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The Haunting of Alma Fielding

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020

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The Haunting of Alma Fielding

By: Kate Summerscale
Narrated by: David Morrissey
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Bloomsbury presents The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale, read by David Morrissey.

FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER

'A wonderful book' HILARY MANTEL

'Gothic, dark and scandalous' SUNDAY TIMES

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

It is 1938. As the shadow of fascism darkens over Europe, strange things are happening in Alma Fielding’s suburban home in Croydon. Crockery flies off the shelves; stolen rings appear on Alma’s fingers; and white mice scuttle out of her handbag.

Nandor Fodor – chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research – arrives on the scene, determined to crack the case. As Fodor’s obsession deepens, and Alma becomes ever more disturbed, the pair find themselves in a treacherous battle of wills . . .

'Prepare not to see much broad daylight, literal or metaphorical, for days if you read this’ THE TIMES

'Nobody is better at unpicking stories of ghosts and murder than Kate Summerscale … Will stay with you for weeks’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR

'As gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read’ SARAH WATERS

‘A detective novel, a ghost yarn and a historical record rolled into one . . . Electrifying’ i-PAPER

‘It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed’ SPECTATOR©2020 Kate Summerscale (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Europe Great Britain Historical Relationships True Crime Women Fantasy Haunted Scary England Ghost Paranormal
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Critic reviews

Hidden realities of a different kind lie beneath the story of Kate Summerscale’s The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story, which delves into the 1930s case of the “Croydon Poltergeist”, investigated by Nandor Fodor, chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research
Gothic, dark and scandalous ... A gripping account
A chilling real life ghost story ... This book scared me witless
Expertly told, with all the twists and turns of a chilly novel by Wilkie Collins or Barbara Vine ... The more Summerscale delves, the more she finds out about the hidden compartments of the human mind (Craig Brown)
A terrific true ghost story ... her best book since The Suspicions of Mr Whicher ... She has achieved the perfect balance between her central story and its cultural context.
With The Haunting of Alma Fielding, Kate Summerscale does for ghosts what she did for a murder in her very successfulThe Suspicions of Mr Whicher
Riveting ... One of the many great pleasures of The Haunting of Alma Fielding, as in all of her work, is her knack of recreating the feverish atmosphere of the time (Daisy Goodwin)
A detective novel, a ghost yarn and a historical record rolled into one. Blending fact and fiction, it is an electrifying reconstruction
Summerscale revisits these strange events with her customary wide research and in lucid and unadorned prose…she draws a convincing and compelling portrait of a moment of mass anxiety in which so deep was the longing to believe that anything could become believable
London, 1938, and a young woman begins to experience supernatural events. Is she really haunted, or is something else going on? The author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher investigates
With her eye for evocative period detail, her sensitivity to the quirks and poignancies of human motivation, and her brilliant storytelling skills, Summerscale has taken this corker of a case and made it as gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read (SARAH WATERS)
An engrossing, weirdly timely book about the relationship between the bodily self and the trauma of a haunted mind
Prepare not to see much broad daylight, literal or metaphorical, for days if you read this ... the atmosphere evoked is something I will never forget
Astonishingly gripping. As ever, she offers fascinating insights into what the story tells you about the era in which it unfolded and spotting ingenious parallels in contemporary art and literature, but without ever allowing the narrative pace to slow up
As with her previous books, Summerscale weaves personal records with meticulous research carried out over three years, to not just resurrect the people involved, but the world in which they live. We are walking with the dead, but the author is conjuring something more believable, more unsettling, than anything you will find in a dodgy seance hall
All stars
Most relevant
This book is so much more than a ghost story. It is about trauma and remembering that for which is uncomfortable but necessary to heal.

Beautifully Written and Presented.

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Interesting subject matter, and Neil Morrissey does a fine job as narrator. He proposed deserves more admiration for keeping the pace and not falling asleep, as the material does drag on. I don’t fault the author for that, as she is faithfully quoting the source material and supporting her research, it’s that source material that gets tedious.
I didn’t dislike it to the point I regret the time spent, but I’m relieved to be finished with it - like a weight has been lifted!
The weight of dreary British suburbia.

Bit dreary

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A fascinating insight into the potential motivations and psychology behind claims of paranormal activity widespread in the UK during the 1930s.

Insightful exploration of paranormal incidents

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Unfortunately not that interesting nor that well narrated. I liked the Suspicions of Mr Whicher but nothing that I have listened to since by Kate Summerscale has hit the mark.

Very average.

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It was 1938 when 34 year-old Alma Fielding living in suburban Thornton Heath was assailed by flying furniture and crockery and Nandor Fodor the Jewish Hungarian psychic investigator working for the International Institute for Psychical Research became involved in Alma's case. Fodor had already revealed many 'psychics' as frauds (the talking mongoose was no such thing; the floral bouquet trembling with psychic energy was being pulled by the psychic's invisible thread), but he believed in Alma. She underwent various tests and strip searches which found nothing amiss - and finally an X-ray which revealed the truth. Beneath her breasts (untouchable in a strip search) and in her vagina (even more so) were secreted the objects which apparently flew from her - the ring shoplifted from Woolworths was expelled through her self generated spasms (!)

There is a great deal about other performers and their tricks, but the most interesting part of this book is the analysis and the cultural background of these years when there was enormous interest in England in spiritualism. It was a time of massive still unresolved loss following WW1 whilst the dangerous and frightening times in Europe as a whole made for dislocated people yearning for reassurance. After Fodor found that Alma's displays of object-expulsion were fake, he did not desert her. He accepted that her temporary paralyses and other apparently psychical behaviour were real and that the source was well repressed trauma. Alma had plenty of that including suffering several dead babies, an unhappy marriage, intrusive surgery and the removal of her teeth after contracting anthrax from a toothbrush (!).

The weight of this book comes from the way that the whole psychic / spiritual vogue is carefully set in the culture of the times. Freud comes in; a great many works of fiction such as Elizabeth Bowen's &Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca are splendidly included as well as poets; Magritte and his deeply unsettling, and dislocated paintings were on display. This apparently crazy poltergeist craze can be explained as a manifestation of repressed trauma and mounting tensions on personal and societal levels, and cultural and social dislocation against a back drop of rumblings of war (the contemporary political events occur throughout the book). Plenty to think about and parallels to be made with these Covid times.

I found the narration rather irritating - David Morrissey was too gentle and reverential.

What can you imagine is the most bizarre use of a cow's udder ever recorded? You'll never guess, but listen carefully and you'll find out!!

Freaky phenomena, fears and frauds

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