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
SOMERTON MAN IDENTIFIED?
EXTRA! EXTRA! • FT’S FAVOURITE HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
VAMPIRE RECORD • A world record has been set for the largest gathering of ‘vampires’ – after 1,369 Dracula fans descended on the ruins which helped inspire the gothic novel. There was a lot at stake as the undead braved the daylight to gather at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire. Attendees met yesterday to celebrate 125 years since Dracula’s publication. The fang-tastic effort smashed the previous record of 1,039 vampires in one place, set at Kings Dominion, in Virginia, USA, over a decade ago.
SIDELINES
LOVE OBJECTS • Stories of strange attraction and finding love in the unlikeliest of places
NESSIE NEWS • All the latest from Loch Ness, plus a vintage tale of giant pike and water sprites
WIKI WACKY HOAX • Chinese housewife creates her own version of mediæval Russia
THE UK’S TOP NOSTALGIA MONTHLY
ARCHÆOLOGY • A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES AND ANTIQUITIES
CLASSICAL CORNER • FORTEANA FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD COMPILED BY BARRY BALDWIN
Listening to the voice within • DAVID HAMBLING asks why we experience internal monologues – and what happens if we don’t?
MARINE MYSTERIES • The first ever photographs of a ‘milky sea’ shed new light on an old phenomenon, plus weird tides in the British Isles
Immortalising monsters • ALAN MURDIE stops for a beer at The Last Resort, where Aileen Wuornos is said to haunt the bar
BONES OF CONTENTION • Kept corpses, frozen stiffs and a funeral director doubling up as a ‘body broker’
MYTHCONCEPTIONS • 260: ICE SKATING
THE CONSPIRASPHERE • NOEL ROONEY wonders whether conspiracy shock jock Alex Jones is being unfairly singled out by opportunistic lawyers over the Sandy Hook ‘false flag’ theory
ANIMAL NEWS • A fish rain in San Francisco, a catfish near-catastrophe in Florida and new insights into chimp communication and corvid co-ordination
MEDICAL BAG • The man with the whistling scrotum, the girl whose farts nearly killed her and other weird tales from FT’s very own horror hospital
Picture this • Visual images, from infrared phtos to Renaissance art, can be easily misread says NIGEL WATSON
Ley of the land • JENNY RANDLES wonders whether a new terrestrial zodiac offers a new way of looking at UFO events
UFO COVER-UP AT CALVINE • DAVID CLARKE has spent 13 years on the trail of the mysterious Calvine UFO photographs. Now, on the 32nd anniversary of the sighting – and its subsequent cover-up – a key MoD insider has come forward with new evidence.
How I tracked down the UK’s “most spectacular UFO photo”
PHOTOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE CALVINE UFO PHOTO • Andrew Robinson, senior lecturer in photography at Sheffield Hallam University, examined the Calvine UFO image in July 2022. He writes:
THE SHELLEY MYSTERIES • On the 200th anniversary of his tragic drowning off the coast of Italy at the age of 29, THERESE TAYLOR examines some of the dark secrets and unanswered questions that have gathered around the life and death of Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
A GRAND FEN-ALE! • ROB GANDY concludes his investigation into...