The Ghosts of Christmas Past

Christmas was not always about cosy fires, cheerful songs and pretending to enjoy a family board game.For generations, it was also a time for gathering after dark, lowering the lamps and telling stories about haunted houses, restless dead, mysterious strangers and scholars who ignored perfectly sensible warnings.In The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Michael White traces the strange and enduring history of the Christmas ghost story, from old winter fireside tales and Victorian magazine annuals to Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, M. R. James and the BBC’s celebrated A Ghost Story for Christmas.Along the way, the book explores why ghost stories became such a natural part of the festive season, how publishers discovered that Christmas readers enjoyed being frightened, and why so many fictional antiquarians insist on opening sealed rooms, reading forbidden manuscripts and spending the night in houses that local people have already advised them to avoid.Warm, witty and atmospheric, this is the story of how Christmas became haunted, how some of the greatest writers in the English language helped keep it that way, and why the darkest nights of the year still seem to demand a ghost beside the fire.Perfect for readers of literary history, Victorian fiction, classic ghost stories and the darker side of Christmas, The Ghosts of Christmas Past makes an ideal festive gift for anyone who prefers their seasonal entertainment with cold footsteps in the corridor.