Historic Royal Palaces: Ghosts in the Walls

The unusual creak of a floorboard, a flash of light in the dark and the eerie breeze from a closed window … We've all heard tales of phantoms and spooks haunting old buildings, but how many of them can be linked back to real people, real lives and real history?

From the ghostly phantoms who walk the grounds at the Tower of London to a haunted maze at Hampton Court Palace, these spine-tingling tales of ghosts, ghouls and unexplained occurrences will bring history to life in the eeriest way possible.

Made in partnership with Historic Royal Palaces, this stunning and spooky collection features eleven gripping stories from bestselling, award-winning and rising-star authors including: Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Alexia Casale, Joseph Coelho, Larry Hayes, Jim Helmore, Catherine Johnson, Sophie Kirtley, E. L. Norry, Imogen Russell Williams, Jasmine Richards and Sam Sedgman. Along with stunning, atmospheric illustration from Pam Smy, this unique collection is sure to keep readers of every age up long past their bedtimes ...

Pam Smy is an artist, illustrator and lecturer. She is known for her detailed observational drawing and captivating illustrations across a variety of children’s books, and has been shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize.

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is the award-winning author of Ace of Spades and Where Sleeping Girls Lie. She is a Morris Award 2022 Finalist, the winner of the Books Are My Bag 2021 Reader’s Award for Young Adult Fiction, and the winner of the 53rd NAACP Image Awards in the Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teens.

Alexia Casale is the author of The Bone Dragon, Sing If You Can’t Dance and Not That Kind of Hero. Her debut novel The Bone Dragon was named a book of the year by both the Financial Times and The Independent. It was also shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize and the Jugendliteraturpreis, and long-listed for the Branford Boase Award.

Joseph Coelho is a poet and Children’s book author from Roehampton. He was Children’s Laureate from 2022-2024, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His book The Boy Lost in the Maze won the Carnegie Medal in 2024.

Larry Hayes is afraid of zombies in lifts, vampires in rocking chairs and baby crocodiles in toilets. He is no longer afraid of the dark, changing a nappy in a moving vehicle, or death. He is the author of the How to Survive series, the latest of which, How to Survive Time Travel, was shortlisted for the Laugh Out Loud Awards. When he’s not writing children’s books, Larry works in finance, helps run a homeless charity and is the governor of a primary school federation.

Jim Helmore published his first children’s book, Letterbox Lil, in 2005, which won the Sheffield Libraries award for best picture book. He is also the author of the much-loved Stripy Horse series, and the international hit The Snow Lion. As a licensing creative, he’s worked with numerous well-established brands, including Roald Dahl, Miffy, Mr Men and Little Miss, Rupert Bear and Peter Rabbit.

Catherine Johnson is the author of many books for children and young adults, including Sawbones, which won the Young Quills Award for Historical Fiction, The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo, which was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2016 and the YA Book Prize, and Freedom which was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2019 and won the Little Rebels prize.

Sophie Kirtley grew up in Northern Ireland, where she spent her childhood climbing on hay bales, rolling down sand dunes and leaping the raw Atlantic waves. Nowadays she lives in Wiltshire with her husband, three children and their mini-menagerie of pets and wild things. Sophie has always loved stories; she has taught English and has worked in a theatre, a bookshop and a tiny pub where folk tell fairytales by candlelight. Sophie is also a prize-winning published poet and the author of middle-grade novels The Wild Way Home and The Way to Impossible Island.

E. L. Norry is the author of Fablehouse and Fablehouse: Heart of Fire, the first of which was nominated for a Carnegie Medal in 2024. Passionate about diversity and inclusion, she also worked on Alison Hammond’s Black in Time and Adam Rutherford’s Where Are You Really From?

Jasmine Richards is the author of numerous books for children, including The Unmorrow Curse and the Keeper of Myths series. She is the founder of Storymix, the multi award-winning inclusive fiction studio, and was named one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars of 2020.

Sam Sedgman is a bestselling author, confirmed nerd and enthusiastic ferroequinologist. Before writing stories for children, Sam worked as a digital producer at the National Theatre, which meant nosing around backstage with a camera and a microphone, cajoling theatre makers into explaining how stories get made. Forever interested in piecing things together, Sam is a lifelong fan of puzzles, games and detective fiction, and once founded a company making murder mystery treasure hunts for adventurous Londoners. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. When he isn’t writing, Sam can usually be found admiring a handsome timepiece, watching Alfred Hitchcock movies, or explaining some weird fact to you. He lives in London, on top of a railway station.

Imogen Russell Williams is the author of Great Britons: 50 Amazing People Who Have Called Britain Home, HM Queen Elizabeth and 25 Amazing Britons From Her Reign, The Big Book of the UK and The Ladybird Big Book of Slimy Things. She is an Editor and children’s book critic, and has written for The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian and The Metro.