Meet the editors and specialists who contributed to Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained, and find out more about the background to the book.

Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained team

BOB RICKARD

Specialist Consultant

Bob Rickard was born in India in 1945 and grew up in Borneo and Malaysia. He was educated in Scotland and Birmingham, where he qualified as a product designer.

For most of his thinking life, Bob has been interested in the philosophical and psychological questions posed by reports of anomalous phenomena and experiences. Recognizing the importance of the work done by Charles Fort, the field’s American pioneer, Bob founded Fortean Times (www.forteantimes.com) in 1973 as a forum for discussion about strange phenomena, and edited it for 28 years. Since then he has written several books, including Phenomena (1977, with John Michell), Photographs of the Unknown (1981, with Richard Kelly) and The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena (2000, with John Michell), as well as hundreds of articles on a wide range of ‘fortean’ topics. He was a founding member of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (1981) and the Charles Fort Institute (1998, www.forteana.org).

Bob is married with three children and lives in London. Having semi-retired after working as a writer, editor and publisher for nearly 40 years, he is currently establishing his own digital picture library, Signs-and-Wonders (www.signs-and-wonders.com/index.php).

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UNA McGOVERN

Editor

Una McGovern studied English Language and Literature at the University of Sheffield before completing an MA in Lexicography at the University of Exeter. She is currently a freelance editor and writer, with a wide range of reference books to her name.

As editor, Una has worked on such books as Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (2005), Chambers Biographical Dictionary (2002) and Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters (2004). She has also contributed to, and worked as copy-editor on, numerous other titles, both fiction and non-fiction. Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained is the culmination of an interest in this area that began with reading the Fortean Times as an undergraduate.

Una lives with her partner in rural Devon, spending much of her leisure time developing an organic kitchen garden.

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DAVID V BARRETT

Specialist Contributor

David V Barrett has been a schoolteacher, a programmer and intelligence analyst and a journalist. He is now a freelance writer.

His many books include The New Believers (2001), a 544-page study of new religious movements and their problems in society, and A Brief History of Secret Societies (2007), an investigation into the history, aims and ideals of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry and other esoteric movements throughout history. His books have, between them, been published in 14 languages and 18 countries. He is a frequent contributor to radio and TV programmes, speaking on religion and esoteric subjects.

His critical work has appeared in mainstream and alternative newspapers, magazines, books and websites in the UK and the USA. He has contributed to numerous encyclopedias on alternative beliefs, new religions, and science fiction and fantasy. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of books and magazines in several countries.

He is currently researching for a PhD in the sociology of religion at the University of London. When not researching and writing, he plays fretless bass in a rock-jazz-blues band. He lives in London.

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PAUL DEVEREUX

Specialist Contributor

Paul Devereux is a researcher, author and freelance lecturer. He is currently a research fellow at the Royal College of Art. His areas of interest include the study of ancient sacred sites and landscapes, pre-modern world-views (the ‘archaeology of consciousness’) and the study of sound at archaeological sites (he is a pioneer in the emerging area of ‘archaeoacoustics’). He has made discoveries in British Stone Age landscapes, in Native American ritual and shamanic landscapes and in Irish folk psychogeography. He also actively researches transpersonal phenomena (parapsychology).

He has authored or co-authored 26 books, including Spirit Roads (2007), Stone Age Soundtracks (2001), The Sacred Place (2000), The Long Trip (1998) and The Secret Language of the Stars and Planets (1996). He has also written numerous magazine articles and peer-reviewed papers. He is archaeology columnist for the Fortean Times, and a co-founder/editor of a new academic publication, Time & Mind – The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. His website is www.pauldevereux.co.uk.

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DAVID HAMBLING

Specialist Contributor

David Hambling is an author and freelance journalist based in South London. He is a regular contributor to New Scientist magazine and The Guardian newspaper and writes the science page for the Fortean Times magazine. He also writes in the blog ‘Danger Room’ on the wilder side of military technology. His book, Weapons Grade (2005), explores how the modern high-tech world has its roots in military research. He is not part of a secret global conspiracy to cover up UFO contacts and alien technology but is still open to offers.

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PETER LAMONT

Specialist Contributor

Dr Peter Lamont is a historian and psychologist based at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh. Peter gained a first-class Honours degree in Economic and Social History (University of Edinburgh), and postgraduate certificates in Theology and Education, before completing a PhD entitled ‘Magic and miracles in Victorian Britain’ (University of Edinburgh). In addition to many articles on the history and psychology of magic and the paranormal, he has written three books: Magic in Theory: an introduction to the theoretical and psychological elements of conjuring (1999); The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick (2004); and The First Psychic (2005). He is a former winner of the Jeremiah Dalziel Prize for British History, and a recent Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellow in the Creative and Performing Arts. He is also a former professional magician, and a past president of the Edinburgh Magic Circle. He wrote and presented the BBC radio series Wizards of the North, and was the academic consultant on the BBC television series Magic.

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STEVE MOORE

Specialist Contributor

Steve Moore has contributed numerous articles to Fortean Times, as well as compiling its General Index, editing several volumes of Fortean Studies and compiling a number of books collected from FT’s files. He is also the author of The Trigrams of Han: Inner Structures of the I Ching (1989), and one of the authors of I Ching: An Annotated Bibliography (2002). A freelance writer whose work ranges from non-fiction through fiction to comic books, he lives in London and interests himself mainly in ancient and oriental subjects.

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ALAN MURDIE

Specialist Contributor

Alan Murdie LLB, Barrister, was born near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk in
1964 and has been actively investigating reports of ghosts for nearly 30 years.

He has investigated numerous cases of hauntings and poltergeists both in Britain and abroad, in such countries as the USA, Colombia and Romania.

He was chairman of the Ghost Club (founded 1862) from 1998 to 2005 and currently acts as chair of the Spontaneous Cases Committee of the Society for Psychical Research. He has written, broadcast and lectured extensively on ghosts and the paranormal. He is editor of the regular Ghostwatch column in the Fortean Times. He co-authored The Cambridge Ghost Book (2000), and as author his works include Haunted Brighton (2006), Haunted Bury St Edmunds (2006) and Haunted Edinburgh (2007). He has never actually seen an apparition but does believe he has witnessed poltergeist phenomena on a number of occasions, and in 2004 he twice heard ghostly noises at an isolated hotel in Scotland.

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JENNY RANDLES

Specialist Contributor

Jenny Randles has been a professional ufologist since 1977, researching UFO activity all over the world. She has funded her own work through 50 books that have appeared in more than 30 countries.

She was the Director of Investigations for the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) for 13 years. During this time she created an investigator training course and steered through a unique code of practice to govern the ethical behaviour of ufologists. She was also behind the introduction of the world’s first widespread ban of the use of regression hypnosis in close encounter cases.

Her work has appeared in diverse publications, including OMNI, She, Police Review, The Weekly News, The Skeptic, The Times and The Daily Mail. She was the first UFO researcher to have an article on the subject accepted by the New Scientist – expanded into the book Science and the UFOs (1986) with co-author Peter Warrington.

Jenny has presented lectures on three continents and has appeared many times on radio and television. She has written and presented documentaries for the BBC and was a story consultant for the ITV series Strange But True? Her books include UFOs: A British Viewpoint 1979, with Peter Warrington), the first to explore the British UFO experience, Abduction (1988), one of the earliest cross cultural studies of alien contact cases, Something in the Air (1998), an investigation into midair encounters with UFOs, and The UFOs That Never Were (2000, with Dr David Clark and Andy Roberts), focusing exclusively on solved UFO cases.

She is UK consultant for International UFO Reporter, founded by astrophysicist Dr J Allen Hynek, and has a monthly column on UFO cases in the Fortean Times.

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GORDON RUTTER

Specialist Contributor

Gordon Rutter has had a lifelong interest in the unexplained and he is a regular contributor to Fortean Times magazine, The Cryptozoology Review and other paranormal publications. Based in Edinburgh, Gordon organizes speakers on the unexplained and the paranormal for the monthly meetings of the Edinburgh Fortean Society, and has travelled throughout the country to give talks on paranormal topics. He is currently the head of the Charles Fort Institute, an organization dedicated to furthering the aims and studies of Charles Fort.

Gordon has written and contributed to many books on subjects as diverse as the unexplained, fungi, mathematics, computing, chemistry, biology and botany.

An interest in photography has seen Gordon travel the world to photograph anything of an unusual nature.

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DR KARL P N SHUKER

Specialist Contributor

Dr Karl P N Shuker BSc PhD FRES FZS is a zoologist who is internationally recognized as an expert in cryptozoology, as well as in animal mythology and allied subjects relating to wildlife anomalies and ‘inexplicabilia’. He obtained a BSc (Honours) degree in pure zoology at the University of Leeds, and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology at the University of Birmingham. He is now a freelance zoological consultant and writer, living in the West Midlands.

Karl is the author of twelve books, translated into over a dozen languages, and countless articles. His works include Mystery Cats of the World: From Blue Tigers To Exmoor Beasts (1989), Extraordinary Animals Worldwide (1991), Dragons: A Natural History (1995), The Hidden Powers of Animals: Uncovering the Secrets of Nature (2001), The New Zoo: New and Rediscovered Animals of the Twentieth Century (2002), The Beasts That Hide From Man: Seeking the World's Last Undiscovered Animals (2003) and Extraordinary Animals Revisited: From Singing Dogs To Serpent Kings (2007). He is also the official zoological consultant for Guinness World Records, and has acted as a consultant or contributor for many other publications and television programmes. Karl appears regularly on television and radio, has served as a question setter for the BBC’s cerebral quiz show Mastermind and has travelled worldwide during the course of his researches.

He is a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and a member of the International Society of Cryptozoology, the Centre for Fortean Zoology, and various other wildlife-related organizations. He is also a member of the Society of Authors.

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Q&A with the Dictionary of the Unexplained’s editor, Una McGovern

Una McGovern, the editor of Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained, talks about her experience of working on the book and offers a glimpse behind the scenes of its creation.

What does ‘the unexplained’ mean to you?

Anything that falls outside mainstream, received understanding of the nature of our world, that can’t be satisfactorily dismissed or explained away.

Why do you think that unexplained phenomena have such an enduring hold on the public imagination?

One simple reason might be that there is an inherent excitement in anything different from the normal or the day to day. There is a desire for the world to be more exciting than it appears on the face of it. There are probably deeper reasons relating to dissatisfaction (on many levels) with established scientific orthodoxy – even when explanations can be understood and accepted they still generate further questions. I also think that for some certain elements of the unexplained answer a spiritual, if not necessarily religious, need.

How did you first become interested in the subject of ‘the unexplained’?

My undergraduate course at university included an element of folklore, sparking my interest in unusual practices and beliefs. At the same time I started reading a friend’s copies of the Fortean Times – initially as much for entertainment as any deeper interest.

Have you ever experienced any supernatural or paranormal activity yourself?

As many people have, I have experienced unusual occurrences for which I can offer no clear explanation based upon my current knowledge. However, although to me they were ‘unexplained’, it’s a big jump to then categorize them as ‘supernatural’ or ‘paranormal’. I keep an open mind.

You’ve worked as a writer, compiler and editor on numerous books on a wide variety of subjects. What drew you to this project in particular?

The opportunity to work on an objective and balanced book on a subject that interests me was the big draw of this project. Especially as it’s an area in which balance and objectivity are sometimes lacking.

The ‘unexplained’ encompasses such a multitude of areas. Was it difficult to decide which subjects to include, and which to leave out?

Yes. Extremely difficult. In the end I’d say that much more was left out than went in. To decide what was included I had to think about reader interest, and the importance and significance of the various cases and phenomena –  for example, the best-known cases of a particular phenomena, or the earliest, or the best documented. No doubt some people will disagree with my choices, but unfortunately that’s unavoidable in a work of this nature.

Are there any people, cases, instances or phenomena that you would have liked to include, or on which you could have written much more?

It would have been possible to write more on almost anything included in the book, and there are many more entries that could have been included. Did Dr Heuvelmans see the ‘real’ Minnesota Ice-Man before it disappeared and was replaced by a model? Have horses really been trained to do maths? Perhaps in the next edition …

Were there any subjects, cases or instances that you found particularly fascinating?

I did find some of the recent instances of what is described as mass hysteria or mass sociogenic illness fascinating, such as the Monkey Man scare and the Pokémon panic. But equally I find the rise of spiritualism and séances fascinating too, although perhaps for different reasons. As the entries came in from the contributors, it was very easy to become fascinated in each area in turn.

The Dictionary of the Unexplained can be seen as a celebration of curiosity, of people’s inquisitive interest in the world and of persistence in the face of official discouragement. Were there any people that you came across in the course of your research that you admired, or found particularly interesting?

I think Charles Fort stands out here, or at least his work, which we know more about than the man himself. His dedication to the collection of reports of anomalies and his complex philosophy are an important, and sometimes overlooked, legacy.

Bob Rickard points out in his preface that there are numerous ideas and phenomena which have been derided in the past, but which are now accepted scientific fact. Are there any topics in the book which you think may, in future, become part of mainstream knowledge?

A number of the topics in the book have the potential to become part of ‘mainstream knowledge’. In some instances the question is whether the ‘real’ existence of the phenomena can be incontrovertibly established. Earth lights, ball lightning and many cryptids are the more obvious examples of areas where unusual phenomena are in the process of being subsumed into the mainstream.

The book has benefited from the advice of Bob Rickard, founder of the Fortean Times, as a specialist consultant. What was it like working with such a leading figure in the field of unexplained phenomena?

Bob can draw on an enormous wealth of knowledge and expertise in this area, and is, in my experience, a very considered and conscientious man. It was immensely reassuring to know that I could call on him whenever I needed to, and that the book as a whole would benefit from his advice and input.

Unlike many other works on the subject, the Dictionary of the Unexplained is deliberately balanced and impartial in its tone. Were there any instances in which you found it hard to remain neutral?

It would be disingenuous to suggest that some of the opinions (at both extremes of believer and sceptic) within the world of the unexplained aren’t hard to swallow. Opinions as to where the ‘neutral’ position lies obviously vary widely – many might find fault with the line I trod. However, I tried to give a fair expression of the main views on both sides and to maintain an open (but rational) approach. The experts who contributed were carefully selected for their considered approach, and information and opinions were taken from a range of sources.

The Dictionary of the Unexplained includes many striking images. Can you tell us anything about the images, or how they were chosen?

There were a number of subjects that I always had in mind for illustration, where I felt that the image was an integral part of the entry. Examples include the Cottingley fairies and the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.  Other images were chosen for what I felt they added to an entry, and I admit that I occasionally chose a picture because I found it amusing, and I hoped the reader would too (the photograph of the musical Nessies springs to mind).

What have you learnt from the experience of working on the Dictionary of the Unexplained? Have your own beliefs changed as a result?

My own beliefs haven’t changed, but my understanding has increased. I have also learned a lot from thinking about the links between seemingly disparate elements of the unexplained, especially by placing them in their historical contexts. For example, I think it’s interesting to consider the reports of extraterrestrial sightings of today as a natural progression from the fairylore and reports of the ‘little people’ of the past.

Do you think that we will ever fully explain the unexplained?

In a word, no!

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