Here’s a non-fiction book for our Halloween celebrations this month.
IF you’re not from the UK I’m not sure how much you know about this author. Danny is well-known here in the UK as a British journalist who’s created successful podcasts, one of which is named The Uncanny. He’s also the writer of 2:22 – A Ghost Story, a very successful West End theatre production about to do a UK national tour. There will be a book tour for this book, and a TV series of Uncanny that started on the BBC last night*, which is presumably partly why this book has come about.
So, what have we here?
Subtitled A Real Life Investigation into the Paranormal, the book is pretty much what it says on the tin, so to speak. Danny portrays himself as the interested sceptic who writes of his interest in the strange and unknown and how this has led him to hear lots of odd stories over time. One of the key points made at the beginning is that the ghosts of today don’t live in castles or stately homes, they’re in normal houses and workplaces, witnessed by ordinary people like you and me.
Without giving too much away, the book looks at four main cases, (or perhaps five, as at the end he returns to the beginning). These manage to connect poltergeist and ghostly apparitions, Ouija boards, phobias, UFO sightings and scientific research together and by the end puts forward some ideas that may (or may not!) connect them together – are ghosts the dead returning from the “undiscovered country” of death, or the product of that equally mysterious location, the human mind?’
This book seems to project Danny’s character as much as possible as his podcasts. He takes on the role of inquisitive sceptic, although he is at pains to point out that when reading the book there’s room for any interested parties from believer to sceptic here. In a moment of readership participation, Danny asks the reader to choose whether they are ‘Team Sceptic’ or ‘Team Believer’ at the beginning. A progress chart in literary form.
As you can probably tell from such comments, the prose style is chatty and enthusiastic – rather like a podcast, in fact – and as if you’re having a conversation with Danny. And it is this down-to-earth inquisitiveness that makes this book work. To get these views across, Danny goes into what I thought of as “storyteller mode”, where he writes about the events as if he was there. This gives much latitude to being able to crank up the chills a little and Danny does this very well. To coin another cliché, “it’s as if you were there!”
As I’ve found most ‘investigations’ in prose or on TV to be these days, it is often more about the person investigating that the events being investigated. Here we find out how Danny ended up making television and radio programmes about these matters, his early home life, life at university, his wife and children, amongst other things. This does give a context, by showing us what an ordinary sort of bloke Danny appears to be and how Danny got to this investigation, but may frustrate some readers.
What is very clear, and sympathetically written about by Danny, is that few, if any, of those he meets are sensationalists. Most have actually been afraid to tell their stories for fear of ridicule. In fact, some, reluctantly pushed into the limelight by such events, have clearly been affected mentally and physically by what happened to them. Some have had their careers damaged by them, but have now felt it is important to talk to others in an attempt to understand. It’s rather less “I Want to Believe” than “I Want to Understand.” It is to Danny’s credit that he deals with all of them with respect and care.
On the downside? There are times when his humour, as an attempt to lessen the weird stuff, can become a little bit childish. I became very aware reading this that Danny originally was a comedy writer, and the book is filled with breezy little side comments and bon mots meant to ease the tension*, but at the same time could make it seem as if Danny’s not taking the situation seriously. In short, the jokes can either engage or irritate, but they do get the point across. And it is this manner, this matter-of-fact-ness, that makes the events explained seem all the more important. The general tone is that if these things can convince ‘Danny the ordinary bloke’, then they can convince anybody.
Further bad news, for anyone expecting it, is that there are no real answers here. Danny presents his discoveries and tries to come to some conclusions himself, all the while examining his inner-thoughts on paper, but is very cautious at the end to draw anything concrete from it. The general impression I got at the end was that it was OK to not know or understand everything.
However, it is sometimes the journey not the destination that matters most. From start to finish the book is entertaining, educational and deceptively engaging, even if at the end all it does is, like Danny, get you to question your own view on paranormal activity. Food for thought. A good book for those who like the documentaries, and an appropriate read here for Halloween.
INTO THE UNCANNY by Danny Robins
Published by BBC Books, September 2023
ISBN: 978 1785 948 091
352 pages
*For example, one of the little jokes along the way is that Danny offers any book reviewer a drop of the good whisky he has in an attempt to bribe positive comments. Danny, you are noted – I claim my prize!
