Has anyone actually read 'The Haunting of Britain' cover to cover? Is it worth it?

I picked up the new edition of 'The Haunting of Britain: A Comprehensive History' (Penguin, £16.99) at Waterstones because it looked comprehensive. But I'm about 200 pages in and it feels like the author is trying to cram in every reported haunting in the country without really investigating any of them properly.

It's basically just "place X is allegedly haunted because in 1887 someone reported seeing a ghost there." There's no follow-up, no attempt to verify, no analysis of whether the reports are credible. It's just... a catalogue.

My question: does it get better? Or am I wasting my time? And if anyone has recommendations for actually rigorous paranormal history books (especially about British locations), I'm all ears.

Yeah, that book's frustrating because it had potential to be something really good. The author did the research (you can tell from the bibliography), but the execution is basically ". Here's every haunting I found." It's more of a reference work than something you read for argument or understanding.

If you want something more analytical, try 'Ghostland' by Andrew Michael Hurley. It's less comprehensive but actually investigates why places become haunted and what that means.

It's basically just "place X is allegedly haunted because in 1887 someone reported seeing a ghost there." There's no follow-up, no attempt to verify, no analysis of whether the reports are credible.

That's actually kind of the point though? The book's value is in having all the historical reports in one place. Most of these stories are scattered across local archives and old books nobody reads anymore. Collecting them is useful even if the author doesn't analyse them.

Think of it as a resource rather than an argument.

Have you looked at 'A History of Haunted Britain' by Peter Underwood? It's older (1988 or so) but much more careful about sources and the author actually visited most of the locations. There's some outdated thinking in there, but the scholarship is solid.

Also worth checking out the BBC's 'A History of Britain's Hauntings' (if you can find it - it's been repeated on iPlayer occasionally). Proper documentary work.

Honestly? Most paranormal history books are exactly like what you're describing because paranormal history is inherently hard to write properly. You're dealing with anecdotes, folklore, urban legends, and selective documentation. There's no ". Rigorous" paranormal history really, just degrees of carefully-considered anecdotes versus totally credulous repeating of stories.

The Haunting of Britain is fine for what it is. It's just not what you wanted it to be.