation for the events and phenomena, but unfortunately most of them amount to "they probably made it up" or "they imagined it". It just made me feel like the author hated the book he was writing.

In both respects, I recommend Encyclopedia Horrifica as an in depth and engaging dive into the supernatural and other creepy topics.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book contains a lot of interesting information, including photographs. However, it was extremely short. I wish it had been longer and had gone into more detail.