The Spectre of Haunted Highgate

In her "Mistress of Death Interview" of 20 October 2014, "Della Farrant" was asked by Victoria Irwin:

"How do you gather personal stories and historical facts regarding the history of Highgate Cemetery and the surrounding area?"

She answered:

"My website, and that of my husband David Farrant, have generated many leads from witnesses, including people who have moved away from Highgate but never forgotten what happened to them there.   As I mentioned, there is often a degree of apprehension among Highgaters who fear ridicule for discussing their own paranormal experiences.  I have honoured requests to respect confidentiality, and this has resulted in some remarkable stories – usually from people who have never met, and yet have had encounters which are eerily similar.  Many of these have occurred in the same clusters of streets around Highgate and have never made it into the press or into local gossip. And local gossip itself is of course incredibly important!"

In the same section, "Della" somewhat ironically, as would become apparent, offered this gem:

"... as The Smiths sang in Meet Me At The Cemetery Gates  ‘The words you use should be your own : don’t plagiarise or take on loan.’  If one was to just rehash old ghost stories without investigating them personally one would be insulting one’s readers’ intelligence, as well as their book budget."

In Haunted Highgate, page 84, "Della" refers to the Hillcrest Estate on North Hill, Highgate, where "the recession of the early 1970s and 1980s contributed to low morale etc." In the next parapgraph she moves onto an ex-resident of Hillcrest:

"Some seventeen years later, it was a cold, unfurnished top-floor flat in Wavell House which Deborah Meredith found herself relocated to by Haringey Council on, of all days, Hallowe'en, 1996. While the first six months or so of her tenancy at Hillcrest were uncomfortable and slightly unerving, the subsequent two and a half years were the stuff of nightmares."

Two pages in Chapter Five are then devoted to an alleged account provided by the ex-tenant of Hillcrest, having already been exploited on two pages in Chapter One, which is fair enough if all are agreed on everything published. Sadly, as with so much of what "Della" claims, that is not the case.

Who is Deborah Meredith? Her name is Deborah Cross née Meredith. She recently became a widow, and now uses the name "Jessica Olly." It transpires she wrote an unpublished manuscript, The Spectre of Haunted Highgate, which she very unwisely shared with "Della Farrant" after having been in contact with her. So far, so good. However, like others who were duped, she regretted what followed, which might explain why she employs the pseudonym "Jessica Olly" on social networks.