Britain’s X-traordinary Files – Declassified

Out, right now, is the brand new book from David Clarke: Britain’s X-traordinary Files. As you may guess from its title, the book deals with British Government records on an astonishingly wide and varied body of paranormal phenomena. Most readers ofMysterious Universe will, I’m sure, know that over the years various arms of the British Ministry of Defence investigated reports of UFOs in the nation’s airspace.

What Dave Clarke’s new book demonstrates, however, is what else the world of officialdom has had in its sights over the years. Some of it, as now-declassified files reveal, was not just weird. It was what we might term beyond weird. Dave is to be applauded for having spent who knows how many hours at the U.K. National Archives, digging around for material on the kinds of things that used to make Fox Mulder drool.

I read the approximately 200-page book across three sittings, and a fascinating study of real life X-Files it certainly is. I think it’s pretty fair to say that when it comes to the world of the British Government and the unexplained, most people assume it began and finished with flying saucers, UFOs, and the like.  Not so. In fact, the exact opposite.

Dave demonstrates the sheer diversity of material – which extends back not just decades but centuries. So, with that all said, where should I start? Well, I’ll begin with my favorite section of the book. Namely, that of officialdom’s interest in the domain of  “death rays.” Welcome to the world of a certain Harry Grindell-Matthews, otherwise known as the “Death Ray Man.”

Read More Here

Reposted with permission