I don't believe in ghosts. Well, I don't think I do. But they still terrify me. So maybe I do believe in ghosts.
I certainly believe in ghostly experiences, hauntings, memories lingering and fading.
So when I was commissioned, this year, by the Ghosts of the Old Library project at the amazing Levenshulme Old Library, to come up with a new ghost story for Christmas, I was suitably terrified: of encouraging my already-vivid imagination to go there, but also to write a short story that could be read aloud for the radio and for live performance.
Yet my participation in the project, so far at least, hasn't given me the willies (sorry). In fact, it's been quite the opposite: fun, fulfilling, full with the warmth that meeting new people and having new conversations brings.
Our stories were to be informed in some way by a discussion with a local resident, and I spent a gorgeous afternoon sitting in a woman's house, listening to her talk about this vibrant Manchester suburb, about her house, her family, and how she came to be there. She even knew a little about previous residents and how her cul-de-sac used to be.
'Spirit Level' is the resulting story. It will be available in book form, on Spotify, broadcast on All FM and North Manchester FM, and I will be reading it aloud in candlelit performances on 7 and 13 December at Levenshulme Old Library. I would say 'see you there', but I'm told it's already sold out and I don't advocate trying to creep in at the back because, y'know, it's an old Carnegie library and you don't know who or what roams these buildings...
Isn't the cover artwork great? It's by Zoe McLean.
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