Jason Karl on an aspect of domestic magic

Popular writer and broadcaster Jason Karl has contributed the latest article on Uncanny UK. He discusses the odd, but not uncommon, practice of hiding shoes in walls and attics to help preserve the household from evil influences. You can read his article at: http://www.uncannyuk.com/2011/01/28/soles-to-save-our-souls/

On the track in old journals

Over the years I've found a great deal of interesting stuff in the letters pages and historical columns of old newspapers and journals. Jon Downes has unearthed a couple of interesting oddities in a long defunct Stockport newspaper: http://networkedblogs.com/dEbmk

Modern fairy sightings

The latest post on www.uncannyuk.com is about a chap who suddenly encountered a glowering goblin while out walking his dog back in the 1960s. It's a yarn I collected myself while giving a talk on Welsh fairylore some years ago.

I find modern fairy sightings particularly fascinating. In the current mindset they just shouldn't happen - but they do. The 'little people' aren't confined to folklore and quaint fireside tales. Like black dogs - another phenomenon out of keeping with modern ideas about returning spirits or playbacks of the past - they are still persistently reported.

I would be delighted to learn of further fairy sightings of modern times. If you have had a fairy sighting or know of one which occurred in the past 50 years (other than those recalled in Janet Bord's excellent 1997 book on Fairies) please do get in touch with me. Comment below or contact me direct via editor@uncannyuk.com

Many thanks!

Nick Redfern on Uncanny UK

Renowned mysteries author Nick Redfern, originally from the West Midlands but now resident in Texas, recalls a couple of 'time slip' cases from rural England in the latest www.uncannyuk.com 'More Uncanny' article. In one of the cases, a motorist in Shropshire suddenly finds his car surrounded by Civil War soldiers! Nick is best known for his UFO and cryptozoology research but says he has a particular interest in time slip incidents. You'll need to register on the Uncanny UK website if you haven't done so already to access the More Uncanny section.

Young ghosts

Fortean Times reader recounts sighting of ghostly Edwardian schoolchildren. Somewhere in Britain but unfortunately doesn't state where. Read the account at http://is.gd/ksDFHC

Hair-raising film in salon

The ThisisDerbyshire website reports that a ghost has been caught on camera in a salon in Derby. Staff viewed CCTV footage after a member's mobile phone went missing but were startled to see a ladder apparently moving on its own - unless you count the ghostly hand some say they can see in the vid. The hairdressers say that they have long been aware of a friendly presence in the salon and the footage hasn't overly spooked them. You can view the video at: http://is.gd/2eEaZM

Jailhouse shocks

A belated congratulations to occultist Duncan Barford for raising more than £1,000 by spending the night alone in the allegedly haunted Old Police Cells Museum in Brighton. Half the money will go towards helping to run the museum, the rest to MIND Brighton and Hove. Read all about his adventure, including his 'Blair Witch moment' at http://alonewithghosts.org.uk/

Beware the Black Fox!

After the recent news about a 'giant' fox shot in Maidstone, Kent - it was about twice the size of a normal fox, that is to say the same size as a coyote (see picture) - I have found something else of foxy interest on a bottle of booze.

From my local independent retailer of fine inebriates I picked up a bottle by perhaps my favourite cider manufacturers, Dunkertons in Herefordshire. Dunkertons make the finest perry I've ever tasted and grow alomost-extinct apple and pears in their own organic orchards, pressing them in an 18th century mill. But I digress (in fact, I'm drooling) - this particular brand, previously unknown to me, is a 7% cider called 'Black Fox'.

The name comes, states the label, from a piece of rural folklore - also unknown to me. Dunkertons informs us: 'From earlier times, rural communities have told stories of fantastic creatures which have supposedly  lived in their location. The lush rolling countryside of North West Herefordshire is no exception. Here stories tell of an animal which has evaded capture by farmer and huntsman alike: a Black Fox. The red fox has always existed but belief grew that there was a fox 'as black as night, so that it might live in man's shadow and never be seen'. A favoured haunt of the Black Fox is... the cider orchard.'

Genuine folk belief or a bit of cider-fuelled fantasy? I'd be interested to learn more.

Joanna Lumley and the Demons of the Nile

I recorded the four 'Joanna Lumley's Nile' programmes over the Christmas break and have just got round to watching them. I was intrigued by the conversation Lumley had (through an interpreter) with a felucca owner on the Nile near Aswan, southern Egypt. Echoing many a new age/Von Daniken style fantasy, the boatman told Lumley:

'The ancient Egyptians used to levitate a stone by pointing a wand at it ... each stone was as big as this boat and they would lift them with incantations. The stones would fly up on their own and stack one on top of the other.'

Lumley looked highly dubious at this information but listened politely while the boatman, who has fished the Nile for more than 50 years, told her about the demons haunting the river.

'There are deep whirlpools which are haunted,' he told her. 'Yes, I saw demons with my own eyes. They appeared to me not once, not twice, but three times. One of them attacked this boat, while I was holding the rudder, and set fire to it. My boat went up in flames.'

Lumley asked him what the demons looked like, and he replied: 'He could look like anything. He could look like a rabbit. He could look like a horse or a very big wild cat. He can even appear in human form. He dresses in clothes but, guess what, this demon's feet look like a donkey's.'

The similarity of belief in such djinn with the pwca etc of Celtic Britain and with appearances of the Devil in British folklore is striking. The only difference is in the eyes, which the felucca owner indicated were set vertically in the face rather than horizontally.

It's worth remembering how many people in primarily Muslim countries earnestly believe in the djinn. After all, many of the strange spooks from our own folklore, and weird things still reported today, such as poltergeists and Black Dogs, may have the same origin - entities created of smokeless fire who inhabit a parallel world which sometimes intrudes on our own.

Welcome to a new year, with John Stoker

Spooks of the Christmas season are well-known but in the latest post of www.uncannyuk.com guest author John Stoker provides an interesting selection of ghosts from the post-Christmas, New Year period. A house that seems to travel in time and the apparition of Jack the Ripper are among the treats in John's article, so please do go and check it out.