Overview

The doorbell rings in the middle of the night with no one there. The shower turns on by itself. So does the radio. Some rooms always stay colder than others, no matter how high the heating is turned up.  Everyone says: buy the ugliest house on the street – buy it cheap, do it up. But what if the house you threw everything into turned out to be as ugly on the inside as on the outside? What would you do if you saw shadows where there shouldn’t be any? If slugs started to fall from the ceiling? If you constantly felt something eerie following you around?   Matt Blake tells the powerful true story of discovering his new home was once the lair of the E17 Nightstalker. It was meant to be a refuge for him and his two-year-old daughter after a painful divorce. But unravelling the chilling secrets of the past threatens to suffocate the present. Can a house be haunted by a bad past? And how does a rationalist who doesn’t believe in religion or ghosts make sense of the paranormal?  Matt turns to the CofE’s ‘Deliverance Ministry’ for advice on ‘place memories.’ He speaks to scientists to evaluate quantum mechanics, 'morphic resonance', the mysterious power of 'chemosignalling', and the theory of ‘emotional residue’; to estate agents about how they sell ‘cursed’ properties; to proponents of the theory of geopathic stress; and to psychologists about the human brain’s ineptitude in processing the ocean of electromagnetic radiation that surrounds us.  Hearth of Darkness is a unique blend of memoir, true crime and paranormal investigation, framed by the deeply felt quest to feel safe and find peace at home. 

Full Product Details

9781783969159

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Captivating. What begins as a modern horror story slowly reveals itself as something more ambiguous and, ultimately, heartening. Blake is a very winning narrator.’ Julie Myerson   ‘Expertly crafted and blisteringly honest … I was drawn in from the very first sentence.’ Manni Coe, author of brother.do.you.love.me

Author Information

Matt Blake is an award-winning journalist who has written for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Grazia, Esquire, and Men’s Health, and is a former crime reporter for the Daily Mirror and Independent. During his journalism career, he has covered everything from gang murder and police corruption to terrorism and serial killing – reporting from crime scenes, doorsteps, and courtrooms on some of Britain’s most high-profile criminal cases. He once unknowingly interviewed a murderer in his own front room. His story House of Horror, which appeared in the Guardian and formed the basis of Hearth of Darkness, proved an international success, garnering more than half a million reads in its first week of publication alone. Hearth of Darkness is his first book. 

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