Ghosts in the Headlines: Paul Weatherhead on Ghosts, Hoaxes, and Public Fear
About this episode
The episode explores ghost stories and their reflection of societal fears through historical cases in Britain.
At a time when science claims to explain almost everything, ghost stories still refuse to fade. In this episode of Haunted History Chronicles , I’m joined by author Paul Weatherhead to explore the strange cases that gripped Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — from violent apparitions and riotous ghost hunts to poltergeists, hoaxes, and even a royal spectre. Drawing on contemporary newspaper reports, Paul reveals how these hauntings reflect not just fear of the supernatural, but the social psychology of the people who reported, chased, and believed in them. Were these ghosts something more — or do they tell us more about ourselves than the dead? My Special Guest Paul Weatherhead Paul Weatherhead is a native of the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire and was brought up in Hebden Bridge. After several years teaching in Greece, Moscow and Northern Siberia, he returned to the Valley in the late 1990s. He has a longstanding obsession with the weird history of the area leading to the first edition of Weird Calderdale in 2003 which went on to become a local best-seller. His research into Alan Godfrey’s alien encounter led to a deeper investigation into the…
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