Wormwoodiana in Fortean Times

Fortean Times, issue 258

I am sure some of you know the venerable Fortean Times, which is, as it states, "the monthly magazine of news, reviews and research on strange phenomena and experiences, curiosities, prodigies and portents. It was founded by Bob Rickard in 1973 to continue the work of Charles Fort (1874 - 1932)."

I have a regular column in there entitled 'Blasts From The Past', where I share some of my research into the strange things that emerge when delving into the 19th and 20th century digital newspaper archives. One of my lines of research involves the Victorian bogeyman Spring-heeled Jack, and my contribution will appear in a study under the editorship of Mike Dash later this year.

James Doig, who also blogs here, was so kind as to alert me to what I have termed the Bendigo Spring-heeled Jack. This involved a ghost scare set in 19th century Bendigo, Australia and written about by none other than J.P. Quaine in 1939. I did some research and published the preliminary results in my column in issue 258 of Fortean Times which is currently on the newsstands. Since I also used quotes from materials posted here by James, I referenced these quotes, pointing to Wormwoodiana.

It's nice to see that there's no distinction between online and offline scholarship. These digital times certainly enhance the abilities of any researcher to delve even deeper into a topic or subject.