For a number of years, the Guinness Book of Records included an entry for most durable ghosts and in passing mentioned that Andrew Green (1927– 2004) claimed the only known example of “a letter from a poltergeist”. This was sent in 1956 during the course of his investigation of 15-year-old Shirley Hitchings, who became known “the poltergeist girl of Battersea”. Written in a mixture of French and English, the letter purported to come from Louis Capet, the second son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Now, 50 years on, James Clark of Mitcham has revealed the full extent of the poltergeist’s literary output.