Tag Archives: Paranormal

In which the Author talks bodysnatching in Dundee’s ‘Courier’ newspaper…

On Monday 21st October the “Life Matters’ section of The Courier  featured some beardy bloke holding a sheep

skull and grinning inanely. Oh wait, that was me….

The piece by Caroline Lindsay comes a few days before I’m giving two talks on ‘Bodysnatching in Scone’ at Scone Palace. AND, people, goodness me there are strange things afoot, for during the Saturday talk I’ll be filmed by a

crew from TF1, the French equivalent of BBC1, for a ‘Halloween in Scotland’ special. Come along and you too

could be on le French telly…

027CE2110COAThe talks, which are suitable for over 16s, will take place at 1pm on 26th and 27th October, in the Murray Suite at Scone Palace. Tickets, which cost £10 per person and also include grounds admission, must be pre-booked by

telephoning 01738 552300 or emailing visits@scone-palace.co.uk. The full range of Spooky Hallowe’en Weekend events can be found at www.scone-palace.co.uk

Venue: Scone Palace, Scone, Perth PH2 6BD.

 

In which the Author embarks on a Halloween tour of Scotland…

From 26th October to the 12th November I’m back in Scotland for a ‘Halloween tour‘ of lectures, talks and events. I’ll have books on sale at each event.

1. SATURDAY & SUNDAY 26TH & 27TH OCTOBER, SCONE PALACE, PERTH.

TALK: ‘THE BODYSNATCHERS OF SCONE (plus the puma, the witch and the severed head)’

Join Geoff as he delves into the dark world of the Resurrectionists, the strange collaboration of hardened criminals and respectable medical men who broke into coffins and stole bodies for the dissecting tables of the anatomists.

Bodysnatching ahoy!

Time: 1pm

Tickets: £10 (include grounds admission) – 01738 552300 or  visits@scone-palace.co.uk or  www.scone-palace.co.uk

SPECIAL: On the Saturday the talk (and the subsequent visit to the Palace graveyard) will be filmed by TF1 (the

French equivalent of BBC1) for a ‘Halloween in Scotland’ special to be broadcast in France on 2 November. Come

along and be on television!

 

2. THURSDAY 31ST OCTOBER – SKEPTICS IN THE PUB, EDINBURGH.

TALK: ‘SCOTTISH WITCHCRAFT’

Scottish witchcraft has by now developed its own mythology, a set of ideas that ‘everybody knows’. Geoff’s talk

will attempt to separate fantasy from historical reality, which is both stranger and more sordid than most people

suspect. By way of illustration he will detail his own groundbreaking investigations into the famous Maggie Wall

Witchcraft Monument in Perthshire, a B-listed historical monument (and favourite trysting spot for the Moors

Murderers) that, as the painted inscription states, supposedly commemorates “Maggie Wall burned here as a

Witch 1657”. The key word, boys and girls, is “supposedly”.

Venue: The Banshee Labyrinth
 29-35 Niddry Street
 Edinburgh 
EH1 1LG

Time: 7.30PM

Free – More details at http://edinburgh.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/1768/Witches-in-Scotland

3. SATURDAY 9TH NOVEMBER, GLASGOW – SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH ANNUAL

CONFERENCE.

TALK: ‘SEX, LIES AND PARANORMAL GLASGOW’

Venue: Hilton Glasgow Grosvener Hotel, 
Grosvener Terrace, Great Western Road / Byres Road, Glasgow

Time: from 10 am to 4.40 pm

Tickets: £35: http://www.sspr.co.uk/index.html

 

4. TUESDAY 12TH NOVEMBER: THE EDINBURGH FORTEAN SOCIETY.

TALK: ‘ZOMBIES FROM HISTORY’

Zombie culture didn’t start with George Romero. Here be medieval chroniclers’ sworn-to-be-true tales of the

plague-spreading undead; the pugilistic zombie of Paisley; archeological evidence of Anglo-Saxon and Romano-

British fear of the walking dead; several ‘Ladies with the Ring’, all supposedly revived in the grave by jewel-stealing

gravediggers; the man who was hanged and buried – and then revived; the Cumbrian Crusader whose corpse was still bleeding 800 years after his death; and the bog body that solved a modern murder mystery.

Warning: contains corpses. 

Venue: The Counting House, 38 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DD

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £1 – http://www.edinburghforteansociety.org.uk/index.html

Poltergeist Over ScotlandParanormal Perthshire11 - Maggie Wall monumentzombies cover for blog

Paranormal GlasgowScottish Bodysnatchers - A Gazetteer

In which the Author has a new book published (this one’s on zombies)…

Zombies from History: A Hunter’s Guide has just been published by the History Press. 

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Are you worried about the zombie apocalypse? Kept awake each night imagining you’ll only manage to take out a

few before that chap at No. 9 gets you? Well, fret no more! Clasp a copy of this book and get a better class of

horrible death from one of Britain’s best-loved historical legends. With full zombie-hunting details – including the

locations of tombs, any wounds and weaknesses, and a carefully calculated difficulty level – no apocalyptic history

lover should leave home without it!

FULL DETAILS of where to find –and how to kill – all of Britain’s most historic zombies.

FACT FILES on the undead in history, including ROMAN REVENANTS, people who were BURIED ALIVE and some RESURRECTED ROYAL CORPSES!

HIGH-PROFILE TARGETS including JANE AUSTEN, HENRY VIII, RICHARD III and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

And here a few zombies for your delecatation… Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin and St Patrick respectively:

happy hunting….

oliver cromwellZombies-52 USEZombies-2 USE alt

In which the Author reanimates some historical zombies…

The Walking Dead. Walkers. Biters. Eaters. The Infected. The Contaminated. The Re-animated. Revenants. The

Living Dead. Whatever you want to call them, the zombie apocalypse is coming. You know it, I know it.

So, faced with the inevitable, what do you do? Do you wait until that dull bloke from No.37 is lurching through the

French windows, intent on feasting on your entrails? Or do you step up, take some pride in your actions, and take out some of history’s big guns before you are finally eaten?

If the latter, then you are in the right place. The end of September sees the publication of Zombies from History: A Hunter’s Guide, the all-in-one guidebook on how to take out sixty high-value targets from Britain’s illustrious (and

ignoble) past. The good and the great mix with famous criminals, rebels and pirates. Do you itch to take on one of

the grandees of nineteenth century literature, or test yourself against an axe-wielding medieval bampot? Wrestle

with Nelson? Battle with Boudica? Then this, friend, is your opportunity. Where they are buried, what wounds and weaknesses they bear, height, age, difficulty level – everything the fully prepared and thoughtful zombie hunter

needs to know.

Note that contemporary zombie culture did not start with Night of the Living Dead. The dead have been returning

for centuries. Zombies from History is therefore peppered with accounts of those who were declared dead but yet

lived; those who survived the hangman’s noose or were buried alive; and descriptions of bog bodies, preserved

corpses and mummified remains. In addition, there are juicy bits of folklore, tall tales and unlikely legends

concerning the walking dead, most taken from historical accounts that stretch back more than a thousand years.

Over the next few days and weeks I’ll be sharing some zombified portraits of famous Britons.  To kick off, here’s

the king of the car park, Richard III, on the book’s cover.

zombies cover

In which the Author guests on the Spooky Southcoast radio show…

 

spooklogowpThis coming weekend I’m the invited guest on Christopher Balzano’s splendid Spooky Southcoast radio show, operating out of Massachusetts. The topic of discussion: poltergeists, with reference to my forthcoming books Poltergeist over Scotland and What is a Poltergeist? – Understanding Poltergeist Activity.

 

Depending on your time zone, the show will air at 10.30pm (Eastern Standard Time in the USA) on Saturday 9th February or 3.30am (GMT UK time) on Sunday 10th. It will also be available for later digital consultation. Go to www.spookysouthcoast.com to find out more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In which the Author sees another book swim into view…

 

My next book, Poltergeist over Scotland, will be published at the end of January. It is the first-ever survey of Scottish poltergeists, with 134 cases stretching from 1635 to 2012. Illustrated with images and distribution maps, and with cases in Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles and the Highlands, as well as all the Lowland counties and the major cities, this should be the definitive work on the topic of Scottish polts.

New research throws light on a number of well-known episodes, from the Edinburgh ‘Egyptian curse’ poltergeist to the Trinity case that famously ended up with one of the participants suing the other in court. In addition, many cases have been rescued from dusty obscurity, while others have either not seen the light of publication for centuries, or are previously unpublished.

You can order Poltergeist over Scotland here.

Meanwhile, a series of interviews with the humble author on the subject of poltergeists can be found on this very website here and also on YouTube.

Hallelujah, it’s raining polts.