Are you in Scotland and looking for a speaker during Halloween week? In the last week of October I’ll be knocking the French mud off my boots and venturing back to Scotland for a series of talks, and there are a few gaps in the
schedule, so I’m looking for some other opportunities.
Here’s the skinny:
On the evening of Tuesday 28th October I’m talking about ‘Supernatural Scotland’ at the Breadalbane Library in
Aberfeldy, Perth & Kinross.
On Wed 29th (evening) I’m presenting my crowd-pleasing ‘Zombies from History’ to the Edinburgh Skeptics at the Banshee Labyrinth. Warning: may contain corpses.
Thurs 30th (evening) I’m in Perth with the Filmmakers Club.
And in the afternoon of Friday 31st, Halloween itself, I’m at the (drum-roll) Scottish Paranormal Festival in Stirling,
giving a talk entitled ‘Sex, Lies & Poltergeists’: expect scenes of destruction, pointless violence and icky fluids from the very beginning.
So, if you are looking for a Halloween speaker on all matters ghoul and ghast anytime between Monday 27th
October and Saturday 1st November, please get in touch.
After writing dozens of non-fiction books on mysteries, witchcraft, zombies, ghosts, poltergeists, murders,
bodysnatching and other gleeful subjects, I’ve finally finished my first novel.
It’s a vampire novel, which will perhaps surprise no one given my genre tastes, but in addition to featuring serial
killers, explosions, bodily naughtiness, and jokes about Jimi Hendrix, it is also an alternative history.
Basically, I’m attempting to do nothing less than replace the current standard vampire mythology with an entirely
new one based around evolutionary biology and cutting-edge archaeological thinking.
I know, modesty has always been one of my greater faults.
Now that the novel is finished, the real hard work begins: trying to find a publisher or agent. Despite having written 31 non-fiction books, when it comes to getting a first novel published I’m back on the starting block.
I’ll let you know how I get on.
This Saturday (9th November) I’m talking at the National Conference of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research (SSPR), a fine institution if ever there was.
The day long event promises to be a belter, with talks including:
Anthony Peake ‘Cheating the Ferryman: A New Blueprint for Post Mortem Survival’
P.G. Maxwell-Stuart ‘Poltergeists and Witches: Unruly Sisters’
Brian Allan ‘The Dark Messiah: Magick, Gnosis and Religion’
And a guest panel featuring Joan Charles.
As for your humble author, he’ll be waffling on about ‘Sex, Lies and Paranormal Glasgow’ – expect the usual coalescence of vampires, poltergeists, zombies and scepticism. Plus sex and lies of course.
The event is at the Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel in Glasgow’s West End, and runs from 10am to 5pm. Tickets and more details here.
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
Over the next week I’m appearing at various venues and events throughout Scotland, stunning audiences into submission with my patented technique involving bluster, arms-waving and cunningly illustrated Keynote presentations.
On Friday 22 February I’m in Stenhousemuir, talking about Scottish Lore and Legend to Scouts from the Forth Valley.
On Monday 25 February I’m addressing the Dunkeld and Birnam Historical Society on the subject of ‘Paranormal Perthshire’. The event is at the Birnam Institute [http://www.birnamarts.com/index.asp?cookies=True] at 7.30pm and is open to all, although there will be a small charge at the door for non-members.
Then on Wednesday 27 February I’m talking about ‘Sex, Lies and Poltergeists at the Argyle Street branch of Waterstones in Glasgow. This free event starts at 7pm and will be followed by a signing for Poltergeist over Scotland.
Finally, on Thursday 28 February you can take in ‘An Evening of Murder with Geoff Holder’ at the Loch Leven Community Campus in Kinross. Featuring mysterious, unsolved and gruesome crimes, this talk starts at 6.30 and there’s a small entrance fee. []
See you around.