NOTE: This review was first published last week in the new issue of Stuart Miller's Alien Worlds magazine. Thanks to Stuart for letting me republish the review right here.

Island of Paradise
By
Jonathan Downes

A Review by Nick Redfern

As someone who is themselves an author, I am often asked to write reviews of other people’s books. And so, when Alien Worlds’ editor, the good (most of the time, at least) Mr. Miller, asked me if I would be willing to review the latest mighty tome from British writer, crypto-zoologist, and director of the Devon-based Centre for Fortean Zoology, Jonathan Downes, I immediately said yes.

I'm often asked, and particularly at conferences and gigs, what's the strangest ufological story I've ever come across. That's a tough one to answer - definitively, at least.

But the following has to come close.

The text that I am relating below comes from a formerly classified British Royal Air Force Provost and Security Services document that dates from 1966.

The case is made all the more significant by the fact that it describes what appears to be a classic vehicle-interference-type situation; it refers to a witness physically affected by the presence of the UFO; and towards the very end it makes a reference that sounds almost curiously contactee-like in nature.

The odd thing about this report is that the British Ministry of Defense declassified it years ago; yet, to the best of my knowledge very little research has been done into the case - and maybe none at all.

This is made all the more perplexing by virtue of the fact that the MoD has also released into the public domain the name of the witness, the interviewing officer, several other names, the precise location of the incident, and much more. In other words, the essential data on what sounds like a fascinating story is right there, just waiting for someone to dig into it.

And, as you'll see when you read the X-Files-style document, there was so much more that could have been investigated.

More than 40 years later, is anyone in the UK up to the challenge of looking into this one?

The document at issue (which can be found at the National Archive, just outside London, and which has the file reference AIR 2/17984) was prepared by a Corporal R.A. Rickwood of the Provost & Security Services Special Investigation Section, who related to his superiors the following:

“On 10^th November 1966 a telephone message was received from Flight Lieutenant Williams, RAF Shawbury, reporting that a Mrs. Foulkes of White House Cottage, Great Ness, Shrewsbury , had complained that her daughter had been frightened by an object in the sky while she had been driving along the A5 road near Great Ness at 2355 hours on 8^th November 1966 . This object had emitted brilliant lights and radiation beams. On arriving home her daughter had been in a distressed condition and she had discovered marks on the car, which she considered were burn marks.

“On 14^th November 1966 , Miss Diane Foulkes, aged 22 years, a typist employed in Shrewsbury was seen at her home in the presence of her parents. She stated that she had received a letter dated 11^th November 1966 from RAF Shawbury signed by a Flight Lieutenant Penny informing her that no service aircraft had been flying in that area at the time of the incident. She was now satisfied that the incident was in no way connected with the Royal Air Force or the Armed Forces. She then went on to relate her experiences connected with this enquiry.

"There had been two similar incidents. The first occurred two years ago in November 1964, when she had been driving from Shrewsbury to her home along the A5 road. This was at about 0200 hours as she neared the Montford Bridge over the River Severn. Approximately midway between Shrewsbury and Great Ness a brightly lit circular object appeared in the sky above her car. She had been frightened and had accelerated along the road. The object had kept pace with her remaining at the same height until she arrived home.

"She had told her mother and father who also watched the object. She described the object as an especially bright light in the sky which remained stationary due west from their home for about half an hour. It had then rapidly diminished in size and they assumed it had accelerated away from them. No sound was heard from the object. The light was yellow in color and became red as it diminished.

“The second incident occurred on the 8^th November 1966 at 2355 hours and again while she was returning from Shrewsbury on the same road. The object had again appeared at Montford Bridge but this time it was much lower in the sky and on the north side of the road.

"On this occasion she could see rays of light shooting from the object which had again appeared to keep station with her car until she arrived home. At one time during the journey the object traveled near her and the rays seemed to come towards the right hand side of her car. She felt a bump against that side as if they had struck it. At this moment she felt as if she had received an electric shock and had felt a severe pain in her neck. The left-hand side headlight of the car also went out. This made her extremely frightened.

"When she got home she felt very ill and had complained to her parents. The object again remained stationary in the sky north of her home and had not been seen by her parents. They had noticed it for a short time before going inside her home. There had been no sign of the object on the following morning.

“Miss Foulkes’ parents confirmed seeing an object in the sky on both occasions as described by their daughter and agreed with her descriptions of these. Miss Foulkes further stated that she believed that the objects could be associated with a Mr. Griffin who lived in the area and who is reputed to have made contact with these objects and actually entered one and met one of the occupants. He is also alleged to make his contacts with them at Montford Bridge .

“The local civil police had no information or reports of sightings of objects in the sky. There is no evidence to associate the incidents complained of with the Royal Air Force and the complainant Miss Foulkes is now satisfied that the incidents are unexplainable and are in no way connected with the Armed Forces.”

I often wonder if cases like these - where official sources such as the P&SS make personal visits to the homes of members of the public and question them about their UFO experiences - are the origin of at least some Men in Black-type reports. In fact, I'm absolutely sure they are.

Of course, this case is rich in unanswered questions: who was Mr. Griffin? Did he really meet aliens? Did the official world track him down and speak with him too? And as devotees of all-things-Fortean will be acutely aware, bridges have been focal-points for all sorts of weird phenomena for centuries - in folklore, in history, in mythology, and so on, and so on.

Time we had some answers, methinks - if 42 years later isn't too late...

The new issue (Vol. 23, No. 4) of UFO Magazine includes an article from me titled When Too Much High Strangeness Becomes A Problem.

Many researchers of Fortean phenomena assume that an abundance (or even an over-abundance) of data is a good thing. After all, the more information we have in-hand, the higher the likelihood is that we'll solve the puzzle (whether it's UFOs, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or whatever), right?

Wrong.

Within Forteana, the rules are always different to those that govern the "normal" world.

For example, in my article for UFO Mag, I specifically point out that one particular UFO hot-spot in central England has also played host to encounters with werewolves, a glowing-eyed Bigfoot-like creature, ghosts, and a diabolical entity that sounds like a combination of Mothman, the Jersey-Devil, and a gargoyle. And on top of that, there is evidence of pagan activity in the area, too.

And that's the crux of it all for those of a rigid mindset: an over-abundance of extremely varied high-strangeness does become too weird - for both "nuts and bolts" ufologists and "flesh and blood" cryptozoologists. Why? Because it's not acceptable - or, at the very least, it doesn't sit well - within their rigid, belief-based framework.

Of course, if you're not governed by that aforementioned rigid belief system, then the problem of having too much high-strangeness goes away. The only problem, in fact, is that we're still left scratching our heads as we try to come up with a better theory - or theories.

I certainly don't claim to have all the answers; but when a Bigfoot, a werewolf, a gargoyle and Ufological Grays are all seen at one particular location - and across a period of time that runs to decades, no less - then I suggest revisions of the more conventional views on both Cryptozoology and Ufology are in dire need.

Just recently, I received a huge stash of UFO-related books-for-review from Timothy Green Beckley - or "Mr. UFO," as he's also known. One by one, I'm gonna make my way through all those titles - starting with Strange Saga.

Basically, Strange Saga is a collection of Beckley's early (and otherwise very hard to find nowadays) writings within the UFO field. And a highly entertaining collection of material it is, too!Long before Area 51, Roswell, the Greys, Alien Abductions, and Flying Triangles became the big buzz-words within Ufology, there were cases, characters, incidents, gigs and events that - sadly and in many respects - have been lost to the fog of time.

Thankfully, however, Beckley's republished articles will (A) rekindle the memories of those who were on the scene back in the 60s and 70s, and (B) thoroughly entertain those like me who first set foot in the UFO arena in the mid-80s onwards.

It's clear from what Beckley has to say that the world of Ufology back then was very different to that of today. For a start, it still possessed a sense of humor and wasn't full of pompous, self-important ufologists (or there were certainly less of them, at least!). And the subject was full of something else too: characters.

And that's where Beckley's book shines: in his republished articles (culled from publications such as Saga, Flying Saucers, and others), Beckley treats us to his memories of hanging out with ufological legends like Jim Moseley, Gray Barker, John Keel, countless contactees, and many more.

Road-trips to gigs, on-the-road-style adventures in search of UFO witnesses and interviewees, and roving-reporter-type accounts are what make up the body of Strange Saga.

And for your money, you also get the low-down on some little-known (and long-forgotten) incidents from around the globe, much on the dreaded Men in Black, an excellent interview with J. Allen Hynek that Beckley conducted back in 1976, a wealth of data on astronaut encounters, and a lot more, too.

You also get a a 1-hour CD that contains an interview with Beckley about his life and career within Ufology.

Strange Saga is a real blast from the past that provides the reader with a very personalized look at the UFO scene from a man who was there.

Ah yes: it's June, and here in sunny, gun-happy Dallas, summer has well and truly arrived. The sun is shining, the temperature is already enough to ensure I won't be leaving the house during daylight hours for the next few months, the birds are singing, and the cops are tasering.

Over on the other side of the world, however, something else is happening....something weird...something magical...something that for some is utterly life-changing...

That's right: Britain's annual Crop Circle season is amongst us. Every year since at least when I had a full head of spiky, black punk-rock hair, the fields of Wiltshire, England have been home to strange formations of varying quality and equally varying designs.

And every year until I moved to the US, I used to spend a week or two of every summer hanging out in Crop Circle land, quaffing a few pints at the Barge pub, and discussing all-things circular and "croppish" with locals, with tourists, and with fellow Forteans.

But, among all the talks of aliens, UFOs, and government conspiracies and their (possible!) relationship to the Circle mystery, nothing got people's backs up and blood-pressure raised more than a discussion of the human element: that's right, the dastardly hoaxers. Those vile people who many have placed on a par with Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, and Satan himself.

Well, not quite literally, but you get the picture, I'm sure.

Anyway, with Circle season in our midst again, I thought it was about time to try and deconstruct some of these myths - many of which are made by people who have never set foot in England, or in Wiltshire, and certainly never in a fucking Circle itself!

Let's take that word: hoaxers. Given some of the statements that have been made over the years, some might be inclined to replace "hoaxers" with "bastards!"

In reality, however, many, if not the vast majority, of those people (some of who I know as friends) are as far away from being "hoaxers" as one can possibly get.

The very mention of the word "hoaxers" inevitably conjures up imagery of evil folk spoiling everyone's alien fun, destroying belief systems, and being the all-round, collective "bad guy."

The reality is actually thousands of miles from that image - just in the same way that many of those who shout "Hoaxer!" are thousands of miles from Wiltshire, I might well add...

Indeed, what many of the people who cry "evil hoaxers!" don't like to talk about is that many of those engaged in making the formations have actually experienced weird phenomena in formations of their own making, including sightings of aerial balls of light, periods of missing time, and encounters with unidentified figures.

My good friend Matthew Williams (the only person ever arrested, charged and convicted for making a formation in a Wiltshire field), is convinced that there is a paranormal element to the Crop Circle puzzle, even though he disputes the notion that they are made by "aliens" or "UFOs."

Matthew takes a view that suggests the Circle-makers may well be guided by some external force that uses the makers, that may have ancient ritual magic at its heart, and that is very real - but that, equally, is unconnected to nuts-and-bolts ET craft. "Channeling" is a dirty word to many ufologists - but it may actually play a part in the Crop Circle puzzle.

Other Circle-makers see themselves as artists - but artists who use crop instead of paint and canvas.

So, next time you give thought to Crop Circles, and the so-called evil fiends who make them - try taking a deep breath, try actually speaking to the people and ask them why they do it, find out what really motivates them, and ask them to open up about their own bizarre experiences in man-made circles.

You may be surprised how your view of the "evil Crop Circle maker spoiling everyone's fun" imagery goes out of the window in an instant.

Something weird is going on, and the human element (ironically) may be the key to resolving it - albeit in a way that many can't yet get their heads around, and that might point us in a direction far stranger than anything that ET could ever conjure up from its big gray head.

Makers, they certainly are. Hoaxers, they certainly ain't.