On today’s show we welcomed back Margaret Mills for her book review which this time around involved, what at first sight appeared to be a real shocker.
Whilst actually non-fictional it reads as if it were fiction, dealing with an event in 1938, known at the time as THE CROYDON POLTERGEIST.
The book written by KATE SUMMERSCALE is called simply “THE HAUNTING OF ALMA FIELDING”.
Alma Fielding believed she was being haunted by a poltergeist, amongst other things.
Apparently crockery flew around the family’s end-of-terrace home; a Bakelite radio smashed itself on the tiled floor; and the wardrobe angrily hurled itself across the bed usually occupied by the Fieldings’ teenage son, who had sensibly gone to stay next door.
Then there were the “apports”, material objects that 35-year-old Fielding apparently materialised from thin air.
Jewellery stolen from British Home Stores appeared on her fingers, beetles scuttled out of her gloves and once, during a car journey, a live terrapin, scaly, thrusting and slightly obscene, turned up on her lap!
What made it all the more remarkable was that Fielding continued to produce these effects while under the scrutiny of Nandor Fodor, chief research officer for the International Institute for Psychical Research.
Erie stuff indeed and if you missed Margaret’s take on this book, catch it all again here:-
In the first hour of the show we heard about a more down to earth occurrence involving a couple who took a mobile phone in for repair.
They were duly informed that it would be ready for collection within the hour, but when the repair man opened up the phone he found a $100 dollar bill tucked inside, plus a note asking him to say that the phone couldn’t be fixed as his wife wanted to check the phone history!
In the end it seems that when the woman went in to collect it, the repairman confessed that he hadn’t fixed it because of the note and financial bribe, so she promptly handed over $200 to get the phone fixed.
The fuming husband later returned to the store when a confrontation ensued.
Oh dear, oh dear. I think his number could now be well and truly up!
See you again tomorrow,
Scott
