In 1936, Country Life magazine captured this image said to be the Brown Lady while visiting Raynham Hall England.

With all the recent ghost stories that have been shared for Halloween, an event that passed without notice here in the village, I have been thinking back over some of the old family tales that I had almost forgotten. Quite what brought them to mind I don’t know, but the memories started flooding back last night for some reason as I lay wakeful.

My maternal grandfather and great grandparents used to tell of the apparent poltergeist that had been active in their first home. Doors would bang, objects would be moved… and of course, all those who witnessed the events are now gone. I can no longer talk to them and ask them once again to tell those stories, now that I am old enough to listen with less delightful shuddering and a more open mind.

My maternal grandparents were also well versed in strange occurrences, though growing up with them I saw nothing strange in it at all. Normality is, for all of us, whatever we are accustomed to and if that normality differs from that of others, the child will not even notice. Grandfather was a spiritualist minister and grandmother a noted psychic within the movement. They were quiet, respectable people. They never sought to anything from their experiences; it was simply how things were and such gifts as they had were placed at the service of others. Even so, the house seemed overpopulated by ethereal entities that I, as a child, just accepted at face value.

Growing up, however, I was always sceptical of the claims made by many mediums and those who purport to see ghosts. You might think it would be the other way round, but I have a feeling that these two sets of grandparents gave me a good education. They were all devoted to their faith… my great grandparents being strict ‘chapel’… and none of them sought any kind of notoriety. The odd things were just …odd. But they happened.

Strange things do happen. Many can be explained in terms physical or psychological; some cannot, it seems, be explained away. Some of these strange occurrences that defy or challenge explanation are recounted in Gary Vasey’s new book, My Haunted Life. I know Gary; he is a friend of long standing. One thing I know is that he writes from his own experience, telling the strange tales just as they happened, through his own eyes.

Whether you believe or not is up to you…

My Haunted Life by G.Michael Vasey

a new book is now available

in paperback and Kindle.

“My childhood was a strange one. One of my first memories is of a little, blue man who emerged out of a mirror in my bedroom, shot me with a toy gun and then jumped out of the window into the backyard below. You might perhaps think that I imagined it, except for the fact that my parents actually heard the gunshot!

This book is a collection of events that happened to me. All are strange and all are true. When people say that “fact is stranger than fiction”– they weren’t joking.

It is a compendium of stories that really happened to me and those around me; some are creepy and others just bizarre. Reality is a strange and wonderful thing and this book tries to demonstrate that.” G. Michael Vasey