Welcome to my website
I am course leader and senior lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University where I teach media law and investigation skills. Prior to teaching journalism skills I worked as a news reporter for The Sheffield Star and Yorkshire Post and spent four years working as a Press Officer in local government. My Ph.D is in Folklore and was completed at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, in 1999. My interest in folklore and the supernatural goes back to my childhood and I've been researching and writing about strange phenomena for as long as I can remember. Since 2008 I have been working with The National Archives (TNA) as their consultant for the ongoing release of the UFO files created by Britain's Ministry of Defence. My book, The UFO Files, was published by TNA in September 2009.
Magonia Blog- CARRY ON ABDUCTING May 22, 2013
- FIRST READ: ENTER THE SCEPTICS May 19, 2013
- LIFE OF PSI May 15, 2013
- A GOOD GUIDE TO STRANGE STUFF May 12, 2013
- REMEMBERING DOCTOR DEE May 8, 2013
- Mark Pilkington & John Lundberg – Folklore & Deception in the UFO Age
- Untitled May 11, 2013
- Coming soon October 3, 2012
- Area 51 Viewers Guide August 4, 2012
- From the vaults August 4, 2012
- Ebe’s Paranoia July 20, 2012
- Bob Sheaffer’s Bad UFOs
- That "Citizens Hearing" on UFO Disclosure Got the Respect it Deserved - (Very Little) May 13, 2013
- Greer's "Sirius" Documentary - no "Bombshell," just Nonstop UFO Claims April 23, 2013
- That "Citizen Hearing" on UFO "Disclosure" April 16, 2013
- Greer Documentary "Sirius" Promises Free Energy and a Dead Alien April 4, 2013
- UFO Sightings Debunker Claims UFOs Are Not Real! March 24, 2013
- The Skeptic magazine
- SitP London - Simon Clare: An Atheist's Guide to the Alpha Course May 22, 2013
- New paper on measuring belief in conspiracies out today May 21, 2013
- SitP Newcastle - Kathryn Ford: Looking Guilty May 19, 2013
- SitP Sheffield - Jennifer Saul: Implicit Bias and Scepticism May 18, 2013
- Little Atoms 279 – Chris Marsden and Ian Brown & Regulating Code May 17, 2013
- Andrew May’s Forteana blog
- Paranormal Shakespeare May 19, 2013
- 200 Years of Forteana May 12, 2013
- The Frieze of Parnassus May 5, 2013
- The Strange Death of General Sikorski April 28, 2013
- Big Black Cats: Physical or Paranormal? April 21, 2013
Tag Archives: The National Archives
Crop Circles – the MI5 file
Crop circles dating back to the Second World War are “proof the phenomenon is no modern hoax”, according to a story published by The Huffington Post. Research by an Australian archaeologist, using images from Google Earth’s new 1945 overlay, has … Continue reading
Haunting my bookshelves in 2012:
Here’s my choice of other key books that floated my folkloric boat during 2012: The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack: Victorian urban folklore and popular cultures, by Karl Bell (Boydell Press). As readers of my blog will know, the mysterious figure … Continue reading
The UFO Files Rebooted
The second edition of The UFO files was published by Bloomsbury on 13 September 2012. You can order the book from Amazon here or via the publisher’s website here. The National Archives press release on the book can be found … Continue reading
Ghost Rockets from Erehwon
It sounds like a “mission impossible.” But in a few days’ time a Swedish film crew will dive into a remote lake in search of wreckage from one of the mysterious “ghost rockets” that have plagued Scandinavia since the end … Continue reading
The Scottish Roswell?
Picture the scene: A shepherd visiting a remote area stumbles upon strange wreckage strewn across the ground which could be the remains of a crashed spaceship. The debris consists of pieces of unusual metal and strange drawings. On reporting his find … Continue reading
UFO Files make waves
The release of the ninth collection of MoD UFO files by The National Archives continues to make news across the world. On the first day of the launch (Thursday, 12 July) the website received almost 60,000 visitors – an uplift … Continue reading
MoD files make UFOs history
The ninth collection of UFO files, released by the UK government on 12 July, takes the chronology full circle back to the MoD’s decision to ‘make UFOs history’. A guide to the highlights of the 25 files can be found … Continue reading
Saucer Sam – the UFO story that convinced a Government minister
The second edition of my book The UFO Files – based on the latest documents released by The National Archives – will be published by Bloomsbury in September. One of the most interesting stories from the book was previewed in … Continue reading
