Shorter notices
Chapters Of Experience Douglas Conacher (Muller £2.10) Mr Conacher is dead and well and living beyond the grave. According to his wife who has, with the help of a medium, compiled a selection of his thoughts from another and better world. His incorporeal messages range from homilies on the 'value of service' to anecdotes about re-incarnation and planetary life. It is a book only for those who are already convinced.
Satan on the Loose Nicky Cruz (Oliphants £1.50)
Mr Cruz had an interesting childhood. His father was a witch-doctor and his mother a medium. But Nicky grew up to be something other than a chip off the old talisman, since he turned to the rather less fashionable Christian God. This book is his story of conversion and mission, since early experiences lead him to believe that Satanic forces exist where you'd least expect to find them. Mr Cruz writes in a homely (or what he would call a homey) style about the most bizarre incidents, but we might all take to heart his closing words: "To Hell with the Devil!" Go to the top of the class, Nicky.
Ghosts, Spirits and Spectres of Scotland Francis Thompson (Impulse E2.50) No, this is not Francis Thompson the notorious poet. Mr Thompson is a serious collector of the odd and eerie, and this book is bursting with strange sights and stories. As the title suggests, they are all situated north .of the great divide, which is where all the best ghosts come from. The moors and the islands are lent a ghostly glaze in this fascinating (and credible) brochure of the living dead. The book itself is tinted a handsome green, which may or may not glow in the dark.
Victorian Ghosts Hans Holzer (Bailey Brothers and Swinfen £1.70)
Sleep no more. At least if Mr Holzer has anything to do with it. He is what is known as a ' ghost expert,' and this book is a compilation of anecdotes and cases which worried tenants and householders have sent to him. Eighteen of the nineteen tales are from America, which I have always suspected as a country without spirits of any kind. It is difficult to determine the authenticity of these reports, of course, but I don't doubt that Mr Holzer is an assidious and scholarly researcher. He certainly knows how to tell a story.
P.A.
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