London Fortean Society

J Draper digs out unusual stories of individuals who have shaped the world, uncovering the lessons their unique experiences can teach us.  With Reweirding: Monday 10 February 2025 6.30 pm doors. 7 pm start.  £10 / £7 Concessions / £6 online   Advance Booking Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn London Fortean Email List Witty and engaging TikTok historian J Draper digs out unusual stories of individuals who have shaped the world, uncovering the lessons their unique experiences can teach us. Breaking away from history told through the lens of kings, queens, and nobles, this book instead lifts the lid on 24 fascinating stories of little-known underdogs, mavericks, trailblazers, and oddballs. Through these stories, you will meet characters such as Sabrina Sidney, an orphan kidnapped into a bizarre child-raising experiment; Eleanor Rykener, a gender-bending sex worker from medieval England who spilled juicy gossip about her clients in the cler...

  Tuesday 28 January 2025 Vampires: from Monster to Mister Some people seem to think that a good vampire novel is a story in which the vampire marries the heroine at the end. Vampires have always had a connection with sex, as either Demon Lover or Rapist Monster, but it’s difficult to find anything in folklore or literature which characterises them as likely to make good husbands – until, of course, the arrival of Twilight . How did it happen? Why did it happen? Was it inevitable? Will it go away – should it go away? The lure of the vampire has been summed up as being Sex, Death and Fancy Costumes. Must we now add: faithful, patient, kind, hard-working and good with the children? Vampire specialist Dr Tina Rath answers these and many other questions about the dark seducer. Venue: The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street E1 7EX (Tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East) Date: Tuesday 28 January 2025 Time: 8pm (Doors 7.30) Tickets: £5/£3 https://wegottickets.com/event/642844/

  'twixt Xmas & NY Monday 30th December   We don't have a London Fortean Society meeting in December -- but a few of us get together for a drink in that fairly odd time 'twixt Xmas & NY. No speaker, no programme, just chat over a pint or two. Regulars and irregulars equally welcome. See you there! The Cittie of Yorke pub (Chancery Lane tube, exit 1) Monday 30th December from around 8pm They do standard pub food

  Time-Slips 26 November 2024 In the early years of the 20th century, two ladies visited the gardens of Versailles. Whilst there, they apparently slipped back in time to the late 18th century. They published a book describing their experience, which in later years was debunked as misperception and hallucination. Case closed. Or is it? There are a plethora of similar contemporary reports of apparent slips through time, from brief glimpses to full interactive experiences. Most reports describe features from the past, but a few describe possible slips forward in time. Dr Ann Winspe r has been researching people apparently travelling through time for the last 20 years. She describes some of these fascinating cases and looks at possible explanations, as well as how not all can be explained through misperception and psychology. Venue: The Bell 50 Middlesex Street E1 7EX (Tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East) Date: 26 November 2024 Doors: 7.30pm Start: 8pm Tickets: £5/£...

Moral panic, myth, and the macabre: Video nasties in the 1980s and beyond. Thursday 21 November 2024 6.30 pm doors. 7 pm start.  £10 / £7 Concessions Advance Booking Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn London Fortean Email List When the widespread introduction of the VHS cassette changed the face of home entertainment in the early 1980s, it wasn’t long before video rental store shelves were filled with lurid tapes promising orgies of sex, violence, and terror. In this talk, authors David Kerekes and Jennifer Wallis explore how the panic over ‘video nasties’ developed: prompting raids and arrests, implicating films in real-life murder cases, and targeting film dealers, distributors, and viewers. They will ask how far policies and campaigns directed at video nasties — not forgetting the marketing of these films — created a mystique and mythology of their own, as fans sought out every tape on the famed video nasty ‘list’ produced by the Director of Publ...

‘The ghosts of today don’t live in castles or stately homes, they’re in normal houses and workplaces, witnessed by people just like you and me. But are they the dead returning from the “undiscovered country” of death, or the product of that equally mysterious location, the human mind?’ Friday 4 October 2024 6.30 pm doors. 7 pm start.  £16 / £11 Concessions Advance Booking Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn London Fortean Email List Danny Robins is on a mission to solve the greatest mysteries – do ghosts exist? His thrilling new book tells the stories of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things and want to understand them. It is also a journey of self-discovery, as Danny explores what the paranormal means to us, and considers the exciting yet terrifying prospect that we are not alone. Are you Team Believer or Team Sceptic – and do you dare to find out? Helping you decide are Uncanny crew members Chris French and Deborah Hyde. Danny Robi...