The Rise of the English Poltergeist, by Andrew Pickering
‘I know what I heard and saw’. It is 1650 and something is very wrong in your house. Pots and pans are flying through the air. Invisible hands are pelting your family with stones. Doors slam shut on their own, and strange knockings echo through the walls at all hours. Your neighbours whisper about demons, your servants flee in terror, and you don't know where to turn. Welcome to the world of the early modern poltergeist. While tales of witches and witchcraft have been closely scrutinized by scholars, the mischievous spirits that tormented ordinary households have remained largely overlooked. This groundbreaking study brings brings together and examines twenty-seven extraordinary cases from 1591 to 1718, drawn from contemporary accounts, and retold as vivid 'Relations' in the style of seventeenth-century demonologies. July 2025, x + 240 pages, colour illustrations, paperback, £20.00, ISBN 978-1-914407-93-2
‘I know what I heard and saw’. It is 1650 and something is very wrong in your house. Pots and pans are flying through the air. Invisible hands are pelting your family with stones. Doors slam shut on their own, and strange knockings echo through the walls at all hours. Your neighbours whisper about demons, your servants flee in terror, and you don't know where to turn. Welcome to the world of the early modern poltergeist. While tales of witches and witchcraft have been closely scrutinized by scholars, the mischievous spirits that tormented ordinary households have remained largely overlooked. This groundbreaking study brings brings together and examines twenty-seven extraordinary cases from 1591 to 1718, drawn from contemporary accounts, and retold as vivid 'Relations' in the style of seventeenth-century demonologies. July 2025, x + 240 pages, colour illustrations, paperback, £20.00, ISBN 978-1-914407-93-2
‘I know what I heard and saw’. It is 1650 and something is very wrong in your house. Pots and pans are flying through the air. Invisible hands are pelting your family with stones. Doors slam shut on their own, and strange knockings echo through the walls at all hours. Your neighbours whisper about demons, your servants flee in terror, and you don't know where to turn. Welcome to the world of the early modern poltergeist. While tales of witches and witchcraft have been closely scrutinized by scholars, the mischievous spirits that tormented ordinary households have remained largely overlooked. This groundbreaking study brings brings together and examines twenty-seven extraordinary cases from 1591 to 1718, drawn from contemporary accounts, and retold as vivid 'Relations' in the style of seventeenth-century demonologies. July 2025, x + 240 pages, colour illustrations, paperback, £20.00, ISBN 978-1-914407-93-2