Review of Glitterland by Alexis Hall

I don't usually review books, but this one was too good. Here's my kinda dodgy review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/877887260

Bodmin Jail Ghost Hunt

So, last weekend on Saturday night/Sunday morn - 10pm to 5am - I was hunting for ghosts at Bodmin Jail. Once everybody had arrived, we were whisked away to a 'live execution.' There's an old execution area outside - basically a noose over a 13ft deep pit.

We were given a little talk about the history of hangings - told some grizzly stories about how, when using a 'long drop', sometimes people's heads would come off. And told about how the executioners would have to go down into the pit to check the body once it'd dropped to check the person was actually dead, and to measure the distance between their feet and the floor to see how far their neck had stretched. One was half an inch and one was 12 inches!!


Then we were shown (on an actual living man) how it was all set up - how his hands were tied, how the bag and noose went over his head, and how his legs were tied. We were told about how prison guards had to stand beside the accused and keep the flat of their palms to the person's elbows to that when the floor dropped away, the guards' arms just fell without hindering anything.


Then, living dude was replaced with a weight, the pins were removed from the lever to open the trap door, and then the lever was pulled. The noise was horrific - the slam of the doors and the weight on the rope. Grim. Anyway, then we were invited to clamber down into the execution pit if we wanted. Course, me and bro were straight down there but some people were too wussy.

Then we had a tour of the jail, and then we headed back to the little break room to be split into our groups.

Now... usually each group has one of the organisers walk around with them, who leads the investigation. We were given a timetable which told us which area we were in at which time and sent off. We were expecting someone to arrive to lead us, but no. So basically, everybody did what they wanted. So you had people wandering all over the place - nobody stayed in their group or stuck to the timetable. You couldn't really do anything without someone coming along with a torch, or listen out without hearing chattering and walking all over the place. So, me and bro weren't impressed with that, really.

Basically, after the execution, we spent most of the eve wandering from place to place. I mean, it's a huge place so often you'd be somewhere entirely on your own and we did meet up with another group of skeptics who we had a giggle with and who we did some ouija with (nothing happened at all) but that was it. No noises, cos we were rarely anywhere quiet enough to listen, no smells, or feelings, or touches and we definitely didn't see anything.

The best bit was the old navel prison outside, which is all ruins. That was creepy. Trouble is, every noise out there, we discounted as it being the pigeons.


We left at 3.20am cos we'd had enough, so we didn't hear everybody's findings at the end, but we could hear as we were going round how all the believers were getting loads of stuff happen. Which isn't surprising, really! But there you go. Fun, but no ghosts.

Pretty dust orb