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

HAVING YOUR SAY

THE DYATLOV PASS MYSTERY • New study suggests an avalanche caused mysterious deaths of hikers

UNCLE JOE'S DINER • Stalin-themed shawarma joint falls foul of Moscow authorities

EXTRA! EXTRA!

COVID CORNER • Unconvincing excuses for flouting lockdowns, plus China’s Covid cover-up

SIDELINES…

ANIMAL ANTICS • Feline environmentminister, axewielding dog and starling saboteurs

HOUNSLOW GRAIL • Amateur archæologist locates the Holy Grail in a West London suburb

ARCHÆOLOGY • PAUL DEVEREUX digs up the latest discoveries and ponders the legacy of our Neanderthal genes

CLASSICAL CORNER • FORTEANA FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD COMPILED BY BARRY BALDWIN

A pandemic of nightmares • DAVID HAMBLING finds his sleep interrupted by invisible monsters and other Covid metaphors

FORTEAN FOLLOW-UPS • Strange desires, muddled ethnicities, dead mink rising and womb raider put to death

The man who saw the light • ALAN MURDIE takes a look at the pioneering work of the late Erlendur Haraldsson

ALIEN ZOO NEWS FROM THE CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL GARDEN • KARL SHUKER nominates his two most exciting zoological finds publicly revealed in 2020

THE CONSPIRASPHERE • When the New York Times recycles the same story with different details, is it a conspiracy theory? NOEL ROONEY wonders what we should make of such MSM confabulation.

CARRY ON DOCTOR • Fake teenage doctor is rumbled, while Dr Alladin gets all creepy and DrKhan is tricked into buying an ‘Alladin’s lamp’

STRANGE CONTINENT • ULRICH MAGIN rounds up the weirdest news from Europe, including a mystery hum and a German polt

NECROLOG • This month, we mark the passings of an innovative SF and fantasy writer and publisher and of an Oxford geneticist who famously analysed ‘Yeti’ hair samples

FAIRIES, FOLKLORE AND FORTEANA • SIMON YOUNG FILES A NEW REPORT FROM THE INTERFACE OF STRANGE PHENOMENA AND FOLK BELIEF

Silvery ships from the stars… • JENNY RANDLES ponders a spate of Close Encounters-related cases and the nature of UFO hoaxes

CASTING THE RUNES • In 1970, Dave and Toni Arthur recorded Hearken to the Witches Rune, an occult-themed LP of folk songs. Fifty years on, the album has gained cult status, but its gestation and legacy are just as extraordinary as the music itself, stretching from the rituals of “King of the Witches” Alex Sanders to children’s TV favourites Play School and Play Away. Dave and Toni reminisce with BOB FISCHER.

ECHOES AND ANGELS UFOS ON RADAR • Dramatic accounts of sightings by US naval personnel have placed the instrumental evidence for UFOs in the media spotlight. As DAVID CLARKE explains, radar is an imperfect tool in the armoury of military investigators – and what it detects is open to many interpretations.

WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN? COMMON SOURCES OF RADAR UFOS

‘SCRAMBLED FOR BOGIES’ AN INCIDENT AT RAF SEK KONG

FOUR-MINUTE WARNING UFO

LEIBNIZ AND THE FLYING MONK • Did one of the major thinkers of the Enlightenment really meet the celebrated levitating monk St...