I found this to be a really fascinating exploration of the psychic and spiritual events that were seen to happen to Alma Fielding in the late 1930s, which led to a detailed and thorough investigation into the supernatural. The book is a chronological account of events, beginning with the initial haunting of Alma, her husband and their lodger by a suspected poltergeist. Sparking the interest of the Hungarian psychical researcher, Nandor Fodor, he begins to investigate Alma as more and more events occur. Delving into Alma's past and her psyche, we unravel a dark history and the way in which the narrative unfolds is incredibly well paced, given that we follow the same emotional journey as Fodor. Kate Summerscale has clearly researched the topic very well and this is evident in the narrative, which is full of evidence-based theories and musings. She also lends a very human aspect to what could otherwise be quite a dry book, with emotional clarity and thought provoking commentary on the place of women in society, as well as the looming threat of Fascism through constantly checking in with the news of the day. Overall, I thought this was a very accomplished piece of historical non-fiction and would definitely recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

“I unhesitatingly label it as supernormal”...

In The Haunting of Alma Fielding, Kate Summerscale delves into the long-hidden archives of Nandor Fodor, a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research, about the suspected poltergeist that is haunting an ordinary young housewife, Alma Fielding. London 1938; as Fodor starts his scrupulous investigation, he discovers that the case is even stranger than it seems. By unravelling Alma's peculiar history, he finds a different and darker type of haunting: trauma, alienation, loss and the foreshadowing of a nation's worst fears. As the spectre of Fascism lengthens over Europe, and as Fodor's obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes ever more disturbed.
There were some good background and references on the spiritual world and beliefs during the time of the Second World War, it seemed as a nation we believed more in this back then to what we do nowadays. It was nice to learn a bit more about séances and ghost hauntings as well around this time and how popular they were, and also that many of the mediums hired to check them out would channel through a multi-cultural assistant. 
With some of the explanations given about what was being experienced, there were some long words that as a reader you possibly wouldn’t fully understand if you haven’t read too much into spirituality and ghost hauntings, but they were always broken down and explained in the same sentence which made it for easy reading. 
I did find that I was expecting more from this. It felt like there was not a lot of personality in this and felt rather clinical with listing events and occurrences, but not enough spark there to bring it to life more. Because of this I did find that I got quite bored toward the end of the book and found myself skimming over the last few chapters. I must admit though, I liked that Fodor had a sceptical side to him and didn’t always trust Alma and tried to find ways to debunk her poltergeist. The beginning of the book was very well written but unfortunately for me most of the book did not follow. 2.5/5
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a thoroughly interesting look into the world of psychical research in and around the 1930s. Summerscale provides detailed historical context for the case of Alma Fielding, whilst also covering the life and career of Nandor Fodor, the man who took on the case at the time. It is a very absorbing read, at times even a sceptic like myself can question their beliefs, wondering if there is indeed ‘something in it’.

I enjoyed this book, it was a much more serious study than a book of this nature usually is.  I particularly enjoyed the historical context, hearing about the release of Rebecca (a film I love) and what was going on politically at the time.  I found it interesting that the investigator collaborated with Freud briefly over the case.  These details made the book that extra bit special for me.  Alma Fielding is an interesting and complex person so the study itself wasn't linear in its conclusions.

I talk about this book for our (myself and Liz Jones; Mail on Sunday) Halloween week podcast and recommended it as a good read.

This was a weird mix of non-fiction and fiction and i was never entirely sure where this was meant to be. I did like Summerscale's writing but I always do. The actual story was interesting and i liked what was explored but i feel like there were some deeper thematic points that could have been explored in greater detail. This was a good book but this wouldn't be the Summerscale i would recommend to start with.

This won't be much of a review as I didn't managed to finished this book, unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

The plot of The Haunting of Alma Fielding really drew me in, especially the truth to the story but I just couldn't get into it. I tried at both the beginning of Oct and again at the end of the month to give it a second chance, which is why this review is a little late. 

I've read mixed reviews for this book so although on this occasion it was a DNF for me, I won't be rating it low as I wouldn't want to put anyone off when others have loved this book.

In the late 1930s Europe is on the brink of war and Britain is obsessed with the supernatural.  Nandor Fodor is a Hungarian journalist who is interested in the paranormal and works for a one of a number of societies who investigate different phenomena.  When he hears of a suburban housewife who is apparently tormented by a poltergeist he goes to investigate.  Alma Fielding is an ordinary one to whom extraordinary things are happening, she finds that items fly across the room and smash and that possessions move around her house.  As Fodor investigates further Fielding appears to be able to produce things out of thin air but he starts to become suspicious.
This book is based on Fodor's accounts of his investigation and therefore there is a very clear narrative.  From being a believer at first Fodor finds that Alma wants to please and he becomes less of a believer.  The book isn't always easy reading as some of the experimentation seems manipulative and humiliating but it is a powerful account of a national obsession.

I found this book fascinating. It's clear that the author did a lot of research and it was really easy and enjoyable to read. If you're interested in the supernatural world, you may enjoy it. 
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

A very well written and well researched book. I found it quite fascinating and really enjoyed it. Highly recommend if you enjoy supernatural non fiction

I didn’t finish reading ‘The Haunting of Alma Fielding’ by Kate Summerscale. I just wasn’t interested in the subject matter. I had previously enjoyed ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher ‘ but account of real events didn’t hold my interest.

Thank you to NetGalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

I must admit that I didn't read the description of this book properly, I thought it would be a fiction story about a ghost haunting. But it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. I'm not that keen on non-fiction, especially when it talks about the paranormal. 

However, this book is so beautifully written, it almost feels like a fiction book to me. My interest was captured from the first chapter.

Kate Summerscale has an amazing ability to find fascinating real stories and making them accessible and entertaining. While it will be impossible to top The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, she is to be commended at branching out from crime and focusing on some other fascinating stories that have been lost to history. 

This one is strange but compelling; an interesting dive in the supernatural and the mind, and how a person's lived experience can shape them in ways no-one would have suspected. I always loved social history and there is a lot of that here, plus the relationship between Alma and Nandor Fodor was as interesting as the objects flying around the room.

Nandor Fodor is a Jewish-Hungarian refugee in 1930s London. He's also a ghost hunter and he starts to investigate the case of Alma Fielding, a surburban housewife who says she's being plagued by a poltergeist.  As he starts to investigate as part of his work for the International Institute of Physical Research, the phenomena intensify and he discovers Alma's complicated and traumatic past. And all this is happening against the backdrop of the rise of Fascim in Europe as well as the obsession/renaissance in spiritualism that happened in the post Great War period.

Now although reads like the plot of a novel, this is actually non-fiction. It's sometimes hard to believe this while you read it though as Alma continues to manifest material affects after she's been strip searched and put into a special costume provided by the Institute. But it is and its fascinating. Fodor is rational although he wants to believe, but as he develops doubts about Alma, he handles it in a much more sensitive way than I was expecting. I've almost said to much here, but it's really hard to talk about non-fiction like it's a novel, when so much of whether it works is about the research and the story and whether it feels satisfying. On that front, I wanted a little bit more closure about Alma and her haunting, but I appreciate that in a work of non-ficiton, you can only work with what the sources tell you. 

The juxtaposition of Alma's story and the wider context of the late 1930s also works really well. If you've read Dorothy L Sayers' Strong Poison* you'll have encountered the wave of spiritualists of the era - and seen some of their trickery exposed (to the reader at least) by Miss Climpson, but this really sets what Fodor was doing and the organisations that he worked for into the wider context. I was fascinated. If you're looking for something to read for Halloween, and don't want fiction, this is really worth a look.

In 1930s London a young married woman experiences a series of frightening poltergeist hauntings in her home. A Jewish emigre journalist investigates her on behalf of a psychic society, at first reverently hoping her experiences are ‘proof’ of psychic abilities, and later trying to uncover her fraud. This book takes a real-life ‘haunting’ and explores the motivations of the main characters to believe in and encourage such events.
Although impeccably researched and very well written, I struggled to get through this book. The digressions into psychoanalytical theory and the history of spiritualism dragged out a rather flimsy tale of a very damaged young woman searching for attention. Whilst I appreciated some elements of analysis in the text, at heart it remains a tawdry tale with no real resolution. Alma seemed to either get away with significant fraud or was left to deal with a dangerous series of psychic attacks, depending on your persuasion. 
This was an unsatisfactory and poorly paced read, although the author’s name and the subject matter should ensure issues.

Just finished this absolute beauty of a book. Psychology, hauntings, distress, repression, and so much more lurk beneath its cover. The perfect October read, an easy ten out of ten.

I was really excited to read this one, and it partially lived up to my expectations! I think my main problem with Kate Summerscale is that her books are never as good as The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. I found the background to the story really, really interesting - the rise in the belief in the paranormal, the change in types of hauntings was fascinating - but the main story felt a little dragged out and thin in places. I still really enjoyed reading it, but I do think it could possibly have been more tightly edited in places.

lA true ghost story? Would I be able to read this? Well I really wanted to as it's Kate Summerscale. And I did! Didn't even have to hide behind the sofa although it's pretty darn scary.

Based on a true case and real people - Nandor Fodor was a Hungarian man who studied the supernatural . He comes across Alma Fielding who complained of poltergeist activity in her home in Thornton Heath, London. Wanting to use Alma and this case as a study, he goes to meet her. Jeepers what goes on in that house! Believe it or not, it's pretty darn scary and I read fast as I became more and more freaked out.

The fact this was a real life case as is the norm with Kate Summerscale really fascinated me and I will read everything this woman writes to be fair. She's studied the case and really brought out the most freaky and fascinating parts of the story. It's all very Harry Price and Ghostbusters but you should remember that this was big business back in war times - many prominent people were fascinated with the other world and ghosts etc and people changed their belief systems due to the strange and unprecedented time.

Both Nandor and Alma were fascinating characters and this really interested me. Whatever you do or don't believe it, this book makes you think.

In The Haunting of Alma Fielding, Kate Summerscale moves away from the hidden secrets of Victorian drawing rooms and into the middle-class suburbs of 1930s London.

The peace of a quiet family home has been shattered – crockery has started flying off the shelves, objects throw themselves at the husband of the house, and wardrobes appear to move on their own. At the centre of it all is suburban housewife Alma Fielding, an apparently quiet and unassuming woman who is both confused and terrified by the strange goings on in her home. Desperate to find some rationale behind the apparent hauntings, she calls on the local press and they, in turn, attract the attention of Nandor Fodor, chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research.

Starting with a bang (quite literally given the amount of broken china that Fodor finds in the Fielding’s home), Summerscale’s latest work of narrative non-fiction follows Fodor’s investigation of Alma as he moves from observing incidences in her home to asking her to sit for seances at the Institute. As the investigation continues, Alma’s powers seem to increase – she manifests live animals, speaks in strange voices, and begins to develop physical scratches on her body. But is Alma really being haunted? And if so, is it by a ghost or by something much darker, hidden deep within her past?

As you would expect with Kate Summerscale, this is a thoroughly researched and comprehensive account of an unusual and little-known tale. Despite having read a number of books about the research activities of twentieth-century ‘ghost hunters’ such as Harry Price, I’d never heard of Nandor Fodor or of the International Institute, and I was fascinated by the fine balance they had to maintain between being open-minded towards their subjects and scientific in their pursuit of proof of the supernatural.

Summerscale does an excellent job of conveying both the popularity of spiritualism and psychical research at the time and the reasons behind this and, despite some of the Institute’s practices seeming far from ‘scientific’ by today’s standards, I was fascinated by how their thinking about psychic abilities and the supernatural paved the way for modern psychological thinking and techniques – especially in the field of parapsychology – today. Fodor certainly seemed to be a man ahead of him time in many ways, although his treatment of Alma is, at times, quite disturbing and the latter part of the book really does get you thinking about the ethics of treating a real person – and their past traumas – as a scientific subject.

The Haunting of Alma Fielding is also quite dense in places. For the most part Summerscale wears her research lightly but, in parts, she packs in huge amounts of detail – some of which felt extraneous, or seemed to relate to some side-character or event that wasn’t directly connected with Fodor, Alma or the investigation. Sometimes it felt as if this information was being repeated and, at times, the pace of the book seemed to slow to a crawl as a result. After a brisk and exciting start, I found myself really struggling to stay interested during the middle section before the book picked back up for the end.

If you’re expecting a true life ghost story similar to Harry Price’s account of the haunting at Borley Rectory, or the memoirs of various ‘ghost hunters’ then you’ll probably find The Haunting of Alma Fielding a little disappointing. For all the supernatural phenomena that is centred on Alma, there is very little that goes bump in the night here. However if you’re looking for a thorough and well-researched examination of the early days of para-psychological investigations, and of the fluid boundaries between science, the self, and the supernatural, Summerscale’s latest is sure to prove an enlightening read.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Haunting of Alma Fielding: a True Ghost Story’ by Kate Summerscale in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fascinating account of a groundbreaking investigation into psychic phenomena that took place in England just prior to the outbreak of WWII.

London, 1938. Nandor Fodor, a Jewish-Hungarian refugee is the chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research. He reads of the case of Alma Fielding, an ordinary young housewife whose home has become the site of extraordinary events, such as crockery flying off the shelves, unusual noises and even small animals appearing out of thin air. It all suggests the presence of a poltergeist. 

Fodor hastens to the scene and convinces Alma to allow him to undertake a scrupulous investigation on behalf of the Institute. As he unveils Alma’s history Fodor discovers that the case is even stranger than it first seemed. Meanwhile, the spectre of Fascism is growing in Europe.

This was a fascinating in-depth look at this landmark case. As with her 2008 ‘The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher’, this is a work of nonfiction that reads like fiction. Summerscale is a gifted storyteller, weaving together dry reports, articles, and various sources into a tale as exciting as any fictional account of hauntings. 

As I was reading an early proof copy it was missing the bibliography, index and acknowledgments, though there were headings for these. However, it is clear from reading the text that this was very well researched. 

I felt that Summerscale presented the material in a very fair handed manner. I was interested in Fodor’s association with Sigmund Freud, who read his work on the Fielding case, and later career as a psychoanalyst. They important conclusions that Fodor made in this study has continued to be an major influence on the study of psychic phenomena. 

In addition, in the final chapter she notes how Fodor’s work was a direct inspiration for later depictions in fiction of hauntings; notably Shirley Jackson’s powerful 1959 novel, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’. The novel and 1963 film had such a profound effect on me. 

I  expect that how this book will be received by individual readers will depend on how they feel about psychic phenomena. All my life I have been accepting of psychic and supernatural events, and my reception of ‘The Haunting of Alma Fielding’ is naturally influenced by this background.

However, I feel that whether one believes in the supernatural, hauntings, and ghosts or not, this book offers a great deal of food for thought. It likely will also generate lively discussion if chosen by reading groups.

This is the true story of an apparent poltergeist phenomenon in the 1930s and Nandor Fodor the ghost Hunter and terrific central character. There is amazing research here as expected by Kate Summerscale. The book is unsettling at times but always fascinating.