When An Ancient Monster Rears Its Head(s)

A strange saga of two strange, supernatural creatures that might really have been just one...

Monkey of the Dead

There's a new article from me at Mysterious Universe. The subject: the mysterious "Man-Monkey" of England. Here's how it starts:


Like a lot of people in the paranormal field I write on a number of subjects, but chiefly Ufology and Cryptozoology. And, also like most people in the field, I have my favorite, specific cases. One of them concerns a bizarre creature that haunts a certain bridge in central England. The name of the monster is the Man-Monkey. Such is the interest I have in the story, I wrote an entire book on the subject. I’ve also commented on the affair right here, at Mysterious Universe, such is the large body of data and witness-testimony on the case.

The tale dates back to January 1879 when a man crossing Bridge 39 over the old Shropshire Union Canal – near the Staffordshire village of Woodseaves – had the shock of his life. Out of the surrounding and dense trees a large, monkey-like animal came charging. It jumped onto the man’s horse and cart, and scared the living-you-know-what out of the man and his four-legged friend. The shining-eyed monster was no normal animal, however. It was described as being semi-physical and semi-spectral – in the sense that it had the ability to jump atop the cart, but when the man tried to hit the thing with his horsewhip, the whip went straight through it. As in literally. The beast quickly bounded away, and back into the shadows. The man raced to the local pub for a soothing pint of beer or several. Hell, maybe even the horse did!

The CFZ Publishing Group - News

Jon Downes' Center for Fortean Zoology has created a new website for all of their books, published by the CFZ Publishing Group.

Check it out, if you're into accounts of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, and other weird creatures!

Here's the link to the main page and here's the link to my books that Jon has published: Space Girl Dead on Spaghetti Junction; Man-Monkey; Wildman; The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Staffordshire (with Glen Vaudrey); and Monsters of Texas (with Ken Gerhard).

 

 

 

 

Spirits of the Wildmen?

Is it possible that at least some reports of so-called British "wild men" are actually the ghosts of ancient, Neolithic hunters? If it sounds controversial, that's because it is! The question is one that is posed in my latest Mysterious Universe article, which begins like this:

"As people who have read my books Man-Monkey and Wildman! will know, I have a deep fascination for stories, accounts, and legends relative to what might be termed the 'British Bigfoot.' The problem, as I note in both the above-books, is that the UK is simply not large enough to hide, or feed, entire colonies of large, marauding, ape-like creatures, or primitive, hair-covered humanoids. That people see them, and have done so for centuries, however, makes the whole matter even more mysterious.

"When it comes to trying to ascertain the true nature of the British Bigfoot and 'wild man' encounters – which is a deeply fraught and difficult task at the very best of times – the theories are as wide and varied as they are controversial and thought-provoking. But, without doubt, one of the most engaging of all scenarios to explain this undeniably nationwide, ancient conundrum comes from friend and fellow creature-seeker Neil Arnold, whose views on the matter I secured in a January 2012 interview…"

As for the complete article, it's right here...

A Magnet for Weirdness...

"One of the things that has long fascinated me is how and why certain places on our planet seem to attract an incredibly large amount of paranormal activity of an astounding and varied nature. I guess the best example would be Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA. Most people would associate it with the legendary Mothman of John Keel’s classic book, The Mothman Prophecies. And they would be right to do so. But, when sightings of the red-eyed winged-thing were at their height in the 1960s, the Men in Black were also making their presence felt in Point Pleasant. Animal mutilations were reported. Contactee-style UFO encounters occurred. The weird list goes on. And, notably, so do the weird places…"

That's how I start my new Mysterious Universe article, which focuses on a little old English village that has been a hotbed of strangeness for more than 130 years. Its name is Ranton, and it's situated only a short drive from where I spent my childhood.

A "Man-Monkey," pixies, alien big cats, and a George Adamski-type UFO encounter are just a few of the things that call this Twin Peaks-like place their home...

There's Something at the Bridge...

There's a new Lair of the Beasts column from me at Mania.com. The subject: a case that has long fascinated me. Namely, that of the so-called Man-Monkey of England.

The post begins...

"In her 1883 book, Shropshire Folklore, Charlotte Sophia Burne detailed a deeply curious tale of a bizarre, ghost-like ape encountered near woods surrounding an old stretch of English canal:

"'A very weird story of an encounter with an animal ghost arose of late years within my knowledge. On the 21st of January 1879, a laboring man was employed to take a cart of luggage from Ranton in Staffordshire to Woodcock, beyond Newport in Shropshire, for the ease of a party of visitors who were going from one house to another.

"'He was late in coming back; his horse was tired, and could only crawl along at a foot’s pace, so that it was ten o’clock at night when he arrived at the place where the highroad crosses the Birmingham and Liverpool canal."

"Suddenly, said Burne a fast-moving animal leaped out of the shadowy trees and propelled itself aboard the cart, sending the horse into a state of frenzy."

What happened next?  This is what happened next...

PS: Yep, that's the bridge above where all the weirdness went down. And still does!

Wildman! A Study of the British Bigfoot

I'm pleased to announce that the Center for Fortean Zoology's CFZ Press have just published from me a new book titled Wildman! The Monstrous and Mysterious Saga of the British Bigfoot.

Ironically, for a subject that many - even within the field of Cryptozoology - view as marginal and minimal, it's my longest book ever. It runs at approximately 130,000 words and 300-plus pages.

Here's (below) the blurb for the book, which will give you an idea of what it's all about.

As you'll note, and as is the case with all my crypto-themed books, Wildman! doesn't shy away from the more alternative, Fortean theories for the nature of the beast that I'm known, hated and loathed for persistently promoting:

In Search of a British Man-Beast
The huge forests of the United States are home to Sasquatch. The Abominable Snowman roams the Himalayas. Australia has a similar beast, the Yowie. In China there lurks a giant, bipedal creature called the Yeren. From the Caucasus Mountains in Eurasia stories of the Almas circulate. And then there’s the highly controversial matter of Bigfoot in Britain.

A Menagerie of Monsters
For years, Nick Redfern has been on the trail of this mystifying monster of the British kind – one that provokes fear, amazement and controversy whenever it rears its horrific, hairy head. The Shug-Monkey, the Beast of Bolam, the Big Grey Man, the Man-Monkey, and the Wild Man of Orford are just a few of its many names.

The Strangest Sasquatch of All
But, the wild men and Bigfoot-style beasts of Britain are not what many might assume them to be. They’re not just strange. They’re beyond strange. In Wildman!, Nick Redfern presents controversial data that places the British man-beast in a definitively paranormal category.

A Supernatural Monster
Lycanthrope-style shape-shifting, occult rituals, the human dead returned in beastly form, animal sacrifice, thought-forms and monsters of the mind given a semblance of life, UFO activity, and amazing encounters at sacred, historic and ancient sites all across the British Isles, are just some of the many issues covered in Wildman!, the first, full-length study of a bizarre and nightmarish phenomenon of appropriately monstrous proportions.

And here are a couple of new articles I've done on the book:

1. This one is my latest Lair of the Beasts column at Mania.com;

2. And this one is from Mysterious Universe.

The Legend of the Man-Monkey

Over at Mysterious Universe, I focus my latest article on a legendary British beast of Bigfoot-type proportions, albeit of a distinctly spectral kind.

Its name: the Man-Monkey...

And as I note in the opening lines of the article:

"On the chilly evening of January 21, 1879, a man was walking home, with his horse-and-cart in tow, along the tree-shrouded lanes that to this day still link the hamlet of Woodcote in Shropshire to the tiny locale of Ranton, Staffordshire, England. All was as it should have been until around 10.00 p.m., when barely a mile from Woodseaves and while crossing over Bridge 39 on the Shropshire Union Canal, the man’s life was plunged into chaos and terror. Out of the darkened woods emerged a frightening beast: it was large, black-haired, monkey-like in appearance, and sported a pair of bright, self-illuminated eyes that glowed eerily and hypnotically..."