I
’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,
one of the reasons why I fell in love
with the paranormal is because, well
two reasons actually, no shame in
admitting: Harry Price AND Borley
Rectory, the man, the location, the story
reeled me in, hook, line, sinker. Throw
in a couple of Usborne books about the
Paranormal and the Unknown and the rest
as they say is history.Actually, it’s true, there’d be no magazine, well
not like Haunted is, if Harry P and Borley R
weren’t on my radar, weren’t in my thoughts
as to how I view the paranormal. Say what
you like about the man, conjurer, fraudster,
magician, faker, whatever he was he was
born for the paranormal, writing a play about
a poltergeist at 15, a keen interest in space-
telegraphy, an avid coin collector. Member of
the Magic Circle and the Society for Psychical
Research (SPR), debunking mediums, whilst
endorsing others, add to that the likes of
exposing Helen Duncan, fiends with Harry
Houdini and the infamous talking mongoose
and you kind of get what the paranormal was
all about back in the day, note: not much as
changed.“BUT add Borley Rectory into the mix, where
he lived for a year, despite dirty tricks played
on Harry by the SPR (ahem) allegedly and that
opens up a whole new can of ghost worms”Anyways, enough of my fandom for Harry
Price and Borley Rectory, and more about this
next feature you’re about to read, but there’s
a linkage to Harry, trust me, I will get there
eventually.So, there I was idly twitting through twitter
and lo and behold what do I see but these
words:“Great Great Great Niece of The Harry Price”Not Harry Price, a postman from
Peterborough or Harry Price, a butcher from
Bromsgrove, although I am sure that they’re
well respected in their own circles BUT THE
HARRY PRICE, PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR
EXTRAORDINAIRE.Long story short – followed her, followed me
back, DM’d her, DM’d me back, DM’d her some
more, DM’d me more back.Now Louise Price, great, great, great Niece of
the paranormal legend that be Harry Price
writes for a part of the paranormal furniture
(leg end) that be Haunted Magazine.Paul
I
can’t remember a time when I didn’t have an interest in the paranormal.
My passion began at a very early age and appeared to have come from
nowhere. In nursery I would sit on the carpet in the book corner and tell
ghost stories to my friends though I have no idea how I even knew about
ghosts as my family certainly didn’t talk about them.In primary school I would persuade
my friends to join me in a home-made
Ouija board session at lunchtime using
bits of paper and a fruit shoot bottle.
Again, how I even knew what a Ouija
board was I’m not entirely sure.My mother was and still is, quite
scared of the paranormal so scary
stories or films were never around.
However, once my parents divorced, I
spied a copy of The Exorcist on video
in my Dads cabinet and begged him to
let me watch it. Eventually he relented
with the promise I wouldn’t tell my
mother, thinking within five minutes I
would be crying and that would be the
end of it.So, there I was; eight years old, in the
dark in my bedroom upstairs with
the curtains closed, watching a little
girl spew vomit over a priest while
being possessed by a demon and I
was hooked!And yes, I did tell my mother which
went down well.Fast forward to my first week of high
school and we were assigned to write
a speech on either a hobby or interest
of ours. I stood for fifteen minutes
in a class full of children I didn’t
know as I came from a tiny village
primary school, talking about ghosts,
how they manifest, stories local and
from afar, as well as mentioning the
famous ghost hunter Harry Price.
Little did I know when I was sat writing
and researching him, thinking in the
childlike way you do about how cool it
would be if I was related to him, purely
because we shared a surname, that in
actual fact I was.Only recently has it come to light that
Harry was my father’s, grandfathers
brother making him my great great
great uncle. Unfortunately, it appears
that my family fell out with Harry
before his career even took off as in
my father’s grandmothers’ words “he
was more interested in the dead than
the living”FAMILY FORTUNES
FOLLOWING in the FOOTSTEPS