Tag Archives: Folklore

In which the author tiptoes into podcasting…

 

If you are unable to get to a live event to watch me wave my arms about and witter on in front of an audience, there is now an alternative – The Fortean Freak-Out with Geoff Holder, a downloadable podcast of me wittering on in front of a microphone (in the best traditions of radio, the associated arm-waving will have to be imagined).

The first podcast is entitled “The Vampire with Iron Teeth” and deals with an episode covered in Paranormal Glasgow – a children’s hunt for a cannibalistic vampire in 1950s Gorbals. I expand the story into Glasgow’s wider history of children’s hunts – from ghosts and ‘maniacs’ to Spring-Heeled Jack – and look into the cultural context of the events, from American horror comics to crypto-Communists and the only time the Houses of Parliament have debated the activities of a vampire.

The podcast can be downloaded FREE from the official Fortean Freak-Out with Geoff Holder page, or alternatively listen through the Podcast page. The Fortean Freak-Out will be a regular feature, so check back for future podcasts on cannibalism in Scotland, fairylore, Jacobite paranormalism, bodysnatching, poltergeists and much else.

 

Thanks to Jamie Cook for editing and engineering.

 

 

In which the author launches Paranormal Glasgow with a talk and signing in Glasgow (of all places)…

 

**CHANGE OF DATE.** Due to the traditional Circumstances Beyond Our Control, the event at Ladywell on Monday 25th July has been cancelled. A new date has been rearranged for Wednesday 24th August, at the same time and place. Apologies to all.

 

On Monday 25th July I’ll be at the fab Ladywell shop in Glasgow’s Merchant City to formally launch Paranormal Glasgow with a talk and book signing. Topics of discussion will include witchcraft, demonic possession, big cats, the Vampire with Iron Teeth, and the Weegie who could prove he could miraculously go without food for weeks because he had a certificate from the Pope saying so.

 

 

The Ladywell is just a few doors down from its partner 23 Enigma, an emporium of magical artefacts that I featured in The Guide to Mysterious Glasgow. The setting is intimate – it’s a bit like the paranormal equivalent of MTV Unplugged – and so tickets are limited. I’ll have copies of all my books for sale and signing.

The Ladywell is at 268-270 High Street,
 Merchant City,
 Glasgow
 G4 0QT. Tickets are £7 – please call 0141 552 7810 or visit the shop in advance to reserve yours. The event kicks off at 7pm. Full details are at www.theladywell.com.

In which the author seeks paranormal stories from Cumbria…

Paranormal Cumbria, the next book, is under way, and as part of the research I’m looking for personal stories of the supernatural and strange within the county.

 

So if you’ve encountered a big cat, a Black Dog, something odd in the sky, or a bogle or spirit – or anything else bizarre – please get in touch using the contact form located at the bottom of the ‘Events and Booking’ or ‘Media Room’ pages. Family traditions and stories passed down from previous generations are also welcome.

Please include as many details as possible – such as date, time of day, location, what happened, names of witnesses and so on – and indicate whether you are happy for the story to appear in the book, and for me to use your name in Paranomal Cumbria.

 

It doesn’t matter whether you are a visitor or a resident – all that is important is that the event or sighting took place in Cumbria. And of course Cumbria is much larger than just the Lake District.

 

I look forward to receiving despatches from the frontline of Forteana…

In which the author broadcasts on International Paranormal Investigators Radio…

 

Over the night of Wednesday/Thursday the 29th/30th June I’ll be yabbering away on IPI-Radio, the net-based radio show run by the fine folk at International Paranormal Investigators. More details at www.ipi-radio.info. Things kick off at midnight UK time, which is early evening for the audience in the USA and Canada. I suspect Paranormal Glasgow will be discussed, along with much else relating to the rational analysis of alleged paranormal phenomena.

The live event is fully interactive, with listeners/viewers sending in questions via chat and webcams. So if you want to ask me about vampires with iron teeth, miraculous fasters, the cabinet-maker who channelled Hafod, Prince of Persia (and companion of Jesus), big cats, the Maggie Wall Witchcraft Monument or anything else from my casebook, come along to www.ipi-radio.info/ipi-live-video/ for live chat across two continents. Apparently electronical technology is involved, including something the youth of today call ‘the internet’. We’re living in the future, I tell you.

…In which the author falls in love with standing stones all over again

Just back from a three-day trip to the archaeological wonderland that is Kilmartin, in Mid-Argyll, on Scotland’s west coast. Megalithic structures abound in the region, and we visited dozens of standing stones, burial cairns, cists and other ancient sites. Highlights inclu­ded Temple Wood stone circle and the Dunadd hillfort and royal complex, plus a lake crannog and a huge standing stone carved with a Christian cross. Plus I got to lie down in a subterranean prehistoric grave (and found it a tad cramped).

 

The area has also the best collection of cup-and-ring marks (prehistoric rock art) in the country, and although some of it takes something of an effort to get to – especially in the infamous Argyll rain – it was well worth it. Because prehistoric British rock art is non-representational and abstract, its meaning is lost to us, making it not just beautiful but enigmatic and mysterious. Some cup-and-ring sites are notoriously difficult to find, and many a time the rain-swept glens echoed with the distinctively plaintive cry of the rock art hunter: “It’s meant to be around here somewhere!”

 

The trip was arranged by the earth mysteries magazine Northern Earth, www.northernearth.co.uk, with organisation by the editor, John Billingsley, and field leadership by archaeologist and rock art expert Paul Bowers, both of whom did a bang-up job. More about the utterly fantastic Kilmartin area can be found on the website of the wonderful Kilmartin House Museum, www.kilmartin.org. The bookshop there has a superb collection of books on Scottish archaeology, history and folklore, and also happens to stock signed copies of “101 Things To Do With A Stone Circle”