Reading time: 4 minutes
Andrew Homer discusses his new book, Ghost Hunting in the Black Country and Beyond, with DAVID SAUNDERSON
Interview with Andrew Homer about ghost hunting in the black country and beyond
SPOOKY ISLES: Congratulations on your new book, Andrew. What inspired you to write Ghost Hunting in the Black Country and Beyond to complement your previous gazetteer guide, Black country ghosts and hauntings?
ANDREW HOMER: It was actually reader feedback. Many had similar comments and wished the stories could be covered in more depth. Rather than simply expanding the stories, I focused on locations where I had done research and then narrowed them down to where something unusual had actually happened while I was there.
You’ve said in the past that paranormal activity is far from reliable. Can you explain how this unpredictability influenced your research and the writing of this book?
Before the rise of commercial groups and paranormal tourism, the research group I belonged to, Parasearch, was often invited to investigate a location because it was active.
Our goal was to explore as much as possible, knowing that the activity would likely be short-lived.
The book records the moments when paranormal activity was experienced. Nowadays, locations only seem to be explored for reputation, not because they are necessarily currently active.
Ghost hunting in the black country and beyond describes more than 25 years of paranormal research. How have methods and technology in the field evolved over that time, and how has this changed your work?
I don’t necessarily agree that techniques and technology have evolved!
For most of my time, the main tools were still cameras, low light cameras, audio recorders and environmental recording equipment such as electronic thermometers, calibrated EMF detectors etc.
Nowadays there are countless phone apps and expensive ghost-hunting “gadgets” that are nothing short of pseudoscience.
Long range EMF meters are a good example. It is impossible to determine which frequency activates the lights, and cell phones can do this very effectively unless they are actually turned off!
Among the haunted locations you discuss are Dudley Castle and the Ancient Ram Inn. What makes these places so special when it comes to paranormal activity?
In the case of Dudley Castle, we were called in because very credible witnesses had very strange experiences. As mentioned in the book, some of this activity was also experienced by myself and the team.
The Ram was similar in that two of us had a very visual experience. My colleague at the time was a police officer and a trained observer.
Your book contains QR codes for actual location footage on YouTube. How important do you think this multimedia element is to the reader’s experience?
I think it’s important on a number of levels. First, the environment we were in can be seen. Second, readers can make up their own minds about what might happen.
Of course it also shows that something happened – the mighty boom at Drakelow Tunnels is exceptional!
You are both an active researcher and an author. How do you balance these two roles, and find that one informs the other?
I’m not so much the researcher now, but I write a lot more. Not just about the paranormal, as many of my books are history books. Of course, sometimes it is possible to combine both, which is particularly satisfying for me.
Your previous books focused on haunted pubs. What makes these settings such fertile ground for paranormal phenomena?
It is interesting. Most pubs will usually claim something if you ask.
Perhaps it is the sheer number of people who have shared their different emotions within their walls.
Pubs are also places where people go. Perhaps paranormal phenomena are a manifestation of that same choice!
How challenging was it finding previously unpublished stories for this book, and did any of these stories particularly surprise you?
Although the book contains stories about haunted locations, they are really my own experiences investigating them.
From this perspective, they are virtually all unpublished! When I wrote everything down for the book, I was surprised at how much was in there!
Can you give an example of how your own research experiences have enriched the stories in this book?
It’s not all deadly serious! I added a chapter entitled ‘Would You Believe It?’. Among other experiences is the time I met a medieval knight one evening at Dudley Castle, complete with rattling chains. I don’t know who was more surprised!
Are there any locations or phenomena that you haven’t explored yet but are on your wish list for future projects?
I’ve now made the permanent move from the Black Country in the Midlands to Devon, so who knows what new projects are on the horizon!
Ghost hunting in the black country and beyond is available from Amazon.
