Geoff Holder: 17 books

The author of Poltergeist Over Scotland embarks on an in-depth study of the characteristics that imbue the paranormal world’s “noisy ghosts.”   What Is a Poltergeist? is an introduction to the mysterious phenomenon examining the theories and presenting the latest research evidence for poltergeist...

The Little Book of Edinburgh is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information which no one will want to be without. Here we find out about the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters and literally...

With the country’s oldest university and the ruins of both a magnificent castle and one of the grandest cathedrals of medieval Europe, St Andrews is one of the most beautiful and historic places in Scotland. But it’s also one of the most haunted. Here are investigations into St Andrews’ most...

The Little Book of Glasgow is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic, or simply strange information which no one will want to be without. Here we find out about the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters, and literally...

Aberdeen is full of mysteries, marvels, and strangeness, and this book is a comprehensive guide to them all. Here you will encounter magic, witchcraft, folklore, and superstitions; contemporary urban legends; gargoyles and graveyards; graverobbers and murderers; stone circles and prehistoric burial...

It is one of the most astonishing monuments in the British Isles, never mind Scotland. Deep in the Perthshire countryside stands a cairn of boulders topped with a tall, spindly cross, the stones painted with the stark words:MAggie Wallburnt here1657 as a WitchThere is nothing like it...

With subjects ranging from the Croglin Vampire and the Renwick Cockatrice to witchcraft and the Cursing Stone of Carlisle, this collection of first-hand accounts contains all manner of weird and wonderful events from Cumbria's long and tumultuous history. With more than 50 photographs, both archive...

The Jacobites and the Supernatural offers a whole new perspective on the well-known Jacobite period and also allows the reader to explore the battlefields and other sites of the period in a completely new way. Here are tales of witchcraft, spirits, psychic powers, portents, prodigies, magical talismans...

The ultimate compendium of trivia miscellany about Scotland's unusual historyTake a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed look at the most frivolous, fantastic, or simply strange information that there is to tell about Scotland. Here we find out about unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants,...

Graverobbing was a dark but profitable industry in pre-Victorian Scotland, as criminals, gravediggers, and middle-class medical students alike stole newly-buried corpses for the anatomy schools. Only after the trials of the infamous murderers Burke and Hare did the grisly trade end—murderers whose...

Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities in the world—with one of the darkest histories on record. Starting with the Roman era, and sweeping through the centuries in a blood-soaked catalogue of battles, diseases, royal deaths, and disasters, this is history as you have never read it before....

Black Death to the Blitz, in one bloody volumeBritain has an incredible history, steeped in all manner of blood, death, disease, and horror. This amazing collection explores it all, including Vikings, Saxons, Normans, and Picts; attacks, battles, sieges, and assaults; dozens of dreadful royal deaths,...

From reports of haunted castles, hotels, public houses, chapels, and churchyards, to heart-stopping accounts of apparitions, poltergeists, and related supernatural phenomena, this collection of stories contains both well-known and hitherto unpublished tales from around the city of Aberdeen. This spine-tingling...

This chilling collection of true-life tales is teeming with terrifying hauntings from in and around Dundee. Featuring stories of unexplained phenomena, apparitions, and poltergeists—including the tales of the White Ladies of Coffin Mill and Balgay Bridge, the hauntings of the historic ships Discovery...