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Between 1977 and 1979, a council house in Enfield, north London, was the site of one of Britain's most investigated poltergeist cases: furniture reportedly moved on its own, an eleven-year-old girl was recorded speaking in a strange guttural voice, and investigators from the Society for Psychical Research spent close to two years documenting the family's claims on tape. Skeptics such as Deborah Hyde have since argued the events were largely unwitnessed pranks by children, since most of the reported activity happened when the girls weren't being directly watched. These five books cover both sides — the investigator who believed it, the archivist who later reviewed the tapes, and the broader science of what a “poltergeist” is even supposed to be.
- Comparison Table
- 1. This House Is Haunted: The True Story of the Enfield Poltergeist by Guy Lyon Playfair
- 2. The Enfield Poltergeist Tapes: One of the Most Disturbing Cases in History by Melvyn J. Willin
- 3. Poltergeist!: A Study in Destructive Haunting by Colin Wilson
- 4. The Poltergeist by William G. Roll
- Believer vs. Skeptic
- Frequently Asked Questions
Comparison Table
<table class=“wul-comparison-table”>
<thead><tr><th>Book</th><th>Best for</th><th>Type</th></tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>This House Is Haunted (Guy Lyon Playfair)</td><td>Readers who want the lead investigator's own account</td><td>Nonfiction, primary source</td></tr>
<tr><td>The Enfield Poltergeist Tapes (Melvyn J. Willin)</td><td>Readers who want a balanced review of the original tape recordings</td><td>Nonfiction, archival</td></tr>
<tr><td>Poltergeist! A Study in Destructive Haunting (Colin Wilson)</td><td>Readers who want Enfield placed alongside other historical cases</td><td>Nonfiction</td></tr>
<tr><td>The Poltergeist (William G. Roll)</td><td>Readers who want the psychokinesis theory behind the phenomenon</td><td>Nonfiction, parapsychology</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
1. This House Is Haunted: The True Story of the Enfield Poltergeist by Guy Lyon Playfair
Playfair, who investigated the case alongside Maurice Grosse for the Society for Psychical Research, wrote this 1980 account from roughly 600 pages of transcripts and live tape recordings made during the two-year investigation. He was, and remained, convinced the phenomena were genuine, and the book is the primary source nearly every later documentary and dramatization (including the Conjuring franchise's take on Enfield) draws from.
2. The Enfield Poltergeist Tapes: One of the Most Disturbing Cases in History by Melvyn J. Willin
Willin, working with the Society for Psychical Research's digitized archive of the original recordings, published this 2019 book as a more balanced pass through the same tape evidence Playfair used — presenting both the strongest-seeming incidents and the moments skeptics point to as staged. Reviewers have called its treatment of the case's conflicting interpretations notably even-handed.
3. Poltergeist!: A Study in Destructive Haunting by Colin Wilson
Wilson's book surveys poltergeist cases across decades and countries, placing Enfield in a wider historical pattern rather than treating it as an isolated event. It's a useful companion to Playfair's book for readers who want to know whether Enfield's specific details (moving furniture, disembodied voices, physical disturbances) show up in similarly documented cases elsewhere.
4. The Poltergeist by William G. Roll
Roll, a parapsychologist who coined the term “recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis” (RSPK), argues in this book that poltergeist activity is better explained as unconscious mind-over-matter effects tied to a living person in the household — often a child under stress — rather than an external spirit. It's the book to read if the “why a child, why this house” question interests you more than the ghost-story framing.
Believer vs. Skeptic
The Enfield case is unusual among poltergeist stories because so much of it was recorded on tape as it happened, rather than only reconstructed afterward from memory. That's exactly why it remains contested: believers point to the sheer volume of documented incidents as evidence something happened, while skeptics note that the most dramatic events were rarely witnessed directly by an adult in the room, and some investigators later suggested the children could have staged parts of it. Both Playfair's and Willin's books work from the same underlying tape archive, which is part of why reading them together gives a fuller picture than either alone — a pattern that shows up again in other <a href=“https://worldurbanlegend.com/world-ghost-stories-international-legends-guide/”>contested hauntings from around the world</a>.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was the Enfield Poltergeist ever proven real?
No. It has never been independently verified as a genuine paranormal event — investigators like Guy Lyon Playfair believed it was real based on the volume of recorded incidents, while skeptics argue the most dramatic moments were staged and simply went unwitnessed at the time.
Who were the main investigators?
Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair, both working with the Society for Psychical Research, investigated the case over roughly two years starting in 1977 and produced the tape recordings that later books are based on.
Is The Conjuring 2 based on this case?
The film is loosely based on the Enfield case and draws on Playfair's published account, though it dramatizes and alters events for the screen rather than depicting the documented investigation directly.
What is recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK)?
It's a term coined by parapsychologist William G. Roll to describe poltergeist-type activity as possibly originating from a living person's unconscious mind rather than from an external spirit — a theory laid out in his book The Poltergeist.
Which book should I start with?
Start with Guy Lyon Playfair's This House Is Haunted for the believer's primary account, then read Melvyn Willin's The Enfield Poltergeist Tapes for a more balanced second pass over the same evidence.
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