Supernatural Pennines
By Jenny Randles 

Where in the world can you visit "UFO Alley," watch events from the past replayed without a video recorder, dodge ice bombs, pterodactyls and big cats while strange humming noises can be heard? No, this isn't the latest Harry Potter, but the latest entry in Robert Hale's informative and absorbing series of books about the supernatural in various parts of the British Isles, and refers to the scenic part of England known as the Pennines. The title leads one to imagine a book full of tales of ghosts and other apparitions, both traditional and modern, but actually the term "supernatural" here refers more to UFO sightings than spooks and various other inexplicable happenings of the kind mentioned above.

As with the other Robert Hale titles, you won't be told about long-ago sightings of headless horsemen and spectral white ladies; these are all recent happenings from the 20th century or after, many very recent indeed. The author knows the area very well indeed, and this comes through and has organized the accounts in two ways that makes the book easy to use. Firstly, with a few historical accounts to show that this isn't just a recent phenomena to do with media coverage, then with an alphabetical "gallery of oddities" detailing events, and lastly area-by-area, which is handy for anybody visiting so they can see what has happened in their chosen area. There are several color photographs of places of particular interest (which don't really do the beauty of the place justice but are useful) and I for one was amazed to read about the truly vast number of strange things that have happened in this area. I read a lot of books about folklore and the supernatural and was not prepared to be so surprised, so even if you think you know a lot about this subject, you too might learn something!

This is not a book to sit down and read through, as it is too fragmented, but if it had been anything else there might have been the danger of stories being padded out which is never a good thing. As with others in the series, this is a great book for keeping on your coffee table and dipping into at random. A worthy addition to anybody's library of supernatural books.