Ghosts

Listening to Richard Ingrams' excellent guest editorship of the Today programme this morning, I was amused to hear Dr Thomas Stuttaford's account of his haunted house in Norwich where he and his family often hear people walking up the stairs or in the bedrooms above. It reminded me of a ghost story told by my friend George in East Anglia.

George claimed to have a poltergeist in his house. He said that when he and his family were downstairs they would regularly hear somebody rushing through all the rooms upstairs, slamming all the doors. The children's toys would frequently be rearranged. One night he was in bed and heard a noise downstairs. He put on his dressing gown and ventured down to investigate. The radio was on, tuned in to a German station. His wife assured him that she had not left it on, nor would she listen to a German channel. George investigated the history of that house and discovered that a German POW had escaped and taken refuge there during the war. He may have died there.

One night George asked his wife if she could go and get him a cold drink from the fridge. She went downstairs, into the kitchen and let out a blood-curdling scream: when she opened the fridge there was one of her son's teddy bears sitting on the shelf. George had put it there as a joke.

They have now moved house.

Happy New Year!