Paranormal Encounters on Britain's Roads: Phantom Figures, UFOs and Missing Time

by Peter A McCue

In this detailed book, Dr Peter McCue reflects on the enormous range of paranormal phenomena to have been reported along Britain’s roads, and examines the theory that certain areas seem to be hotspots for such occurrences, such as the A75 and B721 roads in southern Scotland, and the Blue Bell Hill area in Kent. He delves into the sightings of apparitional vehicles; encounters with ‘colliding apparitions’; ‘phantom hitch-hikers’; out-of-place big cats; phantom black dogs; UFOs; ‘missing time’ (strange memory gaps); vehicle interferences (such as mysterious breakdowns); and incidents in which drivers and passengers seem to have been translocated in space or time. This thorough book debates the evidence and theories in a critical but open-minded way, and is a welcome addition to the genre.

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2018

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting reading.
I'm the sort of person that like to think of a physical/mental reason why something happens. I guess some things just cannot be explained..... Or can they?!?! 👻

[Fionnuala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books like these are honestly one of my weaknesses. Ever since I was a child, I was always reading these kinds of things. Unfortunately that does mean that it takes a lot for me to find a book that has enough new content in it that I don't already know off by heart -- thankfully, this book has quite a few things that I hadn't heard of before, or perspectives that provided more detail on things I only had a passing knowledge of. The writing is easy to follow, and it opens with an introduction providing terms that are often used within paranormal research and descriptions that streamline their meaning, which is always useful. I knew most of them, but there was one I hadn't heard of before, which was a pleasant surprise!

The only reason this book is a three-star rating rather than a four-star one is simply personal preference -- I'm much more into things like ghosts and cryptids and strange entities than I am UFOs, and there was just a little too much UFOing going on. Of course, I expected this (it's in the title, after all) but there was still just a little too much for my liking, and I would have preferred a slightly more even distribution. Outside of personal preference, the only major criticism I have regards the 'Comments' sections that frequently appear -- if it had been a conclusion, that might have worked, but I found the comments repetitive and lacking any real, useful speculation. Generally most comments were along the lines of "this could be paranormal or it might not be", which... yeah. There was also a constant reoccurrence of one particular theory that I just did not buy. (Said theory was that of the encounters being implanted into a person's mind by paranormal influence -- this seemed to be presented as somehow more plausible than, for example, straight-up just seeing a ghost or a UFO? Which I just... wasn't convinced over. It would have been an interesting theory if it had a) been expanded upon more and b) wasn't constantly presented as somehow more logical, but it seemed to just be taken for granted that this was a possibility and never expanded on; likewise it was the answer to seemingly every encounter. I wonder if this is a personal pet theory of the author's?)

With the exception of the entry about the legend of Dartmoor's Hairy Hands (a favourite of mine) which was unfortunately lacking information compared to the others and, in my opinion, missed out the single most terrifying encounter with them that I've heard of, the cases themselves were fascinating and delightfully unnerving. It had all of my favourite things in it: phantom hitchhikers, phantom vehicles, people appearing to hit solid pedestrians only to find nothing when they go back and check, creepy witch-like apparitions, unexplained fogs and lights, lost time, apparitions simply appearing and disappearing in cars, cryptids and alleged big cats... it was some wonderfully creepy reading. For everyone out there who loves UFO stories, there were plenty of those too, some of them very eerie. It is definitely worth a read if you're into the paranormal, but I would take it more as a collection of the most prevailing stories rather than anything overly academic.

[Susan]

An interesting read.,

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

An enormously dry book, where it appears that articles and stories have been lifted from elsewhere - probably when the author discovered that he didn't have enough of his own retellings to pad out a book sufficiently.

The first 37 pages are the foreword and then a rather overly lengthy description of the type of phenomenon that are contained within the book. If you're already quite knowledgeable about a lot of these, then you will skip this first part of the book. Then the last 16 pages are the notes, index and bibliography. You'd think the author would make great use of the inbetween pages?

Wrong.

Some of these stories the author readily admits that either don't exist online anymore, or when he's contacted people for verification he has not got a response. Other times, it's clearly listed as being taken from other sources, which may or may not be reliable - or lifted from TV shows like This Morning. The stories get very repetitive, even more so when you realise that they may be second or third hand by the time they have trickled down to the author. I would have rather this was based on his own experiences and less taken from other sources.

I probably wouldn't recommend this book, unless you really have a serious interest in paranormal encounters, as it's not a book that can be read cover to cover without dozing off.

[Hazel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't even know when I started this one but it's been a long time in the reading.

Rereading the blurb now I think I just didn't like it that much because I got something different to what I thought I was going to get. I expected spooky stories about interesting events. What I got read like a journal article.

Nothing in the book seemed to be new but was just lifted from other books, often with warnings that there are conflicting accounts of the same story. Most of the stories seemed to date back to a time before my parents would have even been old enough to read this book so just felt a bit stale.

I do however appreciate how much work must have gone into this book. Compiling the evidence from all of the sources and critically thinking about it through the lens of a skeptic.

Also bonus points for each time the author mentions if it is unknown if particular events happened near a road.

[David Ellery · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biggest plus with this book is the impeccable sourcing; I've never encountered better, not least in how discrepancies between sources are noted. It's also consistently clear, with much effort gone to in ensuring no confusion arises from terminology or turns of phrase. It's also very open, not pushing a particular theory or idea. Unfortunately, it's also pretty flat in tone, little life or colour to the at times almost mechanical prose, and what comments and thoughts are offered are simplistic and repetitive. The final chapter, despite being titled Conclusions, offers none whatsoever, just more of the same thoughts, details of extra cases, and then just...stops.

Overall, a decent enough, if largely monotone review of road-related strange experiences, but distinctly lacking focus, a through line, something to tie it all together and give it some substance. It's a lecture that's forgotten to have a point.

[Weasel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It starts quite well and then devolves.

Given the back blurb of the book, only a limited number of the accounts are from his own research and those typically contain the least details. The amount of detail and actual content as far as discussion goes is very limited, and it seems to be a specially curated selection to fit the author's preferred theory.

Said preferred theory doesn't get a lot of critical discussion but gets thrown at all examples.

It reads half like a marked paper (with 'comments' sections after a large percentage of accounts) and also fails at some interogation of the data presented. The used sources are all of a certain type and at one point a wiki article is used as a primary source.

Fairly interesting, but heavy bias and strange choices.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection, mainly drawn from the research or publications of others, many of them well known names in the field of forteana.
The book is easy to read, by which I mean not overly academic as some of these types of books tend to be. My main bugbear is the author's repetitive reference to 'a tricksterish higher intelligence' that he asserts may be implanting these paranormal recollections in people's mind. He seems to suggest this is more plausible an explanation than actual ghosts, UFOs etc, which I find a little bizarre and as though the author is trying to push his own prevailing theory onto the reader. Other than that, this will make a good addition to anyones collection of fortean reading matter.

[Kirsty Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read but I wish the author would have left the discrepancies in the stories as well as who he did/did not contact in his comment section rather than in the stories themselves. This made it less enjoyable for me as a reader. I'm all for facts and skepticism but give me the story first than the facts that coincide with the story.

[Jennifer Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book with good examples/stories of paranormal or supposed paranormal activity in Britain's roads. Was slightly repetitive with things. But enjoyable.

[MKF]

DNF - Boring and dry.