When my brother was young, he had a fear of monsters hiding in the dark at night. To combat his fear, he would check that all windows and doors in the house were locked, turn on the lights in every room and check under the beds and in the wardrobes for ghouls and monsters, switch off his light and launch himself onto his bed from the doorway. It sounds funny now when I look back at it, but at the time, this process was deadly serious. Many children believed there were things under the bed that would snatch at our little legs and pull us into darkness before we could scream for help.

As a child, my personal fear was of witches coming into my room to grab me with their long, scratchy nails and bite me with their teeth. I often dreamed that they would catch me, cut me up and use me in one of their nasty potions. (I can only assume that an overdose of