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 FALL AND RISE OF MODERN MAGIC January 17, 2019
- LAW AND LEGEND January 14, 2019
- THE MAN WHO MADE THE BLOTS January 11, 2019
- BLOOD AND SOUL January 7, 2019
- WATCH THE SKIES January 3, 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
- 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
- UFO History: The Saucers from Atlantis July 13, 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
- 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
- 2017 East Coast Paraconference - August 11, 12, 13 August 6, 2017
Tag Archives: The National Archives
100 years of Fake News: The German Corpse Factory
False stories that masquerade as real news are not a product of the modern age. But few realise the modern era of ‘Fake News‘ began one hundred years ago – during the carnage of the First World War. In the … Continue reading
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Tagged Arthur Ponsonby, BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Berliner Lokalanzeiger, black and tans, Brigadier-General John Charteris, Cadaver, cannibalism, China, corpse factory, Daily Express, Daily Mail, David Lloyd George, Douglas Haig, Fake News, Falsehood in Wartime, First World War, Germany, glycerine, Ivor Montague, Joachim Neander, John Buchan, Kadaver factory, Karl Rosner, lies, Lord Beaverbrook, Lord Northcliffe, Lord Robert Cecil, Major Hugh Pollard, MI7, New York Times, North China Herald, Professor Piers Robinson, propaganda, Punch, Randal Marlin, rumours, Sir Austen Chamberlain, The 39 Steps, The Holocaust, The National Archives, The Times, University of Sheffield
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Farewell to the ‘mystical astronaut’: Edgar Mitchell 1930-2016
Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon who became a celebrity believer in the UFO myth, has died aged 85. The Guardian newspaper once described the retired NASA astronaut as being an unlikely name on the list … Continue reading
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Tagged A Monstrous Commotion, Alan Shepard, Andrew Smith, Apollo 14, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Dr Edgar Mitchell, Ed Mitchell, epiphany, ESP, Gareth Williams, George W Bush, Gordon Brown, Huffington Post, Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Kerrang!, Lee Spiegel, Loch Ness Monster, Lord Hugh Dowding, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ministry of Defence, MoD, Moondust, NASA, Nick Margerrison, RAF, Richard D. Hall, Roswell UFO crash, sixth man on the moon, The Guardian, The National Archives, The Sun, UFO files
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The Scottish Roswell
The Sunday Express and Metro have today published a preview of a chapter from How UFOs Conquered the World that exposes the truth behind ‘the Scottish Roswell’. Journalist Mark Branagan says the Ardgay mystery has ‘intrigued UFO hunters since it was … Continue reading
Portillo’s State Secrets: Mysteries
The BBC2 series Portillo’s State Secrets unearths previously classified documents from The National Archives, revealing fascinating facts from Britain’s past. The episode on 26 March covers ‘Mysteries‘ and I have compiled this blogpost for The National Archives to accompany the … Continue reading
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Tagged 'Dear Boss' letter, BBC, Britain's Roswell, British UFO Files, First World War, Frank Power, HMS Hampshire, hoax, Jack the Ripper, John Major, Kitchener's coffin hoax, Lord Kitchener, Lt Col Charles Halt, Michael Portillo, Rendlesham forest UFOs, Ripperology, Scotland Yard, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, State Secrets, The National Archives, UFO files, unsolved mysteries
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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
Common Sense About UFOs – The Unopened File
Britain’s Ministry of Defence is often accused of hiding ‘top secret’ files on UFOs or not being entirely honest about what it knows about the subject. Conspiracy-minded UFO truthers got excited last year when the ministry announced it had found … Continue reading
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Tagged Brinsley le poer Trench, Chinese lanterns, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Colonel Patrick Stevens OBE, Common Sense About UFOs, D-Day, drones, fireballs, Fred Mulley, Freedom of Information, Greenwich Planetarium, House of Lords, Jodrell Bank, Lord Clancarty, meteorological balloons, Ministry of Defence, New World Order, Paddy Stevens, RAF Woodbridge, Rendlesham forest UFOs, Richard Whiteley, Royal Marines 41 Commando, Sir Eric Gairy, The National Archives, UFO cover-up, UFO desk, UFO myth, UFOs, United Nations UFO debate, Yorkshire TV
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Foxtrot 94 – a Cold War mystery solved
One of the most enduring mysteries of the Cold War – the disappearance of US pilot William Schaffner in a secret RAF exercise above the North Sea – has finally been laid to rest. Captain Scaffner was just 28 years … Continue reading
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Tagged alien abductions, Alien Investigator, Avro Shackleton, BBC Inside Out North, Captain William Schaffner, Cold War, conspiracies, English Electric Lightning, Flamborough Head, FlyPast magazine, Foxtrot 94, Grimsby Evening News, Ian Black, Lightning XS894, Michael Schaffner, Ohio, RAF, RAF Binbrook, RAF Board of Inquiry, Taceval, The National Archives, The X-Files, Tony Dodd, UFOs, Vietnam
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UFO files – saved!
After six decades of official indifference UFO records have been finally recognised by Britain’s Ministry of Defence as being ‘historically significant’. MoD’s ‘Guidance for Record Reviewers’, lists files on ‘unidentified flying objects‘ alongside those concerning nuclear testing, Special Forces and … Continue reading
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Tagged archives, Brussels, Freedom of Information Act, gun camera film, ICA, International Council on Archives, Julian Hennsessy, Merlyn Rees MP, Ministry of Defence, Public Record Acts, Sir Robert Grigg, The Foreign Office, The Guardian, The National Archives, UFO desk, UFO files
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