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Allan Chapman has had a life-long fascination for ghost stories, with
an imagination fired from a childhood spent in a tiny, initially gas-lit
cottage in Lancashire. This imagination lies at the heart of Ghosts that
Never Haunted Christ Church.
With the exception of the story of the revival of Anne Greene, a welldocumented
true story from 1650, and the recent 'Ghosts that might well haunt
Christ Church', all the tales in this book are a curious mixture of genuine
historical fact, legend, and fiction. For while many of the ghosts in these tales
may not have haunted Christ Church-or at least not in the way described-
the historical setting which they haunted is largely true. The names of real
historical figures and Christ Church buildings which either still exist or were
later demolished to be replaced by more recent ones all intermix to form an
entertaining combination of fact and fiction.
Over the centuries, Christ Church has displayed three notable features: the
Cathedral Church, with its Canons and clerical dons; a rich and glorious
musical tradition; and great distinction in scientific and medical research.
They all appear, in various guises, in these ghost stories. Clergymen,
choristers, organists, chemists, scientists, heroic College porters, inventors,
animals, and anatomists are all there. Yet whether a tale be heart-warming,
grisly, or downright horrific, each resolves into its own positive ending. For
Christ Church has never been a bleak or negative place, preferring good
fellowship to angst and misery; and so with its ghosts. For at the end of the
day, peace comes to all.
So read on, and prepare to be affrighted, amused, and delighted!
Info autore
Allan Chapman FRAS is a world-renowned historian of science based at Wadham College, Oxford. He has appeared on a variety of television documentaries and on the BBC's The Sky at Night, as well as presenting Gods in the Sky and Great Scientists. His books include Comets, Cosmology and the Big Bang, Physicians, Plagues and Progress and Stargazers.
