This Friday (28th October) I’m the guest of the Breadalbane Heritage Society in Aberfeldy. I’ll be talking about the Maggie Wall Witchcraft Monument, 19th century bodysnatching, and alleged supernatural encounters. The event is open to the public – everyone welcome.
7:30PM, Aberfeldy Town Hall, Crieff Road, Aberfeldy, PH15 2DU._
On Monday 24th October I’m the guest speaker at the AGM of the West Stormont Historical Society. And the subject of my talk will be ‘Ghoulish Tales of Bodysnatching in Perthshire’.
Perthshire has the physical remains of many relics from the bodysnatching era, from watch-houses to several fine examples of morthouses and mortsafes. I’ll be covering these examples of ‘dark heritage’ and examining the economic and social factors behind bodysnatching.
The meeting starts at 7.30pm at Kinclaven Church Hall, between Stanley and Meiklour. Visitors and non-members welcome. For more info, see http://www.stanleydevelopmenttrust.org/west-stormont-historical-society/_
Wednesday 19th October 2011
7.00pm, The Ladywell, 268-270 High Street, Merchant City, Glasgow G4 0QT. Tickets £7 – limited numbers available, so please call 0141 552 7810 in advance to reserve your ticket.
In this intimate setting (see www.theladywell.com) I will be giving an extensive talk on the topics covered in Paranormal Glasgow:
Following the talk there will be time for questions. Copies of all of my books will be available for sale and signing.
These are the local mysteries I’ll be covering in the talk ‘Perthshire Mysteries and Murders’ on Wednesday 12th October in Coupar Angus Library. Geographically, the subjects range across East Perthshire, from Blairgowrie and Coupar Angus to Alyth and Meigle. If you’re in the area, please come along – all are welcome.
The details: Coupar Angus Library, Union Street, Coupar Angus, 7.30pm, Wednesday 12th October. Tickets on the door. Contact 01250 872905.
I’ve just been booked for another author’s visit to one of Her Majesty’s Prisons. This will be my fourth talk behind bars – and this time, by request, I’m doing it on vampires, which is a popular subject with the inmates of this particular prison.
So the Vampire with Iron Teeth (from Paranormal Glasgow) will be featuring, as well as the Vampire of Croglin Grange (from Paranormal Cumbria, which will be out in 2012) and an alleged vampiric attack in Highland Perthshire, which I covered in The Guide to Mysterious Perthshire.
I’ll also be dealing a little bit with the early history of vampires in English literature, noting how the vampire of East European folklore – basically a stupid, smelly peasant – became the suave, sophisticated aristocrat familiar from Dracula and similar fictions. I blame John Polidori (and if you say who? I would in normal circumstances suggest that you attend the talk; but as this would involve committing a serious crime and then getting banged up in the Big House, perhaps this is not a recommended course of action).
As you might imagine, you can’t just waltz into a prison. Checks are made, paperwork is processed, and the prisoners themselves have to be available on the day and time specified. Then you find yourself leaving your mobile with a reception guard and being escorted through a labyrinth of doors and corridors to a room in which sit 25 prisoners, many of whom are avid readers. Usually the prison librarian has circulated my books before the visit, and so as soon as I say “Any questions?” at the end there is a forest of raised hands.
I’ve enjoyed every prison talk I’ve given, one of which brought up one of the strangest personal encounters I’ve ever been told by an audience member. Usually people describe their experiences of seeing a UFO or a ghost – but this particular prisoner told me that, driving fast on a road in Fife one night, he passed a figure complete with scythe, black cloak and skull face – Death himself…
As part of the research for Paranormal Cumbria I sought out a group of ‘fairy houses’ that have mysteriously appeared near Gelt Wood in East Cumbria.
The ceramic dwellings first appeared among the boles and tree roots in the summer of 2009, only to vanish in September – as the fairies explained when they emailed the local paper, it was just getting too cold for them.
The fairies have returned each subsequent summer, and in 2011 there were more than ever, with around 20 or so houses scattered over a two-mile area.
Several of the houses have evidence of their inhabitants’ lives, such as tiny wellington boots, wheelbarrows, letter-boxes, and rope ladders to reach front doors set high up in a drystone wall. One house close to the river even has a canoe.
This year, several people have left gifts for the fairies, in the shape of cards, letters, hand-made textiles, and chocolates.
The beautifully-fashioned dwellings and accessories are utterly enchanting, and seeking them out was a delightful task. Whoever made them deserves a big thank you for bringing wonder into our lives.
Paranormal Cumbria will be published in 2012 and has a full history of fairy sightings in the county, including a plethora of twentieth-century reports of nature spirits, devas, gnomes and other denizens of the fairy otherworld.
