Can the dead return to haunt the living? The idea is deeply rooted in our imaginations. For centuries we have told each other stories about ghosts, and they have made a huge impact on our cultural life, appearing in plays and poems, novels and stories, ballads and caricatures, paintings and photographs.

Susan Owens, author of The Ghost: A Cultural History, will discuss the British obsession with ghosts, asking: how has their appearance and behaviour changed over time? And what do their shifting roles reveal about them – and us?

Dr Susan Owens is a writer and former Curator of Paintings at the V&A. Her books include The Ghost: A Cultural History (Tate Publishing, 2017) and Spirit of Place: Artists, Writers and the British Landscape (Thames & Hudson), a Times book of the year.

This talk is part of the programme of events complementing the exhibition Not Without My Ghosts: The Artist as Medium, at the Millennium Gallery until Sunday 26 June 2022.