The Woman in Black – Susan HillYou may have been disappointed by the film, but Susan Hill's riveting novella is a Christmas story to rival Dickens, and it's as scary as they come.

The Kipps family are celebrating Christmas by telling ghost stories around the fire, when their solicitor father, Arthur, plucks up courage to share an otherworldly encounter which he has kept secret for years. As a young man, he was commissioned to sort out legal paperwork at Eel Marsh House following the death of its singular owner, Mrs Drablow. There he sees the ghost of a woman in black, and, after a succession of inexplicable, sinister events, soon wishes he'd left the work well alone... Read more of this post