Harry Price and Borley Rectory

Among notable cases he has been associated with are the Borley Rectory haunting where he spent many years investigating and tracing and personally interviewing practically every living person who had anything to do with the 'most haunted house in England' including a wealth of correspondence with Harry Price; after Price's death he became literary executor of the Harry Price Estate.

Greenwich Ghost Photograph

He spent 12 years, on and off, exploring the remarkable Langenhoe case of haunting that extended to the manor house, the church and surrounding area; and he thoroughly examined and explored the Queen's House, Greenwich haunting and researched the unique Greenwich ghost photograph - probably the best known genuine ghost photograph ever obtained.

Other cases

Then there was Bramshill, the Hampshire police college with its nine authoritatively authenticated ghosts; Newark Park the National Trust property where ghostly visitors have been heard, seen, felt, recorded on tape and film and reported by scores of independent witnesses - including animals! These are just a few examples of exceptional hauntings encountered in a lifetime of ghost hunting or at any rate something like 70 years!

Broadcasting and Lecturing

Peter broadcast extensively on TV and radio, especially 1948-1988, including writing and personally presenting a series of ten programs under the general title, The Ghost Man; he was subject of an hour-long radio profile; took part in one episode of TV's Strange But True, hosted by Michael Aspel, devoted to the Borley hauntings and appeared in the TV film The Ghost Hunters that was repeated annually for several years.

In October 2007 Peter gave two illustrated lectures at Bydgoszcz University, Poland, accompanied and assisted by Marlena Sypniewska: 'Queen Victoria and Her World' and 'A Short History of English Literature'. 

In December 2008 he lectured the Borley Rectory hauntings at the London Society for Psychical Research, together with Paul Adams and Eddie Brazil.  All three were authors of the recently published Borley Rectory Companion (The History Press, 2009) a volume that contains a wealth of new information and about 100 photographs, many previously unpublished.  The lecture is reviewed by John Fraser in the SPR Paranormal Review.

Previously his lecture venues have included Grayshot Hall, monthly for seven years, and Oxford and Cambridge and other English Universities.  He also introduced a season of horror films at The National Film Theatre on London's South Bank.  In 1987 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.  He has been a member of the London Savage Club since 1966.

Later life

For some years he was Hon. Librarian of the Constitutional Club and at the Savage Club where he is a former Member of the Qualifications Committee.  In 1976 his head was sculpted by Patricia Finch, winner of the Gold Medal for Sculpture in Venice.  Married in 1944 his wife Joyce died in 2003 after suffering with Parkinson's disease for 14 years.  His life was immeasurably enriched, enhanced and brightened by his friendship with Polish Marlena Sypniewska.

Patronage

To the Patronage of The Ghost Research Foundation (founded in Oxford in 1992) who term him King of Ghost Hunters, he has accepted an invitation to be Patron of Paranormal Site Investigators (Swindon) an admirable organisation whose scientific enthusiasm, investigating procedures and overall aims and approach to these difficult problems he much admires.

Current News

Peter is currently working on three new books; he has written a Foreword to PSI's Haunted Swindon and to Damien O'Dell's Ghostly Hertfordshire - his home county.  He has also contributed a Foreword to Darren Ritson's Supernatural North and is currently working on an exhaustive volume on Haunted Churches, again with Paul Adams and Eddie Brazil.

Peter was featured in Jason' Karl's beautiful and authoritative Illustrated History of the Haunted World (New Holland) and he gets honourable mention in Darren Ritson's In Search of Ghosts (2007) and in Jason Karl's 21st Century Ghosts (New Holland).

Following he death in April 2009 of his old friend Hans Holzer, the leading American parapsychologist Peter wrote, on invitation, an obituary for "The Guardian".  He also contributed a lengthy review of the new biography of will Hay (Tomahawk Press) to "Drumbeat", the Journal of the Savage Club.  Other books he has recently reviewed include Bigfoot - The Life and Times of a Legend (University of Chicago Press) the fascinating story of Bigfoot mania; The Third Man Factor (Canongate) the revealing idea that at the edge of death explorers and adventurers in particular often experience an inexplicable benevolent presence; Dennis Wheatley: Churchill's Storyteller (Spellmont) being the complete record of Wheatley's other life: this ideas and scenarios to assist in the Second World War effort; and Kenneth Williams Unseen (HarperCollins) being the private notes, scripts and photographs of the much loved comic actor.  Peter is also contributing to a new biography of Boris Karloff.  More than 37 years ago, in 1972, he was the author of the first biography of the greatest of all horror actors; there are now eight such biographies! Meanwhile, Peter's portrait has been painted by renowned artist Derek Wheeler, who lives in Wales.

Peter's first book A Gazetteer of British Ghosts, published by Souvenir Press in 1971, has been serialised in four volumes in Japan.

In May 2008 Peter, accompanied by Marlena, visited Paris - a place they always enjoy and this time apart from the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Champs Elysees, the Arc-de-Triumphe and Notre-Dame, they visited the Latin Quarter, the Conclergeric - a grisly ante-chamber to the guillotine much used in the revolution, the Place de la Concorder, Jardin des Tuileries, Church of Madeleine, the impressive statues of de Gaulle and Churchill, the Musee d'Orsay, the British Embassy and the enormous and truly wonderful Palace and Gardens at Versailles - scene of one of the most famous ghost stories of all time.

During 2009 Peter visited Poland for the tenth time and he and Marlena spent an evening with Sheila Merritt, the doyen of American writers on horror, terror and the usual.  She and her husband Phil were on holiday from Carlsbad, California and he meeting renewed a friendship that spans something like fifty years.  Sheila writes knowledgeably, instructively and perceptively about books, movies and art dedicated to the horror genre.  Peter hopes to meet up with the Merritts again in May 2010 in Prague if the fates permit.

Peter's new book from Amberley Publications, is a prolifically illustrated and international Haunted Gardens, together with reissues of Haunted London (originally published in 1973) and Ghosts of Wales (originally published in 1978).

In October 2008 Peter was appointed President of the Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies whose previous Presidents have included Prof. Henry Habberley Price, Wykeham Prof. of Logic at Oxford, with whom Peter carried out an investigation of a haunted house in Gloucestershire many years ago.

Unitarians trace their descent from 1662 and the Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies was founded in 1965 "to encourage the study of psychical phenomena in all its aspects with a critical and open mind" and to publish a quarterly journal, Psychical Studies, and to hold meetings and an annual conference at which "a lecture is given on some aspect of psychical studies by someone prominent in the psychic world".

Peter gave his Presidential address at the USPS conference at Chester, taking as his subject: "The Art of the Possessed" or "Discarnate Influences on the Arts", exploring the possible paranormal influences on the arts experienced by numerous poets, novelists, artists and composers.  Peter is also collecting material for a new book on Films and Filming.

In September 2009 Peter visited his beloved Cornwall once again and in the company of his long-time friend and former publisher Michael Williams he spent time at the Davidstow Airfield and the At War Museum, where odd sounds and experiences have been reported over the years; they also explored Bude Castle where again a number of unexplained happenings have been and still are being reported.  Peter also met and addressed members of Cornwall's Paranormal Investigations society.

Unhappy with the way the Ghost Club Society was heading, the administrators having closed down the website, arbitrarily restricted membership, ceased holding meetings, stopped the Quarterly Journal, discontinued subscriptions, refused to co-operate with assistants and did not answer critical letters, Peter as President came to the conclusion that the club could not exist given these restrictions and in all the circumstances and with mutual consent he is now in the process of completely reforming the Ghost Club Society more along the lines of the original with new people in an organising capacity but this looks like taking some months and will involve forming a new Council and complete reorganisation.  Fortunately there is a hard core of long-standing members who treasure the memory of what the club once was and what it can be again, a force for good in the wide realm of psychical research and investigation.  As always, Peter can be contacted at the Savage Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2HD.

Peter is currently working with Paul Adams and Eddie Brazil on Milestones of the Paranormal a volume that will explore Spiritualism, Spontaneous and Induced Psychic Phenomena, Organised and Scientific Investigation and the Photography of Ghosts and such trends as Altered States of Consciousness, Animals and ESP, the Geller phenomenon, Ley Lines and Corn circles, etc, and a new and exciting illustrated volume on Haunted Churches.

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