Many years ago, I joined a mail order book club and one of my very first purchases was a book called Without Trace: The Last Voyages of Eight Ships by John Harris. I’ve always been fascinated by the unexplained and … Continue reading The Sin of Concealment: Discovering Donald Crowhurst
I’ve been a fan of sibling art-rockers Sparks for many years, from seeing them on Top of the Pops in the 1970s (John Lennon, Hitler on the telly, blah) to seeing them many times live at various locations with my … Continue reading Oy, the Mael Boys Already!
If you’ve heard of Pablo Fanque at all, it’s probably because of the Beatles. In the song Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite, the lyrics, based on an 1843 circus poster that John Lennon bought in a Sevenoaks antique … Continue reading What a Scene! The Amazing Story of Pablo Fanque
A personal tribute to the author Terrance Dicks, who died recently. When I was a boy growing up in Sunderland, I used to walk with my Mother to the public library, which was roughly half way between our house and … Continue reading Growing Up and Growing Old with Terrance Dicks
I dug up this piece, originally intended as the first part of a sprawling history of British Sci-Fi on film and television for the original run of Strange Skins magazine, and thought it might be of interest. Please excuse any … Continue reading A History of British Sci-Fi on Film and Television – Part One (1895 to 1955)
Originally published in Strange Skins 2013 #1 Sometimes, mythic historical characters are so vividly drawn in the public consciousness that they are believed, against the best evidence, to have actually existed; Robin Hood is a good example. More rarely, a … Continue reading Baron Münchhausen: The Truth Behind History’s Greatest Liar
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