Author Mark Egerton will be talking about his new book which is based on the ghosts, myths and legends of Huntingdonshire.

Mr Egerton will sign copies of the book, A Haunted History of Huntingdonshire, on October 5 at Niche Comics and Bookshop in Huntingdon High Street.

Due to be published on September 29, it contains more than 300 unique images, explores many of the county’s ghosts, myths and legends, providing a comprehensive collection of ghost stories, along with a wealth of quirky historical facts relating to each haunted location.

In some of the featured stories, the author was able to spend the night inside the haunted property and gives a balanced and honest account of what took place.

Mark, aged 56, was born in Huntingdon and is the son of a bricklayer, he was raised in the small rural village of Southoe, close to St Neots.

Mark was educated at Hinchingbrooke School and spent the first 25 years of his life working for American chemical giants DuPont, in St Neots, Stevenage and also in Cambridge. Since then he has run his own driving school and has also worked throughout Cambridgeshire as an FDAP accredited Drug and Alcohol worker. He has two grown up children, Matthew and China who both live in Huntingdonshire.

Mark first became interested in ghosts and the paranormal following a personal experience in 1976. This experience was to have a profound effect on him, and is explained in the book.

Asked why he decided to write the book now, he said: “To be honest the idea to write the book first came to me around 20 years ago. I received a lot of encouragement to write it during that time from my Auntie Em (Marilyn Kenward). At the time though I was working full time, playing a lot of football and cricket during my weekends and I just simply didn’t have the time. Now that I’m semi retired I have time to actually research and write the book, although it has still taken me over two years to finally complete it. Thankfully, I did keep all of my old records and notes that I’d collected over the years. These proved to be extremely helpful during my research.”

He also discovered other interesting facts about the local area while compiling the book.

“My intention was to write a book about Huntingdonshire’s ghosts, myths and legends, which predominantly is what the book is all about. However, whilst researching these haunted locations I also uncovered a hoard of interesting and historical facts. Some of these facts were so amazing that I felt that they had to be included in the book. Most of them are actually linked to the haunted locations, so it wasn’t too difficult to weave them into the book.”

He added: “I also wanted the book to be a little bit different to the normal ‘run of the mill’ ghost book. Therefore, the book is quite large. It’s A4 in size and contains more than 300 unique images and illustrations. These images have been set out in such a way as to allow the reader to actually see what they’ve been reading about. Not the most economical way to put a book together, but I’m sure it will enhance the readers’ experience. We all now live in such a throw away society and my hope is that this book will somehow preserve some of Huntingdonshire’s history along with its ghosts, myths and legends.”

The book signing takes place between 7pm-9pm and Mr Egerton will be available to talk about his experiences.