This was the coolest, most in depth book I have ever read on everything that is true paranormal! I have never read this author before, but I am sure happy that I gave her a try as I was not disappointed!

This book has everything in it including the meaning of every paranormal term that is out there. There is also different true cases of hauntings (houses, cemeteries, buildings, towns, etc.) along with real life mediums, spiritualists, shamans, paranormal research groups, etc.

Whatever you want to know about the paranormal and would like to learn the terms that paranormal researchers use in everyday life, then this is the book for you. I cannot express enough how much this book contains as this author went into extensive research to put this book together.

In the title of the book it says "Encyclopedia" and that is exactly what this book is all about as I doubt there is another book out there that contains as much as this book contains. I was very impressed by the book and I loved it so much that I am giving it five stars for an excellent job well done by author, Theresa Cheung! ( )

Green Ladies, Grey Ladies, Gris-gris, Gremlins, Guardian Spirits and Goblins, no matter how sceptical you may be about such things, this encyclopaedia is great fun and as more-ish as a packet of potato crisps.

Ghoulies and Ghosties and Things that go Bump in the Night have never done it for me, but I dearly love reading about them and, like many cynics, have a couple of favourite haunting tales.

Although the encyclopaedia covers Britain, Europe and the US, it is less reliable for the rest of the world and South Africa is not mentioned at all: However, local favourites like the Uniondale Hitchhiker and the Rose of Soweto have sisters all over the world.

Hitchhiking ghosts are two-a-penny it seems; the only mystery is why South Africa in particular does not have more of them, given our levels of road fatalities and murders, since they are generally a result of violent death.

No doubt one would be startled if a gorgeous young woman to whom one had given a lift were to suddenly disappear from the passenger seat, leaving nothing behind but a dodgy ‘damp patch’, but the irritation afforded by the phantom seat wetter would be nothing compared to the horror produced by some of the UK’s most haunted houses.

‘The most haunted house in England’ was considered to be the Borley Rectory, a gloomy unattractive residence built in 1863 and still, one gathers, existing today. It was quiet for about 40 years before coming under a long and savage attack by everything from whispers to black shapes, banging doors, smells, unseen vandals and even a phantom nun.

The signals indicate the haunted rectory was a hoax and, even if it wasn’t, the most their poltergeist seemed able to achieve was broken nights and pottery – unlike the unknown terror at Berkeley Square which was so terrifying it drove people mad with fear.

This has always been my favourite ‘true’ ghost story: the upmarket address of 50 Berkeley Square was notorious for years as the home of the fatally frightening phantom, a malevolent apparition, ‘rigid as a corpse, with hideously glaring eyes.’

Occupants kept dying or going mad, disturbing the neighbours with loud noises, cries and moans, having met up with a ‘shapeless, slithering, horrible mass’. But when the house was transformed into an antiquarian bookshop in 1939, there were no further reports of the phenomenon.

My other firm favourite is the tale of the Beast of Glamis, the oldest inhabited castle in Scotland, family seat of the Bowes-Lyon family, maternal grandparents of the present queen, and home to a multitude of ghosts, vampires and witches.

In 1820 however a horribly mutated heir was born, ‘a deformed monster, with an egg-like body, no neck, and tiny arms and legs’, who was locked away in a secret room but survived for well over a century.

“Over the years each successive earl was informed of the existence of the Monster of Glamis, as he became known, on his 21st birthday. Allegedly the earls were profoundly influenced by the experience of meeting [him], becoming moody and withdrawn…”

In addition to haunted places like the above, and an enormous range of ghosts [Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, you name it – they walk] this book gives advice on various paranormal ‘stuff’ like Achieving an Out of Body State or Stimulating your Psychic Senses.

Now, while I scoff at Cottingley Fairies, Amityville, The Flying Dutchman and Zombies, my eye was caught by the entry on those dangerous entities known as ‘psychic vampires’.

Like almost everyone, I have worked with certain individuals who were unbearably needy and gloomy – that is, psychic vampires, ‘the kind of people who have low self esteem, are never satisfied with anyone or anything and always want constant reassurance from other people to make them feel better’.

‘They are not, however, interested in getting better but only in feeding off the optimism, energy and care of others’.

No literal fangs have ever sunk into my neck, draining my blood; worse, I have had sad sack psychic suckers battening onto my cheer and good will. It was ghastly. I am considering learning a few simple psychic self-defence routines – not that I believe in such things, of course.

Although the book has the answer to any paranormal question you ever asked and thousands you didn’t even think of, I cannot recommend it as more than a sensational psychic trivia because the entries contain no references whatsoever.

There is no bibliography, no credits, no acknowledgements and no index: as a serious work, this encyclopaedia simply does not cut it even at a primary school level. Not to be taken seriously then, but an ideal accompaniment to Harry Potter. ( )