Welcome to my website
I am a Research Fellow in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University where I specialise in teaching media law and investigation skills. Before I entered academia 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. 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 latest book, How UFOs Conquered the World: the history of a modern myth, was published in 2015.
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- Magonia Blog
- THE SUPERNATURAL IN WARTIME February 12, 2019
- SLENDERMAN - LIVING THE LEGEND February 8, 2019
- MAD ABOUT MONSTERS February 2, 2019
- THE WORLD OF SCIENCE January 22, 2019
- THE FALL AND RISE OF MODERN MAGIC January 17, 2019
- Mark Pilkington & John Lundberg – Folklore & Deception in the UFO Age
- Mirage Men in The Guardian August 18, 2014
- Mirage Men Double Disc DVD June 16, 2014
- UFOs and F-14s over Iran May 2, 2014
- We have lift off! March 27, 2014
- Mirage Men revealed by Greenwald? February 25, 2014
- Bob Sheaffer’s Bad UFOs
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- The Skeptic magazine
- Ooops! TWO errors in previous message! October 1, 2015
- October Spookiness! October 1, 2015
- Empirical Sex Talk on Dacryphilia, tonight October 1, 2015
- Little Atoms 393 – Timothy Snyder & Black Earth September 30, 2015
- Ash Pryce on "How to talk to the dead" @ Greenwich SitP, 7:30 pm, 7/10/15 September 30, 2015
- Charles Fort Institute Blog
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- Curt Collins on saucers in pop culture
- Philip Klass on the Cash-Landrum UFO case February 8, 2019
- The Cash-Landrum-McDonald UFO Incident of 1980 December 14, 2018
- Skeptoid Challenges the Cash-Landrum UFO Incident December 7, 2018
- UFOs and Alien Monsters from Outer Space October 24, 2018
- Jessie Roestenburg’s 1954 UFO Encounter and Beyond October 19, 2018
- Andrew May’s Forteana blog
- Pseudoscience and Science Fiction October 9, 2016
- Astronomical debunking October 2, 2016
- Contradiction - the All-Video Murder Mystery September 25, 2016
- Sacred Porn September 18, 2016
- Astronomical computers (old ones) September 11, 2016
- Paul Kimball’s The Other Side of Truth: Don’t believe, don’t disbelieve. Think
- Project Blue Book - A Review January 28, 2019
- Stan Friedman Retires March 13, 2018
- Halifax gets Haunted! September 29, 2017
- Haunted Extra, Vol. 1.01 - Queen's County Museum Revisited August 17, 2017
- 2017 East Coast Paraconference - Remote Viewing Panel August 15, 2017
Tag Archives: Britain’s X-traordinary Files
British Army tried to harness ‘supernormal’ powers in WW2
Records I discovered at The National Archives show the British Army’s top brass tried to harness ‘supernormal‘ powers during the war against Hitler – and may still be conducting experiments on a range of special powers. An article by Mark … Continue reading
On the trail of the phantom copter
The Daily Mirror has published the results of my Freedom of Information research on the phantom helicopter mystery that plagued British police forty years ago. The full story was published in Britain’s X-traordinary Files and a summary can be found … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Britain's X-traordinary Files, Daily Mirror, Dr David Clarke, Fifth Column, Freedom of Information Act, Harrier jump jet, IRA, James Bond, Mail Online, MI5, Ministry of Defence, Peak District, phantom helicopters, Scotland Yard, Special Branch, Superintendent George Oldfield
2 Comments
Cat’s out of the bag?
The Beast of Bodmin Moor was really just a large domestic cat according to a study commissioned by the British government. Two tabloids, The Sun and the Daily Mail, revealed the results of the 1995 investigation, based upon information taken from … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ADAS, alien big cats, Beast of Bodmin Moor, Bloomsbury, Britain's X-traordinary Files, Cornwall, Department for the Environment, Elliot Morley MP, Essex lion, Feral, Fisheries and Food, George Monbiot, Ministry of Agriculture, Paris tiger, the Pembrokeshire Panther
1 Comment
Nessie: shoot on sight!
The Sunday Express has published a summary of my research into official files on The Loch Ness Monster. The article by Mark Branagan is headlined: ‘The day big game hunters were called in to kill Nessie…and almost sparked war’ and begins: ‘It … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Britain's X-traordinary Files, David Clarke, David James MP, Duke of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Loch Ness Monster, Murdoch MacDonald MP, Prince Philip, Royal Scottish Museum, Scottish Nationalists, Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir Godfrey Collins, Sir Peter Scott, The National Archives of Scotland, The Natural History Museum, The Scottish Office, Tim Dinsdale
1 Comment
Solway Spaceman mystery is 50 years old
It is 50 years since Jim Templeton took the famous image of a figure in a space-suit hovering behind his daughter on the Solway Marshes in the English Lake District. Since that family outing in May 1964 when the figure … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged aliens, angels, Anne Templeton, anomalous photographs, BBC Cumbria, Bloomsbury, Blue Streak rockets, Britain's X-traordinary Files, Carlisle fire service, Chapelcross nuclear power station, Cumberland News, Cumberland spaceman, Elizabeth Templeton, Jim Templeton, Kodak, Men in Black, MIB, NASA, RAF Spadeadam, Rational Wiki, Solway Marshes, Solway spaceman, spirit forms, Zeiss Pentacon camera
8 Comments
