London Fortean Society

London Fortean Society in association with Conway Hall presents Science in Wonderland – The Scientific Fairy Tales of Victorian Britain Melanie Keene £5 ( Tickets ) Monday 13 July 2015 7.30pm Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn / Directions . Facebook event page In Victorian Britain an array of writers captured the excitement of new scientific discoveries, and enticed young readers and listeners into learning their secrets by converting explanations into quirky, charming, and imaginative fairy-tales; natural forces could be fairies, dinosaurs could be dragons, and looking closely at a drop of water revealed a soup of monsters. In exploring the ways in which authors and translators – from Hans Christian Andersen to the pseudonymous ‘A.L.O.E.’ and ‘ Acheta Domestica ’ – reconciled the differing demands of factual accuracy and fantastical narratives, Melanie Keene asks why the fairies and their tales were chosen as an appropriate new form for ca...

London Fortean Society in association with Conway Hall presents The Terror of London: Spring-heeled Jack and the Victorian Metropolitan Press This event is now sold out. Thank you for such a great response for what is a brilliant talk on a dark and fascinating subject. We may have some spaces on the night - please come to Conway Hall on Tuesday night.  Karl Bell £5 ( Tickets ) Tuesday 30 June 2015 7.30pm Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn / Directions . Facebook event page. One of London's greatest monsters, Spring-heeled Jack has held the city's imagination in his claws since he first appeared as "a ghost, a bear, and a devil" right up to contemporary comics and internet radio dramas featuring the leaping horror of legend. This talk explores Spring-heeled Jack’s appearances in and relationship to Victorian London. It considers his origins in the capital, and the way the metropolitan press gave life to a strange urban l...

8pm (doors 7.30pm) Thursday 25 June 2015 £4 / £2 concessions (please note new price!) Advanced tickets available (10% admin fee) The Vaults Bar, Dirty Dicks , 202 Bishopsgate, City of London EC2M 4NR Bus / train / tube: Liverpool Street Facebook event page .  David will be selling his book, 'How UFOs Conquered the World' for £15 (rrp £20 hard back) on the night. The UFO was born in America during the summer of 1947. A lone pilot saw nine mysterious objects that flew ‘like a saucer would if you skipped it across water’ and the media did the rest. Today, almost half the population of the Western world believe we are not alone. Millions of people claim to have seen a UFO. An alarming number reported being ‘abducted’ by aliens. And some are convinced there is a conspiracy by governments to hide ‘the truth’. As a child during the 1970s, Fortean Times writer David Clarke wanted to believe. He joined a UFO society, went ‘skywatching’, and later, as a journalist, spent...