UFO Witness Sightings

An illustrated dossier of alien encounters

Peter Brookesmith Amber Books 2019 Pb, 176 pp, £14.99, ind, ISBN 9781782748908

The name of the game for publishers of UFO books today is to recycle their greatest hits for an audience of curious newcomers. This book first appeared in 1995 under the title UFO!: The Complete Sightings Catalogue by Peter Brookesmith, editor of the 1980s partwork The Unexplained and FT’s Flying Sorcery. It was one of a series of coffee-table books commissioned by Blandford Press to satisfy one of the periodic revivals of interest in all things UFO. It stood out from the crowd by the quality of its writing and the neutral stance taken by the author in providing a clear, chronological account of unusual sightings from Roman times to the modern era of The X-Files, alien abductions and Roswell.

But the phenomenon did not end in 1995 and the contents of Brookesmith’s book have been recycled with a new chapter covering “the Modern Era” written by Johnny Dee. Much has happened in the past 25 years and it is inevitable that the choice of stories shoehorned into this final chapter reflect current obsessions such as the sightings by US naval personnel from the USS Nimitz in 2004 – currently unexplained – and past controversies such as the Phoenix Lights and the Channel Islands UFO from 2007, the last high-profile report from the UK. Dee continues the neutral, even-handed commentary. But in his account of “the Dudley Dorito” he uses the PetitRechain photograph, taken during the Belgian flap of 1990, to illustrate the popularity of triangular-shaped “craft” in the 21st century. If he had done his homework by reading Fortean Times (FT281:30) he would know this photograph was a prank by a 20-year-old photographer who used a Styrofoam model.

As always when selecting UFO books, caveat emptor.

David Clarke

★★★★