As we approach the spookiest time of the year, Thom Burgess delves into iconic ghostly figures and writers with deep British and Kentish roots.

With the nights drawing in and the cold tendrils of autumn permeating our evenings, it’s that time of year when we find our high streets suddenly filled with Halloween paraphernalia. In doing so, bringing with them a myriad of familiar horror characters who’ve stamped themselves on our collective consciences.  

From classic, bolt-necked monsters to hideous shrouded wraiths, these terrors have become internationally renowned. Yet ironically, all of them have their own roots within our very own haunted isle – and in some instances, even Kent.

For me, this is why I chose to include their histories within my book Early Haunts and why I think for so many of us, they remain as iconic today as to when they were first created.

Sleepy Hollow

Halloween wouldn’t be the same without the legendary headless horseman of Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow. Yet the origins of Irving’s ghost actually lie far from the haunts of Tarrytown, originating in the smoky streets of Birmingham, England where Irving briefly stayed in 1815. During that time, Irving revelled in European stories of headless knights such as ‘Hackleburg’ and our own native stories of ‘Gawain and the Green Knight’. Alongside Celtic spirits including the Irish ‘Dullahan.’ Those tales, forged with the battlefield stories of Tarrytown helped to create not only a ghost story, but very much a love letter to the writers’ homeland.

Frankenstein
With at least two Frankenstein adaptations hitting our screens this year, it wouldn’t be right to omit the pioneering writer behind the book – Mary Shelley, herself raised in Somers Town, London. Known to many as ‘The Mother of Science Fiction’ Shelley’s evening at the Villa Diodatti in Geneva was paramount in her monster’s creation. Taking inspiration from ‘Phantasmagoria’ a book of ghostly folk tales, Shelley’s party challenged each other to a ghost-writing competition. Resulting in a restless evening of nightmares for her. The following morning, Shelley had the origins of a creature so iconic, that even today it remains world renowned.

Ringu

From further afield the Japanese book ‘Ringu’ written by Koji Suzuki and adapted to film Hideo Nakata has its own roots within folklore; ‘The Tale of Dish Mansion’ by Baba Bunko which tells of a servant girl wronged by her master and thrown into the well of his castle, before she rises up as a vengeful Yurei, clearly acting as an inspiration point for the book.

A Christmas Carol

Not forgetting one last Kentish writer Charles Dickens, and his very own spirit, more often associated with Christmas. Jacob Marley, the classic woeful chained spectre. Inspired by the first haunted house story ‘The House in Athens’ by Pliny the Elder. A story wherein a man renting a house meets a chained wraith who insists on leading him to his bones. Horrific – but a haunting which has single-handedly birthed every chained ghost you’ve ever seen both on the page or screen.

So amidst the seasonal scares of October, take comfort in the fact that these international horrors have their origins within our own cursed soil – and clearly refuse to stay buried.

Thom Burgess is a Sessional Lecturer in the School of Sciences, Psychology, Arts and Humanities, Computing, Engineering and Sports.