Fortean Times chronicles 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, Fortean Times 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
LORD LUCAN IN THE HALL WITH A LEAD PIPE?
SIDELINES
ANIMAL PLANET • More walks (and drives) on the wild side from around the world
RELIGION NEWS • A photo of Joseph Smith, a visit from Padre Pio and a hyper-realistic Jesus
FORTEAN FELONIES • Our latest charge sheet of weird crimes from New York to Nigeria
CLASSICAL CORNER • FORTEANA FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD COMPILED BY BARRY BALDWIN
ARCHÆOLOGY • A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES AND ANTIQUITIES
Finger on the pulse? • DAVID HAMBLING reports on an emerging consenus about the mysterious Havana Syndrome
MEDICAL BAG • Another round of self-inflicted surgery for eaters of batteries, coins and spoons, plus forgetful contact lens wearers and unfortunate orgasms
STRANGE CONTINENT • ULRICH MAGIN rounds up the Euro-weirdness, from big cats and mystery ice falls to a German tree-man
CURSED ITEMS • A possessed fridge containing the soul of a nagging mother, Swedish glassware posing as an occult vessel and a dead man’s cuddly toy
MYTHCONCEPTIONS
ALIEN ZOO • NEWS FROM THE CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL GARDEN
GRAND DESIGNS • How a Birkenhead eccentric created a private fantasy world in his rented flat, plus Mr Doodle’s monochrome paradise
THE CONSPIRASPHERE • Things have been even busier than usual in the Conspirasphere, says NOEL ROONEY, but that’s no surprise given the weird stories swirling around Paul Pelosi and Sam Bankman-Fried…
TERMINAL TALES • It’s the end for Wales’s entirely imaginary Llandegley International airport, and the final boarding call for Paris’s Terminal Man
THE SUPERNATURAL ON SCREEN • TIM ‘MOTHY’ WHITTARD, one of the directors of Gloucester’s second annual Fortean Film Festival, shares some of his highlights from this year’s event
Extra-tyre-estrials • NIGEL WATSON traces the strange history of the Michelin Men and their alien lookalikes
Splicing the Mainbrace, Part Two • JENNY RANDLES traces the political and military fall-out from the UFO summer of 1952
SATAN’S LITTLE HELPERS • This Christmas, do toy-buying parents really know what hellish traps for their children they are leaving bundled up in shiny paper beneath the Yule Tree? SD TUCKER recalls a classic moral panic – and helps readers shop more safely this festive season.
My Quest for Iceland’s Elf Church • A decade ago, protests against a new road through one of Iceland’s ‘elf areas’ made international headlines – but what happened to the Elf Church that sparked the unrest? BENJAMIN RADFORD braves blisters, lava and angry seagulls as he goes in search of the legendary Ófeigskirkja…
HANKERING AFTER GHOSTS • ROGER CLARKE visits a new exhibition at Charles Dickens’s old house in London’s Doughty Street, and reflects on the writer’s relationship with the supernatural.
“THE OLD ONES ARE THE BEST…” • NEIL ARNOLD gets ready for Christmas by tracking the various appearances of Dickens’s ghost in his home town of Rochester.
Supernatural snobbery? • Are modern ghost hunters really so bad asks CLAIRE DAVY, or could their livestreamed antics complement the work of traditional investigators?
Haunted Scottish bothies • PETER McCUE...