This time last year, I was woken up by a tremendous crash in the middle of the night and the dogs barking hysterically. It turned out a large picture had fallen off the wall on the landing. At three o’clock in the morning I found myself fending off two excitable spaniels as I swept up broken glass. Too bleary-eyed to do anything more, I went back to bed. It was only in the morning I realized the significance of the date: Hallowe’en, All Saints’ Eve, Samhain. Whatever you call it, tradition has it the veil between the living and the spirit world is so thin there can be some unquiet beings who can’t help but cross the line … Knowing this, it didn’t help that, when I inspected the picture hook, it didn’t look damaged, bent or broken in any way. Neither was the cord holding the picture up. Have you had any experiences of the supernatural, or had anything happen to you that you simply can’t explain? In my writer’s bio it says I share my house with a ghost called Zoe. It’s only half a joke. We’ve had one or two unexplained things happen here. I’m positive I’ve heard someone running along the landing when I’ve been alone in the house – or was it a crow or jackdaw stomping about on the roof? Objects have been moved around when no one claims to have done it, or perhaps we were just being absent minded?   The oddest thing was when a window opened apparently by itself. I live in a converted hop kiln which has weird nooks and crannies. I’d noticed it was cold upstairs for a while. It was only when I walked back from posting a letter and looked up that I saw a window wide open. There’s no way of getting to this particular window without using a loft ladder. Had the catch loosened and the wind caught it? Or had something or someone else opened it?   Even stranger perhaps is that since we’ve had the dogs, not many  inexplicable things have happened. After a series of strange phone calls from a man asking for Zoe and insisting he had the right number for her – he even claimed he was her doctor and had test results for her! – we named our ‘guest’ Zoe. She’s a very benign presence, although mischievous on occasion and obviously isn’t keen on spaniels. Maybe I had Zoe in mind when writing Hetty in While I Was Waiting? She appears as Henrietta Trenchard-Lewis as a young girl, as a young widow in World War 1 and as an old woman living in Clematis Cottage. Something profound happens there because her spirit lingers. She tries to guide Rachel against making the same mistakes she did and stays to the end, appearing to a little girl. A benevolent ghost – or imprint, as some people think.   However you choose to celebrate Hallowe’en enjoy it and, if you have any spooky experiences, I’d love to hear them! Love, Georgia x