I am a draughtsman working for a practice of architects & building surveyors in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, UK. I am 36, married & have 4 children. My interests apart from helping to raise a young family include mycology, bryology, classical music (Bruckner, Mahler, Hindemith & Haydn in particular) & I have attempted to play the viola in the past. I enjoy reading a great deal, favourite authors being Dennis Wheatley & H.P. Lovecraft & his contempories, especially Clark Ashton Smith & August Derleth. I also enjoy writing short stories as well - ghost stories of course!
I have been interested in Borley Rectory for many years since as a young boy I first read about it in two popular books on the supernatural by Daniel Farson. My interest in ghosts & haunted houses stems from this time, initiated by a visit I paid on holiday with my parents in the mid 1970s to Sandford Orcas manor house, another old place with a reputation of being very haunted, where we were shown around by the then tenant Colonel Claridge. Over the years I have built up a collection of Borley-related books including the Harry Price volumes, the Hastings report & the Dingwall-Goldney-Hall report which I consider to be one of the most important volumes in the Borley canon. My own personal feelings towards the case are that the Rectory was haunted but not to the degree that is popularly believed, and that a great deal of the reported phenomena can be disregarded.
My interest in the case today is more focused towards the human drama of the haunting, and in particular in the role of Sydney H. Glanville. I find SHG a fascinating character & as he was a draughtsman like myself in a similar profession, I can identify with him closely. I am at present in the very early stages of researching for a biography of Sydney Glanville which I hope to put together at some time in the future. If anyone has any information about SHG, whether it be in connection with Borley or about his own life & work, I would appreciate them getting in contact with me. My own e-mail is paul@adams1966.freeserve.co.uk