And once the family business had been set up, the pair decided on a unique form of transportation to spread the word. Kymmi explained: “He bought me a birthday present which was to visit the most haunted house in the UK. The collection also includes Dingwall’s correspondence with many major figures of psychical research in the 20th century including Mollie Goldney, Trevor Hall, Guy Lyon Playfair, James Randi, Geroge Zorab and organisations such as the BBC, the Magic Circle and Society for Psychical Research. The correspondence is closed under the terms of Dingwall’s will until 2025 when it will be open to researchers.

We need to lend a thought to history when it comes to this supernatural trend, as we’ve been here before. Between the two world wars, Britain was gripped with ghost fever. This was the period when the most hauntings were reported. Cultural historians put that down to a number of factors which resonate today. Brighton has as many interesting ghost stories as it has clubs, bars and pretentious media types. In particular, the seaside resort seems to have a number of roaming ghosts, capable of manifesting in a wide geographical area. British Paranormal outlines a few of its favourite wandering Brighton ghosts below:As was the case until very recently boats did not operate a Sunday service and Netta was forced to wait on the island. Sometime on Sunday she went into her room, when she returned a short while later she seemed calmer with what was described as a look of resignation on her face. She told Mrs MacRae she had changed her mind and would remain indefinitely on Iona. Environmentalism is another theme that plays strongly in art inspired by spirituality. This year brings renewed interest in the art of Monica Sjöö, a Swedish-born artist who described herself as a “radical anarcho/eco-feminist and goddess artist, writer and thinker involved in Earth spirituality”. A retrospective of her work is at Modern Art Oxford this month which moves to London next year. The Hauntings is a 1-4 player online co-op investigation and exorcism game. Using a wide range of paranormal investigation equipment your group must try and successfully discover the source of the haunting and proceed to remove the threat from the area! The foundation collection of the Library’s holdings on The Paranormal, the Occult and the Magical was built by author, psychical researcher and book collector Harry Price over many years before he gave it to the University of London in the late 1930s for the purpose of encouraging research and investigation into the unexplained. Casting our (cob)web a little further across the city, and more tales of the unexpected abound. Here are a few of our frightening favourites: The Albert Hall poltergeist

In 2013 bosses at the University museum were confused (and dare we say, a little scared) to notice a ten-inch ancient Egyptian statue of Neb-Sanu, discovered in a mummy’s tomb nearly 4,000 years ago, spinning of its own accord. A time-lapse video was even set up to record the statuette – and clearly showed it rotating 180 degrees without being touched. A pious man who dabbled in the occult, he is believed to have summoned the devil while staying at Chetham’s School (then Christ’s College), leaving a ‘Satan’s hoof’ burn on the table. The macabre mark can still be seen today… Ordsall Hall… just who is the White Lady? …but what about the science? JP and Kymmi are still getting used to their new-found fame and have received calls from various other media outlets. As someone who feels deeply connected to spirit and earth, it’s important for me to view my artwork as craft and ritual,” says tan jones. “For me, every choice has meaning, every material is an ingredient in the cauldron that is the artwork.” Or perhaps you’ve been afraid (…very afraid) elsewhere around the University? There have been rumours of ghouls in the toilets of the Victorian Gothic John Rylands Library, and talk of other-worldly goings-on in Fallowfield – including ‘a ghostly old man’ at the foot of the bed in the 1970s.

a 1572 English translation of Ludwig Lavater's De Spectris, Lemuribus et Magnis atque Insolitis Fragoribus (Opens in new window) on ghosts and spirits

Janet Oppenhiem’s The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914 (Opens in new window) (1985) You may have heard about the man who got turned away from McDonald’s for riding his horse through a drive-thru. But what about a hearse? In addition to the Library collection, the Harry Price Archive includes his working papers and correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, scrapbooks, film shot by Price, artwork and objects. Much of the archive documents his work in psychical research with files on some of his most famous investigations such as spirit photography, Borley Rectory, the mediumships of the Schneider Brothers and Helen Duncan and Gef, the talking mongoose. The couple’s interest in the afterlife first began when JP got Kymmi a ghost tour for her birthday.

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Books and journals can be searched for in the Library Catalogue and Archive collections in the Archive Catalogue. We went there in February, and I was a sceptic, but the experiences I have had now, you just can’t explain it any other way.” Artist bones tan jones was one of the artists featured in the Somerset House exhibition and also had an installation at the Serpentine Gallery in 2022. They have just been announced as artist-in-residence at The Sustainable Institution in Europe. Their work has strong connections to paganism and spiritualism. Alongside these are 18th century ‘exposés’ of the conjuror’s arts and 19th century manuals of magic, including numerous editions of Modern Magic. The Archives contain several collections on psychical research and spiritualism including the research and correspondence of Eric John Dingwall and manuscripts related to séances and spiritualist circles. The Modern Collections and e-book collections include recent and current scholarship on parapsychology, the paranormal, the occult, magic and witchcraft. New works, antiquarian books and archival material continue to be added to the collections. Locating and accessing material