Fortean London: Magic, Mazes, Marshes and a Curse on Eddie and the Hot Rods!

8pm Thursday 26 September 2013
£3 / £2 concessions
The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.

Four speakers present weird and wonderful aspects of Fortean London, then take part in a lively Q&A:


Do anything you wanna wilt

Graveyard expert Rob Stephenson on London’s Lost Labyrinths 
Fantasy writer Kate Griffin on London and Magic and Inspiration 
Journalist Peter Watts on A Curse on Eddie and the Hot Rods!
Author Gareth E Rees on Haunted by Time: Atemporal Hallucinations in East London’s Marshes

We will have the Fortmanteau: our monthly summary of strange news stories

Kate Griffin: London Magic & Inspiration
Kate, author of 'Stray Souls' and 'The Glass God', will talk about London and how it inspires her and all the things in it that Ishe regards as as ‘magic’. How ‘magic’ in the city is changing and evolving and we’re updating the mythology of it all and the evolution of urban fantasy.

Rob Stephenson: London's Lost Labyrinths
Spiralling out from the centre of London is a serpent of long-forgotten labyrinth and maze sites. The locations are now only recoverable from dusty tomes or by studying the contorted faces of those that unwittingly live above their former locations. Our speaker, former host of the London Earth Mysteries Circle, has trod that twisted path and will reveal all.

Peter Watts: A Curse on Eddie and the Hot Rods
Peter Watts, writer of the great Great Wen London blog, tells the mysterious story of how Aleister Crowley's curse ended the career of a London pub-rock band.

Gareth E. Rees: Haunted by Time: Atemporal Hallucinations in East London’s Marshes 

Image by Gareth E Rees

The talk will reveal some of Gareth's strange impressions and intimations while walking this inner city wilderness and attempt to explain the strange warping effect the landscape has on your sense of chronology, inspiring visions of prehistorical monsters (crocodiles, bears, sabre tooth tigers), post-apocalyptic futures, and memories of wars and industrial revolutions you've never experienced. 
Gareth is the author of forthcoming novel 'Marshland', and The Marshman Chronicles, a blog about Hackney, Walthamstow and Leyton marshes.

All are welcome. Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau: our monthly summary of strange news stories

8pm start. Thursday 26 September 2013
£3/£2 concessions

London Fortean Society meets up[stairs at the fantastic Bell pub, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.
Train & Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East.