AN AUTHOR has published a successful book about a house that was the scene of a brutal murder - and that he says remains haunted to this day.

John Ulrich, 48, of Glanmore Road, Wexham, was raised in a cottage in Cheapside Lane, Denham. The home has a dark and bloody past, as it is built atop the place where an axe-wielding blacksmith killed a family of seven on a Sunday morning on May 22, 1870.

Mr Ulrich and his parents occupied the home for two and a half years - an experience Mr Ulrich claims was a 'living hell' due to the spirits of the restless dead.

Mr Ulrich said: "My dad would say - "The anniversary of the murders was the worst time of our lives, son. I will never forget it as long as I live: I could actually hear the children screaming as they were being killed."

Mr Ulrich continued: "Even as a young boy, I would wonder what kind of man could commit such a horrific crime as this. What kind of person could kill an entire family with the children being as young as four, and the eldest eight?

"It was and still is, beyond comprehension to me, and I’m sure it could bring the hardest person to tears at the thought of how mercilessly those children and the rest of the family were brutally murdered."

Mr Ulrich's book, 'The Evil That Came to Denham', is a novel based on the historical facts of the killing. The book has enjoyed strong success online.

Mr Ulrich said: "It's sold unexpectedly well. Once it was released on Amazon, it sold out within three hours. They restocked it, and then it sold out again. Waterstones have told me they are going to start stocking it at their store in Uxbridge, and I've been invited onto BBC radio to give an interview about it."

The book was five years in the making and required Mr Ulrich to overcome significant hurdles to write, as he was almost illiterate when he was younger.

Mr Ulrich said: "I had a bad start in life, and at 17 I couldn't read or write. I couldn't even spell my own name. I was so embarrassed, I put myself into night classes and I slowly got better. I've come a long way since then."

Mr Ulrich has already started work on the second part of his two-part series, 'The Evil That Came from Denham', which he expects to be completed by the New Year.

Mr Ulrich's book is available from Amazon at: https://tinyurl.com/yauqkhdn