Tapping into humanity’s darkest fears, Akbuk author A.J. Griffiths-Jones explores factual incidents in which people have been buried alive – and some who have lived to tell the tale.

Griffiths-Jones decided to explore the darker side of her claustrophobia and her own fears of suffocating alive in her new release, Buried Alive, due for worldwide release on Saturday, November 30.

Her book takes the reader on a startling adventure through many cases of premature burial that have never before appeared in print. While exploring the fear of being buried alive from across time and around the world, she provides a wealth of historical detail that will satisfy both casual readers and avid history enthusiasts alike. 

She admitted to Voices: “The motivation for writing this book stems from my own fear of being buried alive. I have bradycardia, a condition where my heartbeat is incredibly slow and sometimes barely detectable when I’m sleeping.

“Combined with my claustrophobia, being buried alive would undoubtedly be my worst nightmare. With a passion for unsolved mysteries and historical crime, researching this volume has been an absolutely fascinating project.”

The book is a compelling read in which the macabre meets the factual in this spine-chilling exploration of being buried alive. It covers cases of premature burial from medieval Scandinavia and ancient China through ritual burials in Asia to modern-day ‘accidental’ interments up to 21st-century cases in Greece. 

From ancient folklore to modern medical marvels, Buried Alive delves deep into the annals of history, uncovering tales of premature interment and miraculous escapes.

Imagine the horror of waking up in a coffin, surrounded by suffocating darkness, with no hope of escape. Drawing on historical records and eyewitness accounts, this book reveals the grim reality of those who were inadvertently entombed before their time.

From cases of war, where whole battalions have been covered in earth while still living, to ritual and superstition, from voodoo to suttee in Haiti and India, as well as the immurement in walls or errant monks and convent sisters.

Less-known cases of burials of the living, through murderous intentions and natural disasters, are also told, alongside tales of fakirs and hypnotists whose challenges were to have themselves put into a grave and left for days.

Amid tales of terror, this book also celebrates the resilience and heroism of those who defied death’s grasp, providing a wealth of historical detail. From the invention of bell-rigged coffins to the formation of societies dedicated to preventing premature burials, discover the remarkable measures taken to combat this age-old fear.

Buried Alive separates fact from fiction, shedding light on the truth behind centuries of taphophobia. This book is a haunting reminder of the fragility of life and the enduring power of human resilience in the face of our deepest fears. It’s a must-read for anyone fascinated by the darker aspects of human history and the enduring mysteries of the human psyche. 

A.J. Griffiths-Jones is a criminal researcher and genealogist with a passion for history and unsolved mysteries. The author of a host of fictional novels, she also loves to travel and spent ten years working in China as a Language Training Manager for an international bank. Nowadays, she lives in Akbuk with husband David and adopted street cat, Pebbles.