Fortean Times

Fortean Times, named after maverick American writer Charles Fort, is one of the world’s most individual and best loved magazines. For over 35 years FT has been chronicling the stranger side of life, delivering a heady mix of weird world news, up-to-date reports and features on every aspect of the unexplained: myths, monsters, ghosts and UFOs rub shoulders with ancient wonders and future science, while expert columnists bring you the latest on everything from cryptozoology to conspiracy theory. Open-minded, well informed and maintaining a healthy sense of humour, FT is the only place to go for a sensible look at our mad planet – it will change the way you see the world.

Fortean Times

EDITORIAL • BEATLES AND BEARDIES

THE CONSPIRASPHERE • The mysterious circumstances surrounding the death (if he is dead) of billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have led to a torrent of conspiracy theories from all directions. NOEL ROONEY looks at what we know so far.

EXTRA! EXTRA! • FT’S FAVOURITE HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

SEAGULLS GO BAD • Summer brought the usual crop of stories about malevolent gulls

SIDELINES...

ARCTIC FOX’S EPIC TREK • Plus other icy odysseys

SIDELINES...

ROCKY’S SPACE ROCK • Rude awakening for dog yields meteorite find

SIDELINES...

FOOD FACES

FORTEAN FOLLOW-UPS • Religious belief and social media misinformation continue to provoke resistance to vaccination

FAKE PANICS • Children are the victims as anti-vaxxers try to sabotage Pakistan’s anti-polio campaign and Italian ‘carers’ are accused of fabricating a sexual abuse scare

The sweet smell of (sexual) success • DAVID HAMBLING detects a dubious whiff to claims about the discovery of human pheromones

ARCHÆOLOGY A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES AND ANTIQUITIES • PAUL SIEVEKING digs up a wooden arm, a rabbit’s leg and a mysterious mouth plaque...

CLASSICAL CORNER • 240: COGITO, ERGO WHAT?

A question of survival • ALAN MURDIE examines the various attitudes to the afterlife displayed by prominent ghost hunters

UNTIMELY RIPP’D • Cases of fœtal abduction continue to make the headlines, with 10 more horrifying cases reported since 2011...

MYSTERY MEN • One masked miscreant terrorises Somerset, another impersonates a French defence minister, and Russia’s ‘living mummy’ remains an enigma

LONG-LOST SISTER NEXT DOOR

MEGALITHOMANIA 2019 • ROB IRVING arrives in Glastonbury to explore the fringes of archæology

A chain of unfortunate events • PETER BROOKESMITH surveys the latest fads and flaps from the world of ufological research

A Norse saga • JENNY RANDLES tries to identify what FT correspondent the late Nils Grande saw back in 1962

LOOKING THROUGH A GLASS ONION THE BEATLES AND POP MUSIC CONSPIRACY THEORIES • With the release of Abbey Road in September 1969, rumours that Paul McCartney had died and been replaced with a double started to spread around the world. DEAN BALLINGER follows the long and winding road of pop conspiracy theory back to its source.

THE WORLD’S LONGEST BEARDS • JAN BONDESON presents some notes from the annals of pogonotrophical extremism

THE HILL ABDUCTION ON SCREEN • The Bumbry Encounter, a new short film based on the 1961 abduction of Betty and Barney Hill, asks what it means to be an alien in America. NIGEL WATSON explores the relationship between the Hill case and the representation of alien encounters in cinema and television.

UFOS: UNDIFFERENTIATED FASCIST OBJECTS • SD TUCKER seeks an audience with the Chilean diplomat and Nazi mystic Miguel Serrano, a man with a very wide circle of famous friends – some of whom were very wide and circular themselves.

Keeping a lid on theV-2 •...