THE GHOST LIGHT – When a rackety old touring theatre is host to a potboiler whodunit, the thespians find themselves haunted by an angry ghost out for revenge.

I’d wanted to include a theatre ghost tale in the collection and the inspiration came during the Covid lockdown when I saw dozens of images on social media of ghost lights standing centre stage in theatres. I should explain that a ghost light is a theatre tradition whereby an exposed lamp mounted inside a wire cage on a stand is left centre stage when a theatre is unoccupied in the hope that one day all the lights will be switched on again. The ghost lights I saw on Instagram postings by friends looked so lonely, and my natural propensity for turning inanimate objects into living personalities led me to the idea that the ghost light could be the narrator of the tale.

I’ve been lucky enough to have toured many and various theatres in Britain and The Chertswood is an amalgam of several of them. Likewise the characters of the director, the stage manager, the principles (meaning the main actors) and the understudies. All professions have their archetypes and I’ve tried to capture some of those from the theatre world in The Ghost Light.

"The Ghost Light. I loved this so much. I’ve worked with these people. I know them. I’ve met many Dereks in my life. The whole thing gave me a warm feeling as I read it. Having toured in many whodunnits over the years, I think Steve Nallon has caught the whole ‘world’ so well... I highly recommend it."

Denise Silvey, casting director for The Mousetrap, the longest running play in the world, which had its first performance 6 October 1952

"In Steve Nallon’s The Ghost Light we have a supernatural whodunnit told from the perspective of the theatre’s ‘ghost light’. The story delighted me (as a seasoned theatrical, familiar with all the parlance), but Nallon’s or rather the ghost light’s ‘guide’ to theatrical terms makes the more arcane elements accessible to all readers. The plot is clever and as satisfying as an Agatha Christie with adroit character sketches that give a head nod to J.B. Priestley’s world of weary actors in Lost Empires. Nallon’s engaging writing style draws you in much as any good performer does on stage. Encore!!"

Jessica Martin, actress, singer, illustrator, graphic novelist and author of It Girl and Elsie Harris Picture Palace

"The Ghost Light is charming. Immensely readable and written with warmth and humour about our ridiculously precious thespian world!"

Graham Seed, British character actor with The Archers, I, Claudius, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV and Brideshead Revisted being among his many credits

"I enjoyed reading The Ghost Light very much... I have believed in ghosts ever since I slept in a theatre on my first day of employment! Frightening! Don’t dabble with the ghost light!"

Ian Talbot OBE, West End theate director of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap

"I love a ghost story that gives you a chill as you reach the conclusion – almost as if something has passed over you – and The Ghost Light delivers it beautifully!"

Neal Foster, Actor/Manager, Birmingham Stage Company