Title: HAUNTED SKIES – Volume Eight
Authors: John Hanson and Dawn Holloway
Publisher: Haunted Skies Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9574944-1-1
541 pages fully illustrated.
It is difficult to know where to start reviewing this mammoth tome by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway. This is volume eight of this massive project and you simply have to applaud the authors for their endeavour if nothing else. This volume covers the year 1980. If you are one of those like me who likes ufological history then this book, and indeed the entire series is right up your alley.
The authors publish many original accounts of UFO reports from either newspapers or UFO publications and where ever possible they have done their utmost to track down those original witnesses to bring things right up to date. This book is literally stuffed with original source material of all kinds of things as well as many new full colour illustrations and photographs. The authors have tried as hard as they can to leave no stone unturned to try and bring this data to your attention.
Of course 1980 was a pivotal year in UK ufology as it was the year of the Rendlesham Forest Incident (RFI). Around half of the book alone is dedicated to this one event. The authors chronologically go through the RFI with a no nonsense, warts and all approach. Original documents are produced and the time- line of who said what, where and when is laid out for all to see. There is also the authors own research into the RFI and their contacts with some of the primary witnesses. Again all of this is supported with a large array of documents, drawing, photographs and illustrations. The book is worth reading just for this information alone. The authors also give great credit to Brenda Butler one of the original UFO investigators of the RFI.
But Haunted Skies – Volume Eight is much more than just the RFI. It is a chronological calendar of UFO events in the UK for the whole of 1980. I personally had literally only just begun my involvement in ufology in 1979 so I remember some of the events in question but by no means all of them. The book, like the seven previous volumes before it, is a treasure trove of UFO information. Irrespective of your own viewpoint of UFO’s there is something for everyone in HAUNTED SKIES.
The authors are to be compliments for their diligent and never ending work in trying to preserve this information and at the same time offer it for dissemination for anyone that is interested. The amount of time and effort that has gone into producing this work must be astronomical.
Some people may think I am biased when reviewing the book as I had the honour of writing the foreword for it, but nothing could be further from the truth. If it wasn’t up to scratch the authors know that I would say so.
I would highly recommend HAUNTED SKIES to anyone and I can’t wait to read the volumes that are to follow. I can’t say any more than that.
HAUNTED SKIES is available of course via Amazon.
