Category Archives: Book releases

Posts relating to book releases and signings

In which the author finishes writing another book…

 

I’ve just put the final touches to Haunted St Andrews & District, book number 23 in the list they are all calling ‘Geoff Holder’s List of Books What He Has Wrote’.

This has been a terrific book to research and write. St Andrews is a wonderful place to wander round, and the stories are fascinating, ranging from medieval spectres of monks, murderers and archbishops, to ‘undergraduate legends’ transmitted via online student message-boards.

I also spent time investigating the famous White Lady and the mummies of the Haunted Tower, as well as the Veiled Nun, the Grey Lady, the Library Ghost, and other Fife phantoms. Not to mention a trio of poltergeists (including the polt of Pitmilly House, officially recognised by an insurance company payout).

Haunted St Andrews & District will be published in the summer of 2012.

 
 

In which the author releases The Little Book of Glasgow…

The Little Book of Glasgow is now officially published. A funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of frivolous, fantastic and strange facts about Glasgow, it is, to use the conventional phrase, the perfect Christmas gift.

 

At a recent talk I had a number of advance copies for sale and signing, and they disappeared faster than Santa’s mince pies. Amazon has almost sold out already – just one left at the time of writing. Thanks to everyone who’s bought one.

 

There’s more here about the book here:

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usreviews/books/historylittleglasgow.html

http://www.booksfromscotland.com/Books/The-Little-Book-Of-Glasgow-9780752460048

 http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Little-Book-of-Glasgow.aspx

 

Watch the video trailer for The Little Book of Glasgow

In which the author announces the publication of The Little Book in Glasgow…

 

My next publication, The Little Book of Glasgow, officially hits the shops on 21st November. It is basically ‘1000 things you didn’t know about Glasgow’ – a mix of trivia, facts, bizarre historical titbits, artistic achievements, and peculiarities of animal and human behaviour.

 

If you do know Glasgow, I hope it will shine a light on areas that were previously in shadow; and if you are new to the city, welcome to its leftfield wonders.

 

The book is divided up into nine chapters:

 

Places – Here and Now, Then and There

The River Clyde and other Waterways

Wars, Battles and Riots

Crime and Punishment

Transports of Delight – From Trains to Trams, and from Stagecoaches to Seaplanes

Food and Drink

City of Culture

Sports and Games

The Natural World

 

The book will tell you where to find sculptures of a Native American chief and an Egyptian pharaoh; which Glasgow-set film was actually filmed in London; how many pairs of shoes were fleeced from the city’s textile manufacturers by Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobites; the story of how chicken tikka masala was invented in the city; and how Glasgow saved Britain in World War II.

 

There’s also oodles of stuff on everything from Glaswegian poets and authors of graphic novels to the tiger escape at Glasgow Zoo, the speed of 18th-century stagecoaches, and an investigation into deep-fried Mars Bars.

 

My favourite episode comes from the 1960s. A porpoise was discovered in a forgotten sack in the gents toilet at Central Station. It was never claimed and its skeleton is in the Kelvingrove Museum. Please, no jokes along the lines of “I’ve lost my porpoise in life.”

In which the author visits a village of fairy houses….

As part of the research for Paranormal Cumbria I sought out a group of ‘fairy houses’ that have mysteriously appeared near Gelt Wood in East Cumbria.

 

The ceramic dwellings first appeared among the boles and tree roots in the summer of 2009, only to vanish in September – as the fairies explained when they emailed the local paper, it was just getting too cold for them.

 

The fairies have returned each subsequent summer, and in 2011 there were more than ever, with around 20 or so houses scattered over a two-mile area.

 

 

Several of the houses have evidence of their inhabitants’ lives, such as tiny wellington boots, wheelbarrows, letter-boxes, and rope ladders to reach front doors set high up in a drystone wall. One house close to the river even has a canoe.

This year, several people have left gifts for the fairies, in the shape of cards, letters, hand-made textiles, and chocolates.

 

 

 

The beautifully-fashioned dwellings and accessories are utterly enchanting, and seeking them out was a delightful task. Whoever made them deserves a big thank you for bringing wonder into our lives.

Paranormal Cumbria will be published in 2012 and has a full history of fairy sightings in the county, including a plethora of twentieth-century reports of nature spirits, devas, gnomes and other denizens of the fairy otherworld.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In which the author launches Paranormal Glasgow with a talk and signing in Glasgow (of all places)…

 

**CHANGE OF DATE.** Due to the traditional Circumstances Beyond Our Control, the event at Ladywell on Monday 25th July has been cancelled. A new date has been rearranged for Wednesday 24th August, at the same time and place. Apologies to all.

 

On Monday 25th July I’ll be at the fab Ladywell shop in Glasgow’s Merchant City to formally launch Paranormal Glasgow with a talk and book signing. Topics of discussion will include witchcraft, demonic possession, big cats, the Vampire with Iron Teeth, and the Weegie who could prove he could miraculously go without food for weeks because he had a certificate from the Pope saying so.

 

 

The Ladywell is just a few doors down from its partner 23 Enigma, an emporium of magical artefacts that I featured in The Guide to Mysterious Glasgow. The setting is intimate – it’s a bit like the paranormal equivalent of MTV Unplugged – and so tickets are limited. I’ll have copies of all my books for sale and signing.

The Ladywell is at 268-270 High Street,
 Merchant City,
 Glasgow
 G4 0QT. Tickets are £7 – please call 0141 552 7810 or visit the shop in advance to reserve yours. The event kicks off at 7pm. Full details are at www.theladywell.com.

In which the author announces the release of his new book ‘Paranormal Glasgow’

‘Paranormal Glasgow‘ is published this week (June 20th) by the fine people at The History Press

 

Here’s a chapter breakdown, which should give you an indication of what it2’s all about:

  • Chapter 1 Spectres, Psychics and Spooky Events
  • Chapter 2 Big Cats and Other Strange Animals
  • Chapter 3 The Weird Human Body: Miraculous Fasts, Stigmata and Spontaneous Human Combustion
  • Chapter 4 Witchcraft in Glasgow Part 1: A Hundred Years of Witch-Hunting
  • Chapter 5 Witchcraft in Glasgow Part 2: The Witches of Pollok, and The Possessed Children of Bargarran and Govan
  • Chapter 6 Hunting The Vampire With Iron Teeth
  • Chapter 7 Bizarre Beliefs, Strange Superstitions and Magical Thinking

 

Among the other topics covered you can find precognition, crisis visitations, emissaries from Hell, ghosts, the Knights Templar, hoaxes, and anomalous racoons.

The book is a partner to my earlier works Paranormal Dundee and Paranormal Perthshire. For a photo gallery of Paranormal Glasgow and others, go here, or to see the sneak preview trailer visit the video page here!

Paranormal Glasgow is available from Waterstones and other bookshops, as well as Amazon and directly from The History Press.

For details of the upcoming book launch in Glasgow, please see the Events page.