Fortean Times

DAVID SUTTON drsutton@forteantimes.com BOB RICKARD (ft-bobrickard@mail.com) PAUL SIEVEKING (sieveking@forteantimes.com) IAN SIMMONS (simmons@forteantimes.com) ETIENNE GILFILLAN (etienne@forteantimes.com) DAVID V BARRETT (dvbarrett@forteantimes.com) A

ROBBER WITH PILLOWCASE OVER HIS HEAD FORGOT TO CUT EYE HOLES Dunfermline Press, 23 Jan 2020 Drunks try to punch Santa during sleigh ride in Sittingbourne Kent Online, 7 Dec 2021. FEARSOME ‘HELL HERON’ ROAMED ISLE OF WIGHT Times, 30 Sept 2021. 'Real-l

A robot vacuum cleaner went missing in Measham, Leicestershire, when its owner left his front door open while unloading shopping from his car. Finding that his hoover had vanished, he suspected it had escaped when the door was open. “I’ve tried press

One vegetable that seemed to have caused a considerable stir this year was a giant potato discovered by accident in Colin and Donna Craig-Brown’s overgrown vegetable patch in Hamilton, New Zealand. They were digging over an area they’d been using to

PAUL DEVEREUX feels a subterranean wind and admires ancient jewellery from around the world Wupatki is a 56 sq mile (145km2) National Monument near Flagstaff in Arizona, close to the Sunset Crater volcano. It contains over 5,000 ancient Native Americ

Quantum computing is perhaps the weirdest technology ever devised, carrying out calculations via the almost-incomprehensible strangeness of quantum phenomena. The first quantum computers are now appearing, accompanied by a wave of hype. Is it real or

KARL SHUKER reports on a social media snake, a pink panther and a metalcore rat king It’s not often that a distinctive, hitherto unknown species of animal is discovered, neither in the field nor in a museum, but instead on social media. Yet that is w

The Q thing has been moribund for a long time now; long enough to make one wonder if Q has been bumped off by the Deep State, gone over to the other side (the idea of Woke Q-drops is one to boggle the most conspiracist of minds), or gone over to the

Covid-sniffing dogs are hardly news these days, but Pokaa, a Golden Retriever from Kunheim, Alsace, France, has a 100 per cent hit rate. The dog is a great success in local pensioner’s homes where he can track the infected and has all the positive as

THE REAL-LIFE X-FILES Three decades ago, when I was young, I undertook the most amazing journey. I had been in Sydney, Australia, and then the Gold Coast to lecture on UFOs, and decided to take the opportunity to embark on a true adventure by plane a

If people are aware of any of Aleister Crowley’s children, they’d probably be thinking of his short-lived daughter Anne “Poupée” Leah, born to Crowley’s “Scarlet Woman” Leah Hirsig in 1920, and whose death later that year is a key part of the mytholo

Andrew Lang, in his influential 1884 book Custom and Myth, wrote: “The instrument which produces the sounds that warn women to remain afar is a toy familiar to English country lads. They call it the bull-roarer. The common bull-roarer is an inexpensi

A simple slat of wood typically measuring 12in x 2in (30cm x 5cm) is tied to a 3ft (90 cm) length of string. The slat is whirled in a circle, either on the horizontal plane above the player’s head or on the vertical plane alongside the player’s body.

Several 19th century authors listed the names used for the toy bullroarer used in Britain: there were many variations on boomer, bummer and, particularly in Scotland, thunder spell. ‘Spell’ here means not a magic charm, but a thin shaving of wood use

In Act 2 Scene 1 of The Tempest, (right) all the characters are beginning to argue among themselves. Ariel enters, invisible, and plays music that puts everyone to sleep except Sebastian and Antonio, who discuss how advantageous it might be to kill t

Sometime in the middle of 2019 I bumped into an old friend I had not seen for a few years. There was the usual “What are you doing now? How is the family?” and so on, but at one point the conversation got around to me admitting to my hobby of chasing

“Nineteen sixty-two was the last year that anyone of Tom Slick’s stature supported spiritually and financially the innovative and in-the-field cryptozoological research so important to the ultimate quest. What Slick did back in the late 1950s and [ea

SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO THE EDITOR: DRSUTTON@FORTEANTIMES.COM Suppose a UFO of extraterrestrial origins lands on your back lawn. An alien space explorer emerges. What should you, as a UK home-owner, do? An unlikely event perhaps, but the possibilit

TO SEND REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT THE BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR AT DVBARRETT@FORTEANTIMES.COM A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition John Callow Bloomsbury Academic 2021 Hb, 333pp, £25, ISBN 9781788314398 Life and Death in the New World Malcolm Gaskill Allen L

A Girl’s Life In The Incredible String Band Rose Simpson Strange Attractor Press 2021 Pb, 264pp, £17.50, ISBN 9781907222672 The Incredible String Band’s short career, 1966-1971, saw the release of eight albums and a unique performance legacy. Combini

Sirens, Selkies and Ghost Ships Dee Dee Chainey & Willow Winsham Batsford 2021 Hb, 192pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781849946599 Wild Gods, World Trees and Werewolves Dee Dee Chainey & Willow Winsham Batsford 2021 Hb, 192pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781849946872 Dee Dee Ch

AJ Elwood Titan Books 2021 Pb, 365pp, £8.99, ISBN 9781789096859 We have three wonderfully fortean concepts to start with. We all know that fairies, even if they might sometimes be pretty, delicate little winged creatures, are rarely benign, and in AJ

If you crave more outré viewing after the excesses of festive mainstream TV, then the Blaze channel has much to recommend it. If it’s decidedly enthusiastic fortean material you’re looking for, then look no further… As saucery is on the ascendant onc

Dir Brad Anderson, US 2001 Second Sight Films, £26.99 (Blu-ray) Session 9 always turns up on those ‘Top Ten Horror Movies You Haven’t Seen’ lists. There’s definite kudos in that, but as one of the actors from the film points out (in the sumptuous ext

CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS I have submitted an account of strange occurrences in my house [‘Hexham fairies’, FT380:76, June 2019] and I read “It

127. Bebenhausen Abbey Not often in the mostly obscure history of Western esotericism and occultism do we get the opportunity to stand in the exact spot where a pivotal event took place; however, a visit to the beautiful Bebenhausen Abbey (Kloster Be

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I too have experienced ‘The voice of authority’ [FT410:75]. When I was younger, I had a romance that lasted about six months. At first it was terrific, then it wasn’t, then it ended. Nothing drastic. Several months later, I had a day off work. I had

FORTEAN TIMES is a monthly magazine of news, reviews and research on strange phenomena and experiences, curiosities, prodigies and portents. It was founded by Bob Rickard in 1973 to continue the work of Charles Fort (1874–1932). Born of Dutch stock i

GHOSTS OF A NORFOLK COASTAL TOWN CAN WRITERS PREDICT THE FUTURE? + AIRBASE ALIENS, HEADLESS HORSES, BULLET-PROOF BIBLES AND MUCH MORE… FORTEAN TIMES 415 ON SALE 27 JAN 2022 ■

Florida resident Shamaya Lynn left her toddler playing in the background while she took a work Zoom call. During the call the child found an unsecured, fully loaded handgun and fired it. Other people in the meeting heard a noise and saw Lynn fall bac