Paranormal South Tyneside- True Ghost Stories

by Michael J Hallowell

Amberley Publishing

Mike Hallowell is a veteran investigator of paranormal matters, mustering over 40 years’ experience in the field. He has written the ‘Wraithscape’ column for the Shields Gazette for over 10 years and is a regular contributor to TV and radio presentations. This latest offering is an eclectic range of topics and includes angels, dowsing, fairies and other strange entities, UFOs, time slips, ghosts and hauntings, poltergeists, jinxes and curses, historical conundrums, and several other categories of weird events.

This book is a superb little treasure house for any reader with a predilection for the paranormal. The investigations are thorough as one would expect from a seasoned researcher. The recounting of the evidence is completed in a level of detail that should satisfy newcomers to the field and the more experienced paranormal buff alike.

The author makes several interesting observations during the course of the book. In the chapter on ‘Mystery Creatures from Beyond’ he notes the strangeness of the world and the oft quoted view that ‘what we don’t know won’t hurt us’, commenting that this is the worst advice ever given as one would not wish to be in close proximity to many of these entities. His lightness of touch is evident in the chapter on ‘Time Slips’ where he comments that quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity were never his strong points and that he didn’t pass his Eleven Plus until he was 43! He also made the intriguing observation that he was unsure whether science was the best way forward anyway, an idea that could perhaps have been more fully explored (a topic for the future perhaps?).

More specifically relevant to the Ghost Club is the interesting report of a haunted computer where the owner had a message appear on-screen which stated, ‘Hi, I like your shirt! Please answer!’ Believing his machine to be infected by a virus he played along by asking what colour it was . The correct answer (red and blue check) came through – other details emerged which could only have been known if the communicator was in the room itself!

Overall this is thumping good book, enjoyable to read cover- to- cover or to dip into at odd moments. I would thoroughly recommend it as thought provoking, intriguing with a lightness of touch that is refreshing and lively. It left me wishing for more and should surely contribute to the erosion of that subversive concept of ‘ignorance is bliss’ which so bedevils paranormal research.

Review by John Barrett