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If you read issues of the Fortean Times from the 1970s, you will notice how “mysterious fires” was once a significant Fortean phenomenon. Strangely enough, it’s a phenomenon which seems to have gone out of fashion with the decline in smoking, and stricter product regulations linked to fire...

Studying for a PhD is, of course, the most expensive and least efficient means of obtaining access to obscure pseudo-pornography. There is a bit of an interesting backstory to this in regards to how the British Library catalogues its supposedly erotic books. The backbone of the library's...

I have a copy of that particular book, which I acquired as it was relevant to my PhD. Original copies are rather rare, and copies in good condition are very valuable (mine was recovered at some point in plain modern bindings, which allowed me to actually afford it). In terms of the contents, the...

I bought Bruce Robinson's book for a long plane flight, and failed to get past the first fifty pages, simply because it is painfully bad, a juvenile, badly-written, badly-edited rant which ought to be unpublishable. Take the first paragraph: That's not a fair representation of the quality of...

Going back to the subject of the thread, the UK Missing Persons Bureau has a database of unidentified bodies found in Britain. It's a fascinating, albeit fairly gruesome read, and can be found here. Many of the cases appear to relate to homeless people, or murder victims whose bodies have lain...

There are a lot of pretty poor ghost books out there, with most books falling into two categories: The local history ghost book recounting unsourced and often quite unlikely ghost stories connected to a particular area. Normally these are told in a rather plodding and pedestrian manner...

You don't need to cancel and resubscribe; most of the special offers are also open to existing subscribers who want to extend their subscriptions. This is how I got most of my Fortean Times mugs, although it did mean, at one point, I was subscribed to the magazine for over two years in advance...

I have noticed that there is a new book out on Spring-heeled Jack and these other ghosts called Spirits of an Industrial Age. Has anyone read it? Is it any good?