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Tabloid Tales
The Sun, 29 February 2012 Credit: News International The red-top tabloids are a rich source of modern folklore and urban legends – and today’s front page splash in The Sun is a case in point. “Girl...
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Emails from the dead
Supernatural folklore is a dynamic force. It adapts to new technology but incorporates traditional beliefs that date back thousands of years. Soon after the invention of photography in the 1850s, the...
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Friday the 13th
Every year I receive requests from journalists who want to know where the idea of Friday the 13th being unlucky originated. So here’s a summary of the lore which surrounds this widely held...
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Haunting my bookshelves in 2012:
Here’s my choice of other key books that floated my folkloric boat during 2012: Karl Bell’s book The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack (Boydell Press) The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack: Victorian urban...
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Hunting the Northern Lights
One of my ambitions has always been to take a voyage beyond the Arctic Circle in search of the elusive aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. For years I have been fascinated by the mythology of the...
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UFOs Conquer The World
My new book How UFOs Conquered the World was published on 14 May and is reviewed by The Sunday Times here. Alien encounters as depicted in Thrilling Wonder Stories 1948 (credit: MEPL) In his review...
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Katharine Briggs award shortlist
My book How UFOs Conquered the World: the history of a modern myth was shortlisted by The Folklore Society for the Katharine Briggs book award for folklore scholarship in 2015. The judges described the...
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Dead Flows the Don
Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University appeared on a BBC Radio 3 documentary about the River Don. In the Sheffield Telegraph he traces the myths and legends of the river as it flows through...
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Six Months, Five Podcasts
During the past six months I have contributed to five Fortean-themed podcasts reflecting the range of my UFO and legend-related research interests. Brian J Robb who curates the monthly Sounds Peculiar...
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Two Podcasts: All About UFOs and Covid-19 folklore
Children’s publisher Usborne have reissued the classic 1977 title All About UFOs from The World of the Unknown series. Usborne’s reissued All About UFOs The UFO title is the second in the series to be...
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