A VERY BRITISH HAUNTING

Andrew Martin. Ghoul Britannia: Notes from a Haunted Isle. Short Books, 2009

The British love a good ghost story, and in this book journalist Andrew Martin looks at that obsession, concentrating on the golden age of the ghost story, before the First World War. He quotes historian of ghost stories Julia Briggs as arguing that the carnage of that war effectively killed off the traditional ghost story, as has the electric light.
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KEEPING IN CONTACT

Nick Redfern. Contactees: a History of Human-Alien Interaction. New Page Books, 2010. 

Nick Redfern takes us on a reprise of the world of the contactees. The people, mainly in the early days of ufology, who claimed to have had contact with nice long-haired, blond Ayrian Venusians who told us to be nice and stop making atom bombs and having wars. 

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MORE FROM THE HAUNTED WING

        

Cecilia Back. Ghosts of the McBride House: A True Haunting.  Llewellyn Publications, 2009

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Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Michael Jan Friedman. Seeking Spirits: The Lost Cases of the The Atlantic Paranormal Research Society. Pocket Books, 2009.

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Andy Matthews. Andy Matthew's Greatest Haunts. Foulsham, 2010

PANIC IN THE GRAVEYARD

 Here's a link to a fascinating article with many points of interest for Magonians:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8574484.stm

It is extremely reminiscent of the Liverpool Leprechaun story in the Magonia Archive:
http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-case-of-liverpool-leprechauns.html

Make sure to read the comments, from some of the people who were involved in the Liverpool incident at the time.

WIERDNESS UNLIMITED

Marius Boirayon. Solomon Islands Mysteries: Accounts of Giants and UFOs in the Solomon Islands. Adventures Unlimited, 2009

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Joseph P Farrell. Roswell and the Reich: The Nazi Connection. Adventures Unlimited, 2010

A most curious book, a mixture of travel adventure, biography, folklore and classical paranoia. Much of this centres around the author's (mis)adventures in the Solomon Islands, from which he alleges he was forcibly deported by the Australian intervention force. This, I suspect had less to do with his chasing strange lights in the sky, which locals allegedly call Dragon Snakes, and he attributes to UFOs flying from underground bases, than he would have us believe.
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A BEGINNER'S GUIDE

Mark Rosney, Rob Bethell and Jebby Robinson, A Beginner's Guide to Paranormal Investigation. Amberley, 2010. 

Back in the day, every medium-sized town used to have its own UFO 'research' group. Magonia magazine grew, through a long process of evolution, from such a group in Liverpool. These groups held their meetings in community halls, libraries, scout huts, and in one case the canteen of a plastic-coatings factory on the Guildford by-pass - a location with an almost archetypal ambience of suburban anonymity!
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KLASS ACT

I was rather surprised to see Philip Klass appearing in the Daily Telegraph obituary column last week (2 March 2010) believing that lovable old Uncle Phil had died a couple of years ago. However this was not the curmudgeonly old skeptic that we at Magonia Mansions revere. Instead it turned out to be the real name of science fiction writer William Tenn. Curiously 'our' Phil Klass was for some time believed by some ufologists to be 'really' William Tenn (as well as being a CIA agent paid to debunk UFOs). Of course, at one time 'William Tenn' was thought to be a pen name of Tennessee Williams - not someone I would imagine writing science-fiction on his days off, but there you go.

To distinguish between them, consult this cut-out-and-keep guide:



 

Left to Right: Tennesee Williams; Lovable Old Uncle Phil (with friend); William Tenn

Incidentally, those who miss L. O. Uncle Phil's distinctive Skeptics' UFO Newsletter, will know that the tradition is being carried on by Tim Printy in the form of the on-line journal SUNLite, but without the master's characteristically deranged typography.