Caitlin Blackwell Baines – författare

The Bute Collection is one of the foremost collections of fine and decorative arts, books and archival material in Britain, particularly noted for its Dutch Golden Age masterpieces and British 18th-century portraiture. Assembled over three centuries by several generations of the Crichton-Stuart family, the Earls and Marquesses of Bute, parts of the collection can be seen today at the neo-gothic ancestral family seat of Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute - an architectural masterpiece in its own right. This splendidly illustrated book provides an excellent introduction to the paintings that form just one element of this outstanding collection, including some of the finest pictures in the nation, and is the first in a series planned to celebrate each aspect of Mount Stuart's rich cultural heritage.

A CRIB NOTES MUST-READ FOR SPOOKY SEASON'Glorious' PHILIP HOARE'A supernatural safari - just the sort of book to read over Halloween' DAILY MAIL'Excellent' LEON CRAIG'Every horror fan, coffin boffin and certified creep needs to read this book' ALICE SLATER'As absorbing and seductive as any fictional ghost story' BRIDGET COLLINSDo you have what it takes to cross the threshold?Crumbling turrets, crenelated walls, creaking floorboards. We all know a haunted house when we see - or feel - one. That creeping sense of wrongness. An icy shiver stealing down the spine.But why do certain structures set this super-sensory alarm bell jangling, while others leave us unmoved? Can a house be purpose-built to be haunted? And does a building need a bloody legacy to set the skin tingling?Tiptoe through the haunted gallery at Hampton Court Palace, encounter the spectral residents of Chillingham Castle and lose yourself in the labyrinthine layout of Winchester Mystery House as Caitlin Blackwell Baines unravels the psyche, the history and the folkloric fabrication that make a haunted house take on a life of its own.Enter if you dare...

A CRIB NOTES MUST-READ FOR SPOOKY SEASON AND BOOKSELLER TOP OCTOBER PAPERBACK PICK'Glorious' PHILIP HOARE'A supernatural safari - just the sort of book to read over Halloween' DAILY MAILDo you have what it takes to cross the threshold?Crumbling turrets, crenelated walls, creaking floorboards. We all know a haunted house when we see - or feel - one. That creeping sense of wrongness. An icy shiver stealing down the spine.But why do certain structures set this super-sensory alarm bell jangling, while others leave us unmoved? Can a house be purpose-built to be haunted? And does a building need a bloody legacy to set the skin tingling?Tiptoe through the haunted gallery at Hampton Court Palace, encounter the spectral residents of Chillingham Castle and lose yourself in the labyrinthine layout of Winchester Mystery House as Caitlin Blackwell Baines unravels the psyche, the history and the folkloric fabrication that make a haunted house take on a life of its own.Enter if you dare...'Every horror fan, coffin boffin and certified creep needs to read this book' ALICE SLATER