Fortean Times – October 2026

Summary

"William the Weird" — Richmal Crompton's hidden interest in the supernatural — covers Fortean Times FT475, October 2026, priced at 5.40 pounds. The issue delivers 72 pages of cryptozoology, UFO sightings, and paranormal investigations, anchored by a 1970s school UFO sighting titled "A Blob of Orange Fire." Green Lung, the folk-metal band fusing environmental protest with occult lyrics, receives a 4-page feature on how their music channels British folklore.

The Crompton cover story reveals that the Just William author wrote 47 supernatural short stories under pseudonyms, collected from long-forgotten magazines. The funeral-home feature, "Uncanny Encounters in Funeral Homes," interviews 12 mortuary staff who report anomalous experiences including phantom footsteps and temperature drops. The Bigfoot corpse controversy resurfaces with Cornell University denying involvement in DNA analysis claimed by a Bigfoot research group. The Conspirasphere column covers the Myanmar "wheelie-bin cult" where residents worship a municipal rubbish bin.

Regular columns include Strange Deaths (a man crushed by his own Superman fridge display), Ghostwatch, Archaeology, Science, and The UFO Files. Jenny Geddes and her stool returns Jan Bondeson's peculiar postcard series. The cybernetic monks feature profiles Dr. Alfred Tomatis and his electronic-ear therapy used in French monasteries. The Forum section runs letters on selfie obsession and an anomalous pelican attack in Cornwall. Phenomenomix puzzle page closes the issue.

p.30 · Cover Story — William and the Weird (Richmal Crompton)
The article documents 47 supernatural short stories written by Just William author Richmal Crompton under the pseudonyms of "Anne Fellowes" and others. The stories appeared in periodicals including Nash's Magazine and The Novel Magazine between 1922 and 1939. Crompton's supernatural themes include haunted houses, doppelgangers, and precognitive dreams. A researcher of early 20th-century spiritualism can locate 12 stories in the British Library archives using the article's publication-date cross-reference.

p.38 · Uncanny Encounters in Funeral Homes (Coffin Dodgers)
Twelve mortuary staff across 6 UK funeral homes are interviewed about anomalous experiences. Four report phantom footsteps in prep rooms. Three describe temperature drops of 5-8 degrees Celsius before a body arrives. Two report that a specific embalming room door closes without an air current. The article includes a table of experiences sorted by mortuary location and time of day. A funeral director experiencing similar phenomena now has a baseline comparison of 12 industry colleagues.

p.42 · Memories of a 1970s UFO — "A Blob of Orange Fire"
Five witnesses from a 1974 school playground UFO sighting in Woking are interviewed 52 years later. All five independently describe an orange fireball hovering at 50 metres altitude for 90 seconds before accelerating south-east at a speed they estimated as "faster than a passenger jet." The article includes a site map with witness positions and sighting angles. A UFO researcher can file this case as a CE-1 with 5 independent witnesses, meeting the standard of evidence required for a MUFON report.

p.46 · Green Is the New Black Metal — Green Lung
The folk-metal band Green Lung is profiled for their fusion of environmental lyrics with British folklore. Lead vocalist Tom Templar explains that the band's 2025 album "This Heathen Land" sold 12,000 physical copies in the UK. The article traces the band's lyrical references to the Green Man, the Wicker Man, and ley-line alignments in Somerset. A festival programmer looking for a UK underground act with a dedicated fanbase can contact their booking agent at the email listed on page 48.

p.51 · Jenny Geddes and Her Stool — Jan Bondeson Peculiar Postcards
Bondeson returns with the story of Jenny Geddes, the 17th-century Edinburgh market woman who threw a stool at a preacher in St Giles' Cathedral. The event triggered the 1637 Edinburgh riots and the National Covenant. A postcard from 1905 showing Geddes mid-throw is reproduced. A Scottish history enthusiast can locate the commemorative plaque on St Giles' Cathedral at the site where the stool landed.

p.52 · The Cybernetic Monks of Dr Tomatis
Dr Alfred Tomatis's electronic-ear therapy is profiled, focusing on its use in French monasteries to improve Gregorian chant resonance. The Tomatis Method uses a modified audio device called the "Electronic Ear" that filters sound frequencies between 125Hz and 8,000Hz. Four Benedictine abbeys in France have used the method. A voice therapist working with Gregorian chant singers can research the Tomatis filter curve published in the 1991 paper referenced in the footnotes.

p.68 · Peculiar Postcards — Gugnunc
Jan Bondeson's regular column features J. F. Horrabin's Gugnunc characters, cat-like creatures from 1920s comic strips. A rare 1929 postcard is valued at 150 pounds in the collectibles market. The article traces Horrabin's career as a cartoonist for the Manchester Guardian. A postcard collector who owns a Gugnunc example can verify its edition number using the series chart printed on page 69.

p.71 · Phenomenomix
The puzzle page combines trivia questions on fortean topics with a word-search grid and a cryptic crossword. The trivia section covers spontaneous human combustion statistics and hollow-earth theory. The crossword clues draw from 2025-2026 fortean events. A reader who solves all 12 trivia questions can submit the answer sheet for a one-year subscription.

Editor's Take

The Richmal Crompton story is this issue's standout — properly researched, with publication dates and archive references that give it academic weight. The weakest section is the Strange Deaths column, which leans too hard on tabloid shock value (the fridge-death story is a single-sentence police report stretched over half a page). This issue suits the serious paranormal researcher and the folklore scholar, not the casual ghost-story reader. The Bigfoot controversy article is well-reported but the Cornell denial deserved a follow-up interview rather than a statement by email.

Strengths
• Richmal Crompton supernatural stories uncovered from 1920s periodical archives
• Funeral home survey with 12 mortuary staff providing comparative data
• 1974 Woking UFO sighting with 5 independent witness accounts

Weaknesses
• Strange Deaths column relies on one-sentence police reports for shock value
• Bigfoot corpse article lacks a follow-up interview with Cornell University

Verdict: Recommended — The Crompton archive research alone makes FT475 a collector-worthy issue for fortean literature specialists.