This House Is Haunted: The True Story of a Poltergeist is a 1980 book by Guy Lyon Playfair, giving the primary first-hand account of the Enfield Poltergeist, widely regarded as the most thoroughly documented poltergeist case in history. Later editions have carried the alternative subtitle The Investigation of the Enfield Poltergeist or The True Story of the Enfield Poltergeist.
Overview
Playfair, working alongside Maurice Grosse of the Society for Psychical Research, spent over a year documenting the events at the Hodgson family's Enfield home, arriving within days of the disturbances beginning in August 1977 and remaining on the case until it concluded. The book details phenomena reported by more than thirty witnesses, including flying objects, furniture overturning and sliding across rooms, bedclothes being pulled off, an apparent levitation of Janet Hodgson witnessed by passers-by, and the deep, gruff voice that spoke through her identifying itself as Bill Wilkins. Much of the activity described was captured on tape and film by Grosse and Playfair during the investigation.
Reception
The book was well received on publication, praised in contemporary reviews for its meticulous, detailed logging of events and its sympathetic but methodical account of Grosse and Playfair's perseverance in the face of a genuinely difficult case to document. It remains the standard reference work on the Enfield case, cited across nearly every subsequent dramatisation and documentary treatment, including Interview with a Poltergeist, The Enfield Haunting, and The Conjuring 2, the last of which drew on it directly during scriptwriting.