Strange and Wonderfull Newes

Gareth J. Medway and Mark McCann

Magonia 66, March 1999

 

The term 'flying saucer' was coined in 1947, but the year was by no means the first in which reports were heard of airborne kitchen utensils. On Wednesday 11 April 1651, a Mrs Holt was sitting in the doorway of Highway House, between Madely and Whitmore in Cheshire, with a little girl in her arms, when she "perceived the Sun to shine exceeding red, and casting her eyes upwards, she beheld a dark body over the sun, about the bigness of a half moon ...

The Case of the Warrington Hummadruz

Peter Rogerson
Magonia 66, March 1999

There have been some interesting reports of a mysterious hum in the Penketh and Great Sankey areas of Warrington. The story first came to public notice in a short piece by reporter Steve Rylance in the Warrington Guardian for November 27th 1998, which reported that environmental health officers had failed to track down, after a year’s investigation, the source of a mysterious humming noise which was affecting Mrs Anne Heesom of Maliston Road, Great Sankey and some of her neighbours.

The Strange Case of Mr Esther Rantzen and the Demon Headmaster

John Rimmer
Magonia 66, March 1999

For over twenty years Esther Rantzen has been a dominant figure in British television, at one time being spoken of as a candidate for the post of Director-General of the BBC, although her star has declined recently. In the 1970's her programme That’s Life was the top-rated non-soap programme on BBC television. With its combination of consumer campaigning and a seemingly endless search for phallic-shaped root vegetables, it became a pioneer of ‘victim television’ in this country.

Satanism and Class Conflict

David Sivier

Magonia 66, March 1999

One of the aspects of the Satanism scare that is least commented on is the part class antagonism and stereotypes seem to play in the construction of the archetypal Satanist. Although the victims of the modern Satanism scare, like their predecessors in the European witch craze, may come from any social class and part of society, the stereotypical Satanist according to rumour legends and the professionals and clergy engaged in hunting them belong to two extremes of  the social spectrum.