Making friends with the ghost in your attic brings you many benefits as well as faults. The difficulty, as one might expect, is the making friends bit. You have to have a ghost who’s actually willing to be friends, and not one like Melba. She’s a spook with an attitude; and when I say attitude, I mean a full-blown disregard of the living.

My first encounter with our irascible wraith was a rather painful affair, I can tell you. Not for Melba, of course. Ghosts don’t feel pain, but they do have an enjoyment of inflicting it. In fact, ghosts have a very warped sense of humour when it comes to hurting humans.

I will never forget the echoing of her laughter, the sheer delirium of her giggling, as she watched me tumble back down through the hatchway that acted as an entrance to ‘her’ space. That first meeting should really have been the last, if I’d had any sense that is.