"Are you ready to learn, lad?"
Spoilers from the books and/or film to follow!
John Gregory was a famous spook from the County that spent his life fighting the dark in the Chipenden area.
Biography[]
Background[]
John Gregory was born in the Anglezarke Moor, where he later moved to 13 Watery Lane, Horshaw, where he and his family grew up. The house was haunted by the ghasts of a miner and his wife.
John, being the seventh son of a seventh son, had to endure the cries of the ghasts every night and the sounds of the miner walking around the house. When he told his father of the cries, his father didn’t believe him and beat him for lying. After deciding to become a spook, John Gregory took all of his apprentices to this house so that he could see what they were made of. Many fled the house, but some stayed on. At midnight, he required his apprentices to face the noise that was coming from the cellar, which turned out to be John hiding in a corner.
Throughout his career he took on twenty nine apprentices before his final apprentice, Thomas Ward, though many died, only Morgan strayed from the Light.
The Spook's Apprentice[]
John traveled to the Ward farm and took under his wing what would be his final apprentice, Thomas Ward. He introduced Tom to the Chipenden house, including the resident boggart and the witches trapped in pits in the garden. John also gave Tom the piece of advice to "never trust girls with pointy shoes."
At one point, John is called away to handle witch business in Pendle, which, in reality, is a trap laid by Bony Lizzie and her allies in Pendle; however, the Spook manages to defeat his enemies and returns to Chipenden to discover that Tom was tricked into releasing Mother Malkin. Luckily, Tom had slain the witch with the Spook's rowan staff, and the Spook forgave Tom for his mistake.
When Tom is captured by Bony Lizzie, the Spook comes to his aid. He kills Tusk the abhuman and captures Bony Lizzie. He is extremely mistrustful of Alice but asks Tom to take her to relatives in Staumin. Tom and Alice stop at Tom's family farm, where they defeat Mother Malkin once and for all, but the Spooks learns Alice used a mirror -- dark magic. The Spook leaves the decision up to Tom whether to send Alice to her relatives or bind her in a pit, and Tom chooses the former.
At the end of the book, John meets Tom's Mam for the first time and ends their meeting with a bow, indicating the level of his respect for her.
The Spook's Curse[]
The Spook and Tom travel to Priest Town to attend the funeral of his brother, Father Gregory. The catacombs below the town are haunted by the evil spirit, The Bane, whom John failed to kill over twenty years ago. With the Bane growing stronger, the Spook feels it his duty to slay the monster. In this book, Tom learns that the Spook was cursed by the three Pendle witch covens to die alone in the dark with no friend by his side -- fitting conditions for his impending duel with the Bane.
Before John can confront the Bane, he is captured by the Quisitor's men and nearly burned to death; Alice frees the Bane from the catacombs and unleashes it on the Quisitor's men, saving the Spook just in time. The Spook and Tom learn that recalling the Bane to the catacombs once more will result in its permanent imprisonment, but the Spook resolves to slay it as well for safe measure; the person who delivers the killing stroke will surely die from the backlash of released energy. He takes Alice to the catacombs, since she is bound to the Bane, hoping to kill the Bane and expecting to die. Tom follows him against his wishes and stabs the Bane through the heart first, but is brought back to life by Alice.
The Spook prepares to bind Alice in a pit, since she she is barely able to cross running water any more, and her pact with the Bane. However, Tom stops him by reminding him that he once loved a lamia witch, Meg, and did not bind her in a pit. The Spook agrees to take Alice on as a scribe and will not imprison her as long as she avoids dark magic.
The Spook's Secret[]
In this book, some of the Spook's dalliances with women -- particularly with the lamia witch Meg Skelton -- come to light. At the beginning of the novel, the Spook receives news that his old flame, Emily Burns, has passed, and his former apprentice Morgan, who failed his training, sends him a threatening letter. In response, the Spook and Tom travel to Anglezarke to spend the winter months there. John introduces Tom to Meg for the first time. It is revealed that shortly after John and Meg began their affair, jealous and suspicious villagers attacked Meg. When she retaliated against them using magic, and was prepared to continue to do so, the Spook decided to give her a special drug rather than bind her in a pit; the drug causes Meg to forget she is a witch, and makes her often drowsy. When John leaves Anglezarke, he gives her a large dose of the medicine, which puts her into a coma-like state until he returns the next winter.
Later, the Spook and Tom must battle a stone-chucking boggart that has taken residence at a local farm. Although the Spook and Tom prevail, the Spook is grievously injured and remains bed-ridden for weeks. In that time, Tom leaves the wounded Spook to visit his dying father; however, he arrives too late, and Morgan captures the spirit of Tom's recently deceased father. In exchange for releasing Tom's father, Morgan demands that Tom steal a special grimoire from the Spook that can raise Golgoth, the god of winter, and grant Morgan untold power. Morgan also confides in Tom that he is the Spook's seventh son by Emily Burns.
During Tom's travels, the Spook becomes too weak to give Meg her drug, and she remembers her true identity. She imprisons John in the cellar and begins dosing him with the same drug. Tom narrowly rescues the Spook with Alice's help but remains behind in the house with Meg and Meg's lamia sister in order to find the grimoire. He succeeds in binding Meg with a silver chain, but is unable to find the grimoire before being forced to retreat into the cellar by Meg's feral lamia sister. The Spook, fully mended, arrives a day later and captures Meg's sister. Tom admits why he stayed behind, and the Spook denies that he is Morgan's father. The two reconcile.
Furious with Tom's delay, Morgan captures the apprentice and steals the grimoire. His attempt to raise Golgoth fails, however, and results in his death. The Spook enlists Meg and Meg's sister to help him in finding the captured Tom. He reveals that Morgan had promised to never raise Golgoth while his mother lived, and once she died, he began his crusade. Anticipating Morgan's course of action, the Spook changed the wording in the grimoire, which Morgan did not realize, since he had never completed his training and fully learned the language of the grimoire, resulting in the botched summoning and his death. The Spook sees Meg and her sister off as they depart for Greece, closing this chapter of his love life. He returns with Tom and Alice to Chipenden.
The Spook's Battle[]
One of the Spook's former apprentices, Father Stocks, who completed his training but ended up becoming a priest, arrives at Chipenden with news that the three witch clans in Pendle are going out of control. If all three witch clans can put aside their differences, they will raise the Fiend on Halloween night that year. The Spook, Tom, Alice, and Father Stocks travel to Pendle, where the Spook splits off from the rest of the group to gather intelligence on the witches. By the time he rejoins with the party, Father Stocks has been murdered by Wurmalde, a Greek witch who was once enemies with Tom's mother and is leading the faction that is trying to unite the witch clans to raise the Fiend. The Spook and Tom confront Tibbs, a demon spawn with the ability to scry the future with incredible accuracy. Tibbs confesses that he told the witch clans that Tom, once fully grown, would pose a great threat to the dark, and recommended that once they raise the Fiend, they should compel him to kill Tom. The Spook kills Tibbs.
The Spook raises an army to confront the Pendle clans on Halloween night before they can raise the fiend. The Spook leads the charge on Pendle hill, and pursues Wurmalde when she flees. Just as it seems her escape is imminent, Tom's feral lamia aunts descend and kill her. Too late, it is realized that the clans had already successfully raised the Fiend, and he is gathering his strength to destroy Tom. Tom flees to the protection of his mother's special room, and the Fiend ceases his attack after three days, the length of the Pendle witches' compulsion; however, the Fiend is now free to roam the world and wreak havoc. The Spook, Alice, and Tom return to Chipenden, knowing the battle against the dark will only grower fiercer.
The Spook's Mistake[]
Enemy soldiers have attacked the County, and local press gangs roam seeking to force young new recruits into the army. After Tom narrowly escapes one such gang with Alice's help, the Spook decides to send Tom to his former apprentice, the spook Bill Arkwright. He hopes Arkwright can hone Tom's fighting skills and will allow Tom to stay away from areas where press gangs are active.
The early stages of Tom's apprenticeship to Arkwright prove disastrous, with Tom and Arkwright butting heads, culminating in Arkwright's apparent murder at the hands of Morwena, the most powerful of all water witches and the Fiend's daughter. Morwena captures Tom and Alice with the help of the Fiend and lays a trap for John. When John arrives, he is able to fend off Morwena and her hired assassins and frees Tom and Alice.
The Spook reveals why the Fiend does not simply murder Tom: In the past months, the Spook has been busy delving into the trove of knowledge bequeathed to Tom by his mother. In the past, she hobbled the Fiend so that if he killed Tom himself, he would be forced back into the dark after only a century. If, however, he converted Tom to the dark, or one of his children slew Tom, then his dominion on earth would be permanent.
The Spook suspects Arkwright is still alive and being held captive by Morwena. He and Tom track down Arkwright, and Tom manages to free him. The party returns to Arkwright's home, but the Fiend captures the entire group there. He proposes a deal to Tom: If Tom can defeat Morwena and her host of water witches, Tom's friends go free; if Morwena kills Tom, the Fiend will slay all his friends. Tom agrees to the deal only if the Fiend frees Arkwright's mother from her imprisonment as a ghost on earth. With the unexpected help of Grimalkin, the Malkin witch assassin and sworn enemy of the Fiend, Tom prevails. The Fiend, angered, taunts the Spook by revealing Alice stills practices dark magic, particularly the use of mirrors and scrying. The Spook prepares to bind Alice in a pit, but Tom threatens to quit as his apprentice. The Spook is only swayed once Arkwright, grateful to Tom and Alice that his mother has been freed, argues on her behalf. Reluctantly, the Spook banishes Alice from Chipenden, and she is forced to seek refuge in Pendle.
Tom finishes his time with Arkwright months later, but on his return, he is accosted by the Fiend, who reveals that Alice is his daughter. Tom relays this news to the Spook, who, dismayed, laments that his letting Alice go might prove to be his biggest mistake ever.
The Spook's Sacrifice[]
The Spook and Tom receive a letter from Tom's mother, asking them to visit her on Tom's family farm. When the Spook and Tom arrive at the farm, they discover that Tom's mother has allied herself with Pendle witches. She seeks to use the alliance to destroy the Ordeen, an enemy god in Greece, who has grown stronger due to the Fiend's release and will attack the County shortly if not stopped. The Spook is outraged, stating that an alliance with the dark in order to beat the dark can only result in Tom's corruption. He tells Tom that if he joins his mother, his apprenticeship with John will be over.
Tom agrees to accompany his mother to Greece, along with Pendle witches that include Alice and Grimalkin. The Spook later reconsiders his decision and joins the party, eventually taking Tom back on as his apprentice. In Greece, John clashes with Silenous, the local spook, over his gluttony. John believes the dark is best faced on a nearly empty stomach to remain sharp, alert, and preserve discipline.
John, Alice, Arkwright, and Tom search the Ordeen's lair for the deity herself, but fall into a trap of hundreds of feral lamias. With their doom imminent, the Fiend secretly coerces Tom into a deal. In exchange for sparing his life and the life of his friends, the Fiend will lay claim to Tom's soul shortly. The Spook's memory of the trap is erased, and he along with Tom, Arkwright, and Alice flee the Ordeen's lair after Tom's mother sacrifices herself to destroy the deity. Arkwright sacrifices himself to buy time for the others to escape.
As they depart from Greece, the Spook gives Tom two letters from his mother. In the letters, Tom's mother begs John to reconsider his stance on alliances with the dark. She believes John's training is Tom's best chance of survival, and Tom is the only person capable of one day destroying the Fiend. She also writes that Alice may one day become an extremely powerful enemy of the dark, if John does not push her to the dark first. Swayed by the letters, John agrees to allow Alice to return with them to Chipenden. Unbeknownst to John, Alice fends off the Fiend with a blood jar, a potent spell that prevents the Fiend from materializing near its holder. As a result, Tom and Alice must both stay close to the blood jar, or else risk being dragged into the dark by the Fiend.
The Spook's Nightmare[]
On the return to Chipenden, the Spook finds his home wrecked by enemy soldiers. Their sheer numbers overwhelmed the boggart, who left the premises once the house's roof collapsed, as per the Spook's original contract. In the chaos, it also appears that witches have freed Bony Lizzie, Alice's mother, from her imprisonment in the Spook's garden. The Spook's ability to fight the dark begin to decline very rapidly from this point onward, as he considers himself mostly a failure for allowing his library to burn. He considered the library the most precious artifact of the Chipenden Spooks.
With Alice and Tom, the Spook flees to the Isle of Mona to avoid enemy soldiers. They are unwelcome as refugees on the isle. The Spook notices Alice and Tom refuse to be apart; he doesn't realize this is because any separation of Alice from Tom, and his blood jar, will result in the Fiend immediately dragging her into the dark. The Spook is separated from Alice and Tom, who are captured by the local mage. In their ensuing adventures, Bony Lizzie, who also came to the island, kills the mage and accidentally taps into a massive cache of magical power built by the buggane, a demon that harvests energy. The buggane once served the mage but switches its allegiance to Bony Lizzie, who begins to consolidate power on the island and declares herself its queen.
Soldiers on the island demand the Spook deal with Bony Lizzie. Three times he confronts her, and each time he is beaten easily. Tom remarks that only a few years ago, when he first began his apprenticeship with John, the Spook would have captured Bony Lizzie, in spite of her newfound powers. In the end, the group is only able to beat Bony Lizzie through the intervention of a benign "bird witch." Tom and Spook slay the buggane to destroy the cache of power. Although John's powers are rapidly declining, Tom's powers are starting to accelerate their growth. The Spook, Alice, and Tom sail for Ireland since enemy soldiers still occupy the County.
The Spook's Destiny[]
In Ireland, the group encounters a new type of ghost, dubbed the "jibber." Jibbers are unable to be dealt with using the normal County Spook method, and John reluctantly allows Alice to use magic to free the trapped ghosts. A group of land owners ask John for his help in defeating the Irish Mages, who conduct a ritual that taps into the power of the god Pan, and sow chaos in the land. The Spook and Tom capture a mage, who confesses his death will kickstart the ritual to raise Pan. If the mage is not sacrificed, Pan cannot be raised. The mages and their supporters attack the landowners, so John, Tom, and Alice try to escape with the mage prisoner. They are discovered by enemy forces, and in the ensuing chaos, the group is separated.
Tom is captured by an old enemy, a Celtic witch whose twin sister he slew. She cruelly separates him from Alice, resulting in the Fiend dragging Alice into the dark. Tom is rescued by Grimalkin and reunited with John. The Spook is sympathetic toward Tom's pain.
Grimalkin hatches a plan with the Spook and Tom to bind the fiend in a pit with silver spears. Tom is once again captured by the Celtic witch, who abandons him in the domain of the god, the Morrigan. In the process, he claims a powerful hero sword, the Destiny Blade, which he uses to defeat the Morrigan and escape her domain. The Spook aids Tom and Grimalkin when they summon the Fiend in order to bind him. The Spook drives many silver spears through the Fiend's body, and Tom beheads him using the Destiny Blade. The Fiend is trapped and powerless, as long as his head remains separate from his body. Grimalkin takes the Fiend's head and goes on the run from his supporters.
In the meantime, Alice is returned to earth by a grateful Pan, since Tom freed the god from the rituals of the Irish mages. She joins the Spook and Tom as they return to Chipenden.
The Spook's Blood[]
The Spook and Tom contemplate a ritual outlined by Tom's mam that involves the three Destiny Blades and will destroy the Fiend permanently. One of the blades is hidden in the Fiend's domain in the dark, and it is agreed that Alice will journey there to retrieve it. The Spook and Alice do not realize the ritual involves sacrificing the person Tom loves most in the world -- Alice.
A former apprentice of the Spook, Judd Brinscall, arrives at Chipenden from his long journey in Romania. He brings them tidings of a friend, Mistress Fresque, who possesses a large library and is willing to sell some of its contents to the Spook. Eager to rebuild the Chipenden library, the Spook and Tom journey to Mistress Fresque's home. In the library, the Spook finds the Doomdryte, an extremely powerful and dangerous grimoire. The Spook wants to destroy the book, but Mistress Fresque will not part with it. Tom leaves to fetch a wagon to transport books, while the Spook is left alone with Mistress Fresque, who turns out to be a strigoi, a Romanian demon very much like a vampire. She captures John and casts a dark spell on him that makes him believe he has been beheaded and through dark magic, the head is left alive and in agony. Tom and Brinscall discover this is an illusion, and the Spook is being held prisoner in a pit. They rescue him, but the ordeal has left the Spook greatly weakened, and his psyche is damaged.
The Spook orders Tom to renew a pact with the boggart, in order to protect the house from incoming attackers. Tom strikes the deal successfully. The Spook is too weak to return with Tom to fight the Romanian dark entities. Tom journeys there with Grimalkin and slays Siscoi, the right hand of the Fiend. On his return, John admits to Tom that Tom is the real Chipenden Spook in all but name. From now on, Tom will handle the truly pressing missions, with the Spook to advise him.
The Spook's Revenge[]
The Spook learns the true nature of the ritual meant to destroy the Fiend, and he and Tom agree they cannot go through with it. Instead, they plot to dissect the Fiend into many more pieces and scatter across the world, making his restoration nearly impossible. However, they learn that the Fiend's supporters have taken the Fiend's head from Grimalkin and left her for dead. Grimalkin and Alice had attempted to use the Doomdryte to give Alice the power to destroy the Fiend, but once Alice touched the Doomdryte, Lukrasta, the Doomdryte's writer and a god-like mage, arrived; Lukrasta defeated Grimalkin, and Alice went with him as allies and lovers. Lukrasta seeks to restore the Fiend to power to combat the growing threat of the Kobalos, a warlike race that seeks to destroy all human men and enslave all human women.
The Spook and Tom help Grimalkin mend her wounded leg. The Spook tells Tom to chase after the Fiend's head without him, knowing he will only slow Tom down. Tom retrieves the head, but Alice later teleports to Chipenden and disables everyone in the house, stealing back the Fiend's head.
The Spook and Grimalkin raise an army to go the Wardstone, where the Fiend's supporters plan to reunite his head with his body. When the army reaches the Wardstone, Alice and Lukrasta unite their powers to unleash a massive wave of dark energy. The Spook is second after Grimalkin to overcome the dark magic, and he charges along side the assassin to attack their foes. Tom notes his ability to stand up to the dark in this battle reminds him of his master of many years ago. During the battle, John is slain by enemy forces, but not in vain. Tom uses the hero swords to cut off the Fiend's thumb bones, and the Fiend's powers are destroyed completely.
Grimalkin returns the Spook's body to Chipenden. Tom notes that the Pendle witches' curse never came true, as John died in the daylight on a hill, fighting by his friends. Tom buries his master in the western garden of Chipenden, where he had once enjoyed sitting with Meg and often taught his apprentices there, too. He inscribes the tombstone with the words "Here lies John Gregory, the greatest of the County Spooks."
Physical appearance[]
He is said to be a tall man with a beard, a crooked nose, and green eyes.
Personality[]
He is shown to be a very strict man and does not like anyone who doesn't follow his rules. However he displays an open-mind to all his apprentices and shows pride in their accomplishments. He is bound to a very strict moral code and does not approve of using the "dark", even for the "greater good".
However, at the end of the series, he finally begins to accept that he is from an old generation of Spooks, and that using the dark to defeat the dark is a new concept to him that Tom and the future generations of spooks will begin to employ.
Powers and abilities[]
The spook is shown to be highly skilled with his staff and chain, and before his recent decline, was very energetic and had high stamina.
- Mediumship: Gregory has the natural ability of all seventh sons of seventh sons, to speak and hear the dead, long after the spirits have passed.
- Marksmanship: Being a spook for over 60 years has armed Gregory with expert marksmanship abilities, especially when confronted with beings that need to be bound with a silver chain, one of the main tools of trade for a spook.
- Immunity: Being a seventh son of a seventh son, the spook is immune to a witch's long range sniffing and the siren's song.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Andrew Gregory[]
John and Andrew often have a fairly warm brotherly relationship, with Andrew often worrying about his younger brother's well being. They have been shown disagreeing several times, but it's obvious that the two brothers are still on good terms with one another.
Paul Gregory[]
John appeared to trust Paul when he was a child, telling each other about their nightmares and trusting one another to wake them up before the nightmare ended. Nothing else is known about Paul, other than the fact that he is dead.
Thomas Ward[]
The spook often acts distant and professional towards Tom, rarely praising him incase it causes Tom to become too proud or arrogant, but occasionally shares the odd joke with his apprentice. The spook is shown to genuinely care for Tom, by trying to cheer him up when he is distressed. As the series goes on, the relationship changes often. Sometimes for the worst, when Tom uses the dark, does something wrong with Alice or goes against him. However it also changes for the better as you see Tom start to take over from John and he simply mentors him, and becomes a type of father figure to him.
Alice Deane[]
The spook strongly distrusts Alice, causing them to have a highly strained relationship; but it is hinted that they share a sense of humour, when Alice laughs loudly at one of his jokes about Tom's cooking. Many times the Spook tries to get rid of Alice, either by pit, banishment, or simply sending her away. He does however realize the relationship between Tom and Alice and their closeness, but he doesn't want them together, due to his distrust of Alice.
Bill Arkwright[]
The spook's opinion on Bill are almost completely unknown, the few things the spook has said about Arkwright are about his disapproval of his harsh behavior towards the apprentices he takes on for six months, mentioning how he had previously never wanted to send another boy into his training, but changing his mind later and sending Tom to spend the late fall and winter with him. Despite this, John appears to like Bill in the end, being saddened by his death and being willing to go through several setbacks when trying to rescue him after being kidnapped by water witches.
Mam[]
The spook disagrees with a lot of her ways, but appears to have a great underlying respect for Mrs.Ward, shown when he bows to her in the first book.
Meg Skelton[]
The spooks former true love, although a lamia witch John could not bear putting her in a pit. John and Meg lived together in Chipenden until residents began to become jealous of her beauty and accused her of being a witch. In response Meg cast spells on the women, causing John to lock her up in his winter house in Anglezark. The Spook gives her a tea with special substances to make her forget she is a witch, until she is not given the tea and she realizes she was fooled. When she finds out, she decides to go home to Greece, and John is heartbroken.
Morgan Hurst[]
A former apprentice of the spook who turned to the dark, and tried to raise Golgoth. Morgan successfully raises Golgoth but at the cost of his life, for the spook changed the inscriptions, in case Morgan ever tried again his life and soul would be sucked out by Golgoth.
Judd Brinscall[]
He is a Spook who John Gregory trained as his apprentice.
Appearances[]
- The Spook's Apprentice
- The Spook's Curse
- The Spook's Secret
- The Spook's Battle
- The Spook's Mistake
- The Spook's Sacrifice
- The Spook's Nightmare
- The Spook's Tale
- The Spook's Stories: Witches
- Meg Skelton
- The Spook's Bestiary (written from Mr Gregory's personal experiences)
- The Spook's Revenge
Trivia[]
- Over the course of certain events, such as being defeated by Bony Lizzie over three times, the Spook has weakened to the point where he considers sending Tom out on the more dangerous jobs. In Lure of the Dead, he transfers the mantle of The Chipenden Spook to Tom.
