Tag Archives: geoff holder

In which the Author has another book published…

 

The latter part of October sees the publication of my latest attempt at world literary domination, The Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh. The book is a speedy and sanguinary sprint through the city’s dark past, taking in everything from massacres and murders to witchcraft, torture and executions.

 

Events commence in the Dark Ages with the annihilation of the Goddodin warrior tribe, and continue through medieval wars and sieges onto dastardly deeds surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots, and a veritable rogues’ gallery of assassins, rioters, pirates, hangmen and cannibals. Bodysnatchers, serial killers, poisoners and Zeppelins bring up the rear, and, for light relief, there is also a diversion into Edinburgh’s nineteenth-century brothels and houses of pleasure, with their associated crimes, court cases and general depravity.

 

  1. “And There Was Slaughter”
  2. A Barricade of Dead Horses!
  3. Tortured to Death over Three Days – For Killing the King!
  4. Murdered at the Sign of the Black Bull!
  5. Slaughter on the Streets!
  6. “Burn Edinburgh to the Ground!”
  7. A Tapestry of Naked Corpses!
  8. Stabbed To Death – In Front of the Queen!
  9. Death of a King: Blown Up and Strangled
  10. Siege!
  11. Death and the Maiden
  12. A Sea Battle – Inside the Harbour
  13. Drowned Alive in the Loch!
  14. Burn the Witch!
  15. Plague
  16. A Concentration Camp – in the middle of Edinburgh
  17. The Dismembered Marquis!
  18. The Wizard of West Bow
  19. The Hangman was a Murderer
  20. He Roasted the Servant on a Spit – and then ate him!
  21. He Fired into the Crowd – and was Lynched by the Mob!
  22. Jacobite Conflicts and the War of the Chamber Pots
  23. Riot!
  24. Piracy and Murder of the High Seas!
  25. Duel!
  26. Fire!
  27. Burke and Hare – Serial Killers!
  28. Poison!
  29. Hanged By The Neck Until Ye Be Dead
  30. The Night of the Zeppelins
  31. Sex and Death

 

You can find more about the book through Facebook and from the website of the publishers, The History Press. Upcoming media coverage includes features in The Edinburgh Evening News and The Scottish Daily Mail. There’s also a free illustrated talk on the book taking place at the splendid Blackwells Bookshop on South Bridge in Edinburgh on Tuesday 6 November. The humble author will be waving his arms about and bellowing on about grisly deeds and ghastly anecdotes from 6.30pm, and signing books after the talk as well.

 

There shall be blood!

 

 

In which the author gives two talks at the Islay Book Festival…

 

The splendid Islay Book Festival takes place over two days on the 8th and 9th of September, and this humble author will be giving talks on both days. On the Saturday I’m rambling on about “Vampires – From Folklore to Fiction (and Fact…)”, which will range from 18th century Eastern European vampire hunts through Lord Byron, Varney the Vampyre and Dracula, ending up with two recent cases I’ve investigated, “The Vampire of Croglin Grange” (Cumbria) and “The Vampire with Iron Teeth” (Glasgow).

 

 

Then on the Sunday I’ll be picking episodes out of my book “101 Things To Do With A Stone Circle”. I’ll discuss the ways modern and medieval people have used stone circles and other ancient sites for a bizarre range of foibles and practices. They have been seen as sites of earth energies, ley-lines and Druidic mysteries. They have featured in movies, opera and Doctor Who. People have associated them with healing, curses, supernatural beings and visionary experiences. Featuring: the saint who lived in a burial chamber, the only stone circle condemned in Parliament by Margaret Thatcher, and how to use a stone circle to exorcise a Land-Rover.

 

Also on the bill at the venue (Port Ellen Primary School) are cookery writer Sue Lawrence, Catherine Czerkawska on the history of Gigha, yachting explorers Justin and Linda Ruthven-Tyers, and (woo!) Scotland’s Makar, poet and playwright Liz Lochhead – and there’s a full schedule of events for children and teenagers as well.

 

Tickets and info for this unique island festival from http://islaybookfestival.com/.

 
 

In which the Author talks about mummies and ghosts in the Sunday Herald…

 

Glasgow’s Sunday Herald did a full-page feature on Haunted St Andrews in their 8th July edition. I tried to look windswept and interesting for the photo shoot in the Cathedral ruins, and gabbled on in my usual windbag fashion. The full piece can be read here, courtesy of the Sunday Herald and journalist Cate Devine. I’ll be doing a book signing at J & G Innes on Market Street in St Andrews on Saturday 21st July.

Read the full article by clicking here, or the image to the left!

In which the author publishes another book (again)

 

My new book, Haunted St Andrews, is published today (29 June). The list of contents should give you an idea what to expect:

 

Chapter 1  – The White Lady and The Haunted Tower

 

Chapter 2 – A Haunted Cluster – the Ghosts of The Pends, St Leonard’s School and Queen Mary’s House

 

Chapter 3 – Ghosts of Castle and Cloister

 

Chapter 4 – Ghosts of Town and Gown

 

Chapter 5 – Pitmilly House – Poltergeist Manor!

 

Chapter 6 – A Pair of Poltergeists

 

Chapter 7 – Death Warnings, Dead Air and Ghost Villages

 

I will be doing a book signing at the esteemed bookshop of J & G Innes, St Andrews on Saturday 21 July. Meanwhile, there will be articles on Haunted St Andrews in the Scottish Daily Mail (Saturday 30th June) and the Glasgow Herald (Sunday 8 July). There was going to be a televised interview on BBC’s Reporting Scotland, but they cancelled at the last minute (and there was me having ironed a clean shirt and shaved my manly stubble – honestly, the sacrifices I make for my public…)

 

Haunted St Andrews is published by The History Press at £9.99, and is available from your local high street bookshop or from Amazon.

 
 
 

In which the author appears on the wireless again…

 

On Wednesday 20 June I was interviewed on Dundee radio station Wave 102FM about Haunted St Andrews, which will be published on 29 June. The White Lady and the mummies of the Haunted Tower got an airing, which is nice, along with several other posh ghosts.

 

More events (book signings and talks) and media appearances (newspaper features) are on their way soon regarding Haunted St Andrews, so keep a weather eye out.

 
 
 
 

In which the author works on his library tan…

 

 

It’s hot, hot, hot, as Caribbean songsters Arrow once sang. And as Britain broils, bakes and burns, your humble author is spending his time… hidden away in libraries. (That’s right, I get to devote large amounts of time to doing things I love. Pity me.)

 

I’m delving deep into the research for Poltergeist over Scotland, and so librarians and archivists from Perth and Glasgow to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Cambridge have learned to fear my hunger for request slips.

 

 

 

 

Amazing stuff is being dredged from the archives, including episodes and facts that haven’t seen the light of day for more than a hundred years, if at all. Who would have thought that the history of Scottish poltergeists could be so extensive?

So if you see a pale figure tottering from bookstack to bookstack, his pallid skin untouched by scorching sun, you might just have glimpsed the elusive f=entity known as Ye Poltergeist Hunter of Olde Scotlande…