Boo!
Welcome back to Book Break.
I am here today in Newcastle ready to go on a spooky tour of the city.
The amazing people at Ghosts of the Garth are giving us a spooky ghost tour of the city's
most haunted locations.
And we're starting here at the castle.
This is probably one of the most haunted buildings I've ever been into.
And I decided I was going to spend the night inside the condemned man's prison cell.
It was just after half five when I started hearing noises in the actual dungeon.
I literally heard some heavy-footed person walk up the stairs to the actual chamber doorway.
And they went 'It's time!', and banged on the gate.
It was quarter to when the man walked up and shouted it was time and banged on the gate.
Six a.m.'s when they would lead them up to the side of this building, which I'll show
you later on, to the condemned man's cell door, open it up onto a platform, fit them
with the hemp and rope, tighten it up, and ask them if they had any last words, before
being given a prayer and literally pushed off to hang.
And the castle seems like a pretty perfect place to talk about Dracula, which is pretty
much the Halloween book.
This is the book that kickstarted all of our modern tropes of vampires.
Well, until came along and made them sparkly.
OK, let's get on with the tour.
You know, this stairs are haunted by a ghost called the Crying Lady.
And basically, Catherine Duffy was killed in the archway where we're going to try a
paranormal experiment.
So guys, when you're down there, mainly the girls, any feelings around your neck, any
tight feelings or anything like that, you've got to let me know straight away.
Alright, guys?
Follow me, stay together, mind the step.
What I'm going to try and do is see if I can get a spirit to interact with you.
I want to get it to try and physically push you and hold you upright.
Right, if there's any spirit who is in this area, I'm going to ask now if you can possibly
push her towards my hands please.
And while we're in this haunted location, I've got two books here that are about haunted
houses.
The first is The Upstairs Room by Kate Murray-Browne, which is about a family who move into a Victorian
townhouse, only to find there is a presence already living there.
But whether the presence is supernatural or just family tension is up to you to decide.
And The House on Cold Hill by Peter James is a ghost story about a family who move to
a new house in Sussex.
Now this is a very modern ghost story.
The first time that we see the ghost is actually behind the daughter as she talks to her friend
on FaceTime.
As their time in the house becomes more and more disturbing, the family have to investigate
the true history behind The House on Cold Hill.
Which is topical, because it is pretty freezing in Newcastle.
Matthew Bonner's crime was that of shape-shifting into a black cat, supposedly luring children
away from their homes, and supposedly sacrificing these children.
When they unearthed this building and knocked the doors down during renovation of making
this into a restaurant, they found a set of children's shoes under the floorboards in
the corner.
Still with the original owner's feet inside them.
A pretty dark part of our history, but it gets darker.
Now if you want to follow me this way.
Whoa.
Something freaked out when we freaked out.
What was that?
Stay with me, guys.
Lights are flickering as we pass up here and everything.
Now we're getting really scared, I've got some books perfect for fans of horror movies.
First up, if you're a fan of the TV show The Walking Dead, did you know that there is now
a whole book series?
The first in the series is Rise of the Governor, and this is super fast-paced, action-packed
zombie fun for horror-lovers.
And my second book for horror movie lovers is The Ritual by Adam Nevill.
Which has the fantastic tagline 'They should have gone to Vegas'.
This is about a group of men who go on a camping trip as a bonding ritual in the woods, and
find themselves in the middle of a demonic sacrifice.
This one is perfect for fans of The Blair Witch Project.
Right where we're standing, guys, earlier on I talked about the condemned man's cell
where we hung people.
Well this here, my lovelies, is where we hung people.
We need to be careful, this is generally where I've been attacked here.
I've had my face squeezed and things like that by things I can't see.
We're going to go through the black gate, check that it's clear down in the dungeons,
and then we're going to go round and down inside the dungeons.
Right, follow me this way.
But if you prefer thrillers to ghost stories this Halloween, don't worry, I've got you
covered on those too.
First up, a couple of crime novels by Fiona Cummins.
The first novel Rattle and its sequel The Collector are about a terrifying serial killer
called The Bone Collector.
Just that name is enough to fill me with dread, and its also about the two children that he's
got his eye on.
Now these are seriously terrifying stuff, so good luck with those.
And if fantasy is more your thing, don't worry, I've got one of those for you too.
This is A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge, which a dark historical fantasy about a young
girl who becomes possessed by a ghost.
And the book is set during the English Civil War, so although the girl knows the ghost
inside her is dangerous, in dark times such as this, it might actually be able to help
her.
Right where we are would have been the drawbridge.
And here, these would have opened up and they would have poured boiling oil down on you,
pitch, tar, rocks off your head, and they would have killed you.
And for those of you that loved telling ghost stories round campfires, don't these two covers
make you feel really nostalgic?
This collection of Irish Ghost Stories are exactly the kind of stories that you'll want
to tell in a dark room on Halloween night.
And as are these: Tales of Mystery and Imagination by the master of the macabre Edgar Allen Poe.
Some of them are dark comedies, some of them are unsolvable mysteries, but they will all
make the perfect addition to your Halloween reading this year.
Right guys, I hope you've enjoyed that tour, my name's Steve Taylor for Haunted City Tours,
Alone in the Dark Entertainment.
And I hope that you may come back for one of our other tours.
From me, Steve Taylor, I wish you good night.
Remember guys, don't have nightmares.
Thank you very much, I'm done.
So I hope you all have a really spooky Halloween this year, and do leave me a comment letting
me know what you end up reading, and quite how terrifying it is.
And of course, do subscribe to this channel, because we post new videos every Thursday.
Next week I've got something really fun to show you.
We actually went on a Treasure Island dinner party, and I filmed the whole thing for you
guys to watch.
So do subscribe so you don't miss out on that one.
And of course, do give this video a thumbs up if you liked it.
See you next time!