Share your favourite spooky books for Halloween to win a box set of new edition Harry Potter books

When I was very small I got a picture book out from the library called "The Tailipo".

It was supposed to be for children. It featured an old man in a cabin in the woods who had hunted the Tailipo and stolen its tail. One dark night it comes to get it back, scratches on the cabin door saying "Give me back my Tailipo......" and eventually gets in and murders him.

I was terrified. Especially as my father, thinking it was funny, would imitate the Tailipo and scratch on my bedroom door.

Anyway, I bought a copy recently, it's still scary.

Six, you're thinking of Phil Rickman. His Merrily Watkins series is very good, not full on horror, but creepy and interesting.

I've recently discovered relatively new British horror author Adam Nevill, his book The Last Days is the only horror novel I've ever read that actually made me sleep with the light on. His stuff is well written and worth checking out if you like scary horror.

I used to have a collection of the Roald Dahl ghost stories. Masterful

About 20y ago I read a book that terrified me. It was about English second-homers and other incomers in Wales being haunted by a malevolent Welsh spirit (or possibly witch?) that defended the land.

I can't remember the name. Candlenight? Candlemas?

Somebody tell me the name and the author, please, so that I make sure never to read it, or anything by him, again!

I don't really do horror, but the Susan Cooper series of 5 books are variably spooky, The Grey King and Silver on the Tree being most so for me

When Marnie Was There, by Joan G Robinson. I was about 10 when I first read it, and it haunted me until it came back into print about 20 years later, and devoured it...

Agree with Butch - The Woman in Black is creepy. Was glad to finish it - it gave me a sleepless night. Just something about that novel that really spooked me.

Whereas Dark Matter by Michelle Paver did absolutely nothing for me. DH recommended it to me as he'd found it really creepy, and he loves a good ghost story, the scarier the better - the sort that makes you want to sleep with the lights on stuff :o

DH says the best ones he's read recently are The Orphan Choir by Sophie Hannah, The Man in the Picture and The Small Hand both by Susan Hill, The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert and This House is Haunted by John Boyne.

I liked The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore - not really scary, but a ghost story all the same. Maybe more a study in loneliness and the effect it can have on the mind.

The magic cottage by James Herbert, I could only read it during the day as it creeped me out something stupid

Phil Rickman writes deliciously spooky books.

1. Audrey Rose and The entity by Frank Design felitta

1. The Amityville Horror 1-3 by John G Jones

1. Incubus by Ray Russell

1. The exorcist by William Peter Beatty

As a child I loved the point horror books and the ghost of Thomas Kempe.

Now anytho g by James Herbert, especially the secret of crickley hall, the rats trilogy, the others and the dark. The dark is one of the creepiest books I've ever read.

I used to love Christopher Pike books. Chain Letter was a particular creepy, stalkery favourite.

Literally anything by Stephen King terrifies me, I went through a phase as a teen reading them. I think It frightened me most.

Also as a teen I read a lot of Lois Duncan. The spookiest was this one where these intelligent and talented children were selected to go to a fancy boarding school. It turned out though that the children were being used at the school, possessed by famous dead artists and authors and musicians. I can't remember what it was called.

M R James' ghost stories are fab, as others have said, especially The Ash Tree, and Lost Hearts. I reread them every Christmas, all you need is a panelled room and a crackling open fire to really get the atmosphere!

I also like The Lost by Jonathan Aycliffe, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

The little stranger by Sarah Waters. The best ghost story for adults I've read in years. Intelligently written, a real page-turner with some disturbing aspects that make you question the narrator.

The Woman in Black - Susan Hill.. Terrifies me

Dracula by Bram Stoker. Though ruined by Coppola.

As a teen I loved SK and was especially fond of Carrie and Misery.

Agree with Hansel and Gretel too. Why anyone would want to read this to their child is beyond me.

The Spooks Books by Joseph Delaney are wonderfully chilling.

Great for teenagers and adults.

I love horror stories especially the rats trilogy by James Herbert, and the beast house series by Richard Laymon, or the brother odd series by Dean koontz, or pretty much anything Stephen king has written. Ahh there's too many to choose from!!!!

For children I love the goosebumps books, scary but not too scary for my 7 year old.

A short story by Susan Hill called The Small Hand

On returning from a visit to a client, antiquarian book dealer Adam Snow takes a wrong turn and comes across a derelict Edwardian House. Overcome by curiosity he approaches the entrance and feels a small cold hand creeping into his own 'as if a child had taken hold of it'. Over the coming weeks he becomes subject to nightmares and panic attacks and further visits from the small hand. He vows to learn more about the house and its overgrown garden...

Am a huge fan of Susan Hill and Daphne du Maurier

One short story that scares me to this day, even though it's technically a children's story is called "The Shadow Cage"
I read it years ago in an anthology, and even now, over 30 years later, it still makes me shiver when I think about it.
It's by Philippa Pierce iirc and is truly spooky.
I definitely find the psychological scary stuff much more frightening than out and out "blood and guts" type stories.
Another one I remember is a sci-fi short. I can't remember the name and I think it could be by John Wyndham in his "Consider her Ways" anthology but not sure. It's one of those where the last line just caps the whole story and makes it all shivery and it's "look baby, lunch "
My favourite spooky story (to cheer myself a bit since I have to go up to bed, alone, in the dark, in a bit ) is "Humblepuppy" by Joan Aiken. It is a ghost story, but it has a happy ending and is so sweet, and I can read it to the children safely

Ah! The story I was thinking of was called The Green Ribbon. From the book In a Dark, Dark Room and other Scary Stories, by Alvin Schwartz and Dirk Zimmer. Based on traditional folktales and stories, apparently.

For children. These have long been favourites of ours

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe - Penelope Lively

The Phantom Cyclist (and other stories) - Ruth Ainsworth

There's another one we have. A short story, for younger readers, about a girl with a ribbon tied around her neck which she will never unfasten, nor tell why she must keep it so.

Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad, by M R James. Also made into an excellent short film by the BBC for one of their annual Christmas ghost stories (but would advise to give the newer adaptation a miss).

The Monkey's Paw by W W Jacobs

Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin

Pet Sematary by Stephen King