Spookiness

I remember quite clearly sitting in the cafe at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston in about 2012 chatting with a guest for our radio show. He was telling me about the catacombs underneath Priestown’s cathedral and how the Spook and his apprentice, Tom Ward, confront their long-standing foe, the Bane.

For many people that will be enough to recognize our storyteller as Joseph Delaney. Born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1945, he attended Preston Catholic College and then worked as an apprentice engineer. He took his A-Levels at night school before studying English, history and sociology as a mature student aged 27 at Lancaster University.

Joseph Delaney

Following graduation, he studied at St Martin's College to become a teacher. He later became an English teacher at Blackpool Sixth Form College, where he started the Media and Film Studies Department. In the 1980s Delaney completed an Open University degree in an effort to become a computer programmer. In 1983, he moved to the village of Stalmine, where he learned and noted down that a priest had once encountered a boggart in the area.

He wrote adult science fiction novels under the penname J. K. Haderack but it was when he started writing books for children and young adults in his own name that he found wide spread fame. The first book, in 2004, was entitled The Spook's Apprentice and it was followed by a series of 20 other books set in the same landscape of a (very) fictional Lancashire called The County.

County fictional towns are thinly veiled modern-day cities; for example, the town of Priestown is based on Preston, Caster is Lancaster, Black Pool is Blackpool, and Chipenden is Chipping. (Actually, I’m not sure that the Black Pool is totally fictional).

The success of the second book in the series enabled him to retire from teaching and become a full time writer.

To give a flavour of the books, the first part of the series is called The Wardstone Chronicles, published from 2004 to 2013, follows Thomas "Tom" Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son who is apprenticed to the County's spook, John Gregory, a master fighter of supernatural evil. The Spook gives Tom practical instruction on tackling ghosts, ghasts, witches, boggarts, and all manner of other things that serve the Dark.

Tom soon discovers that most of John Gregory's apprentices have failed for various reasons, including being killed in the process of learning how to be a Spook. As the arc progresses, the focus expands to other characters, such as the young witch Alice Deane and the witch assassin Grimalkin. Overall, the series develops the plotline of Tom being destined to save the world or be tortured by the Fiend, the father of all evil, for all eternity.

All told the series sold around 4.5 million copies in over 30 countries. Indeed, during our chat Joseph was telling me about the trips he had made to countries such as Singapore and New Zealand to promote his work and meet his fans.

He also mentioned that there was potential for a film adaptation of The Spook's Apprentice. This did happen a couple of years later and it was called the Seventh Son. Ben Barnes starred as Tom Ward, Jeff Bridges as John Gregory (the Spook), Julianne Moore as Mother Malkin, Alicia Vikander as Alice Deane. I highly recommend that you stick to the books.

the complete series of 'Spooks' novels

Joseph Delaney died in 2022. A proper teller of stories.

Spoiler Alert: I don’t want to stop you reading the books but just in case you are a bit alarmed then I should say that the confrontation mentioned in the first paragraph above occurs in the second book of the series ‘The Spook's Curse’ and in a final showdown Tom does vanquish the Bane, liberating Priestown (hence Preston) from its malevolent grip.

On Joseph Delaney’s website he had placed this poem sent by Brenda Gountis.

The Lamia Witch
(inspired by The Spooks Curse)

Spook Gregory
Mighty though he be –
Is, in the end, only a Man
Weak with Loneliness & Pity

He once had a witch,
Held fast with silver chain –
He aught to have left her thus,
And saved himself the pain.

Instead he quailed and let her go.
Then full of anger at her deceit –
Chained her once again,
And brought her to her feet.

Marching her through hard rain
After a bright and shining dawn –
He strode with purpose,
To the deep pit in Chipenden.

Dragged through brambles by her flaxen hair
Crows and foxes cringed with dread –
On she ranted and screamed,
Fit to wake the Dead.

Frozen on that dizzy edge
He could not force her over-
Poor wretched lonely Spook,
Had taken a Witch as his Lover!

He almost fell in, and then What Sin!
He embraced a Snake Marked One-
Now it is he who is chained to her,
One kiss – and then, he’s all undone!

He gained a silver chain
But lost his mettle to her charms-
What is to be done with a Wretched Spook,
Caught up in a Witch’s arms?

                                              Brenda Gountis

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.