Thursday, July 30, 2009

Radio Tonight

I'll be on Acceleration Radio with Bruce Collins tonight, where I'll be talking about my book There's Something in the Woods (which contains several chapters on the British Bigfoot). The show runs from 5PM to 7PM Pacific Time.

Monday, July 27, 2009

The British Bigfoot - Untamed!

On Saturday night, I took part in a cool 2-hour discussion on Untamed Dimensions radio on the subject of Bigfoot - much of which focused upon the weirder, high-strangeness aspect of the British Bigfoot phenomenon.

The show is available to download as an MP3 right here. Hope you enjoy!

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Man-Monkey on Underworld




This morning I was interviewed by Lia Ramses, the host of Australia's Underworld Show, about my research in the field of cryptozoology. The interview will be aired on Sunday night (Australia-time), and more details can be found here and here.

In the 1-hour interview, we covered a lot of ground, such as that relating to my beliefs concerning a link between certain cryptids and the paranormal; Britain's most-famous Bigfoot-like entity, the Man-Monkey of Shropshire; the Loch Ness Monster and Aleister Crowley; my quest for the truth about Puerto Rico's Chupacabra; how I got involved in the investigation of Fortean phenomena, and much more.

Monday, July 13, 2009

The Hairy Man of Wouldham

Over at the main Centre for Fortean Zoology blog, Neil Arnold has a new post titled Black Dogs and Hairy Men - the latter part of which focuses on a British Bigfoot-style report from Neil's home-county of Kent.

Here's what Neil has to say:

"Wouldham is a small village in Kent which sits right next to Blue Bell Hill, which for me remains the countries weirdest village.

"In my book I noted several bizarre tales concerning witnesses who’d seen red-eyed man-beasts and very recently a lady, who now resides in Norfolk, contacted me to say that when she was a child growing up in the ‘60s at Wouldham, her grandmother used to tell her intriguing tales.

"One of these was said to date back to the 1920s and her grandmother, who passed away, made notes of this. The lady said that her grandmother used to tell her about the ‘hairy man’ of Wouldham. A humanoid often seen in local woods by children, and certainly adults were made aware of this being.

"It was completely covered in hair and the story had become embedded in her psyche and was triggered again when she purchased my MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: KENT and saw, at the front, an image of a hairy humanoid standing at Blue Bell Hill’s Kit’s Coty House, an ancient structure on the landscape.

"It’s clear to me that we aren’t dealing with tales of escaped monkey’s, but indeed something very much embedded in the fabric of the place, as some kind of folkloric creature which has existed for possibly centuries. It seems as well that the more I write about the creature, the more it stirs up. Around 1997/’98 there was a report in the local newspaper of a gorilla-type creature seen at Blue Bell Hill, and I recall scoffing at the report and believed it was simply down to media drama.

"Now, it seems that there is, and always has been, a strange humanoid prowling the dark lanes and thickets of a place that I’ve been obsessed with since I was a kid and my dad used to take me there and terrify me with tales of the phantom hitchhiker..."

Monday, July 6, 2009

Keel Passes

I'm sure many of you will have either read or heard the sad news that Fortean legend John Keel has passed away.

This is, of course, very tragic news: Keel was without doubt one of the most influential, thought-provoking and controversial characters within Forteana. Indeed, such was his influence, importance, history and legend, it's almost impossible to do the man justice in terms of an obituary.

The Mothman Prophecies, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, Jadoo and more are all titles that should be on the book-shelves of all Keel disciples - as well as on the shelves of those who may now just be discovering his work for the very first time.

Agree with his views or disagree with them, no-one can doubt that without Keel the world of Forteana would not be what it is today. Thanks in part to his skills as a writer who could capture and captivate his audience, he made the world of the unexplained one that was exciting, enthralling, disturbing, unsettling, adventurous, and much more, too.

Indeed, it was largely due to Keel's written output that many of my views on the notion that at least some of the cryptozoological beasts of our world have less (or more!) than mere flesh-and-blood origins were originally formulated.

Tonight, I will be raising my glass to Keel - not with sadness, but with admiration for (and in memory of) one of the most original thinkers within this odd and bizarre world we inhabit - and I hope you'll be doing likewise.

The Orford Wild Man

As some of you may know, I write a regular weekly column for Mania.com titled Lair of the Beasts - the latest of which focuses on a centuries-old tale of a hairy wild man captured near the east-coast town of Orford. Here's the link.

Creatures of Kent

Neil Arnold discusses the Maidstone Monkey.