BIOGRAPHY

TIMELINE

GALLERY

PROFILES

SÉANCE ROOM

FAMOUS CASES

BORLEY RECTORY

BOOKS BY PRICE

WRITINGS BY PRICE

BOOKS ABOUT PRICE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LINKS

SUBSCRIBE

ABOUT THIS SITE

Welcome to the third issue of Séance 25, the update newsletter for the Harryprice.co.uk website.  Despite taking a week off for a short holiday with my family to Edinburgh last month, I have managed to add quite a bit of new material to the site and there have been some interesting Price-related developments since the last issue, all of which are covered below.  As usual, comments on anything mentioned here or on the website are greatly received on the usual mailbox@harryprice.co.uk e-mail.

This part of the newsletter seems to have become reserved for techy computer-related items, so I would like to start off by recording my thanks to the people who have kindly added links to harryprice.co.uk on their websites or have featured the site in some way.  Thomas Jones of the International Survivalist Society carried a news article about the founding of the site on his website www.survivalafterdeath.org.  Brian Haughton has added a link to the site on his excellent Mysterious People website and Robin Bellamy of the Toronto and Ontario Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society has done likewise as part of his web article on Harry Price's career.  I have also been in touch with Simon Forsyth, the editor of the new Psychic Times website who has also offered to link up to harryprice.co.uk in the near future.  Concerning search engines, Google now appears to be crawling over the site and although a search for 'harry price' does not come up with the goods as far as this website is concerned, it does feature on other more specific searches such as 'borley rectory', so in time things will hopefully improve.

New Harry Price Biography Underway

A major piece of news for all those interested in Price and his work is that a new commissioned biography of the man himself is now underway.  Richard Morris has taken a break from the News of the World to tackle the life and times of Mr. Price in what will be the first original study to be undertaken in nearly thirty years since Trevor Hall's attempt to blacken Price's name with his Search for Harry Price was published back in 1978.  Concerning his new book, Richard writes:

"The biography will be a fresh and clear-sighted new portrait of the world's most radical psychic investigator. Quoting from rarely seen material and drawing on a wealth of original research the
biography follows Harry Price from his awkward birth and throughout his turbulent career. "

Richard's new biography will be published by Sutton Publishing in October 2006.

Contact from Peter Underwood

When I first started pulling this website together back in December last year, one person that Eddie Brazil suggested to contact was the veteran author and world-renowned ghost-hunter Peter Underwood.  Eddie kindly wrote to Mr. Underwood at his Savage Club address and I am very pleased to say that he has received a very positive response (and a signed photograph as well!).  Peter Underwood, who corresponded with Harry Price towards the end of his life and through Price was invited to become a member of the original Ghost Club, has expressed his willingness to write a piece for the website.  As someone who grew up with Peter Underwood's books I consider this a great honour and a valued contribution from the greatest living authority on Price's most famous investigation, the haunting of Borley Rectory.

Price's Writings Added

Two sections of the website which have been added to over the past month are the Online Library and the Famous Cases section.  I have decided to add extracts from Price's own writings on those notorious investigations covered on the Famous Cases page so that Harry Price's own material can be contrasted with modern articles.  Complete relevant chapters from Poltergeist Over England, Leaves From a Psychist's Case-Book, Fifty Years of Psychical Research and Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter are now online complete with accompanying plates and illustrations.  The Online Library now has the complete text of Price's 1922 exposure of the spirit photographer William Hope and the Bulletin V of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research which deals with early accusations of fraud against the medium Rudi Schneider.

Sidney Glanville's House Revisited

One of the most important locations in the Borley Rectory saga apart from the site of the building itself is now included in the Trail of Harry Price section.  The foundations for the popular 'Marie Lairre' murdered nun scenario and the famous 'Sunex Amures' prophesy about the destruction of the Rectory were received at planchette sittings in the house in this photograph.  This is the former home of Sidney Glanville, Price's Chief Observer at Borley, which is still standing in Streatham in South London, and it is a welcome addition to the website.

The 'Locked Book'

A major addition to the Borley Rectory section of the site over the next month will be the addition of the complete contents of Sidney Glanville's 'Locked Book' report on the Borley hauntings on which Harry Price based a lot of his first book on the case, The Most Haunted House in England.  As a precursor to this I have added a short essay on the background of Glanville's report and the history of the original document which has an enigmatic story worthy of its subject matter.

eBay Impostor!

The portrait opposite was an unusual auction item on eBay recently as it was listed as a signed photograph of the famous ghost-hunter Harry Price!  The seller was also listed as being in Pulborough, Price's home town.  When I showed it to Eddie Brazil he immediately made the comment that it couldn't be the man himself as this gentleman looks for too healthy!  I directed the seller to check out some of the photographs on the website and he withdrew it from sale - apparently the photograph came with a copy of Fifty Years of Psychical Research but I recall seeing the same photograph on a German eBay auction last year.

Borley Month Ahead

The Borley Rectory section of the website will see some major additions over the next month.  As well as the inclusion of Glanville's 'Locked Book', Eddie Brazil and I plan to visit Borley again to expand our Modern Photographs series which will include locations in Long Melford, Sudbury, Liston and Foxearth.  We will also be following up the Borley connection at Langenhoe with a visit to the former site of the famous haunted church.

That's about all for this update for Harryprice.co.uk.  The next issue will hopefully be out early in May.

Cheers for now.

Paul Adams

The Base Room . Biography . Timeline . Gallery . Profiles . Séance Room . Famous Cases . Borley Rectory . Books By Price . Writings By Price . Books About Price . Bibliography . Links . Subscribe . About This Site