My update on "Zwarte Piet" (Black Pete), Santa's blackface little helper in the Netherlands, and how's he's fading away - to be replaced by the more acceptable "Sooty Pete".
In this month's @forteantimes.bsky.social - FT470, May 2026 issue.
The top of the page of the Comics and Graphic Novels section in Fortean Times, showing the cover of Golden Rage.
The title of the Forum section of Fortean Times, showing Forum, the title A very British psychopomp, and "Steve Toase observes the durious progress of Paddington Bear from afternoon tea to afterlife guide..."
The cover of Fortean Times 470 showing a crashed airship burning in a field.
Two bylines in @forteantimes.bsky.social 470!
1st, my Forum article about how Paddington has become a very British psychopomp
2nd is my comics review column, where I review work by @chrissywilliams.bsky.social @gustaffovargas.bsky.social @bigfootstudio.bsky.social & @paulcornell.bsky.social & others
New issue on sale! Aurora UFO crash; Rose of Nevada; Ohio Bigfoot flap; Paddington the Psychopomp; disappearing scientists; superstitions on film; time-travelling Trump; tool-using wolf; AI killer; ancient opium use; supernatural winds and more! shop.forteantimes.com/current-issue
Thanks Katy!
If you're in search of reading matter for the long Easter weekend, then don't forget that our April issue is on sale and absolutely jam-packed with fortean goodness!
This is one for the @forteantimes.bsky.social!
Some good news: Jonathan the tortoise is not dead and Mother Clanger has been reunited with her family after 50 years following a deathbed confession. Happy Easter everyone!
news.canterbury.gov.uk/news/50-year...
Thanks for that one!
New issue on sale! Finding Bigfooters; Cornish haunting; Hans Holzer’s Great British Ghost Hunt; Bevy Jaegers & the Psi Squad; I Married a Goblin; Dybbuk Box; Heaven’s Goat; ‘world’s oldest butthole’; Armenian Dragon Stones; Ghanaian Noah; Bigfoot porn & more! shop.forteantimes.com/current-issue
New issue on sale now!
Erich Von Däniken's ancient aliens; cracking the Zodiac killer's code; Welsh folk horror; Hannen Swaffer & AO Spare; rains of ghostly coins; changelings in court; tapeworm diets; surfboard stealing otters; fairy fungus; new UFO docs & more! shop.forteantimes.com/current-issue
A flyer describing the event Strange Central taking place online and at Conway Hall on 18 April 2026 in London. Images include a Bigfoot on a red background, a sea-monster on a blue background, a coin with a UFO image and a flying saucer. Text is: STRANGE CENTRAL A day of Ghosts, Monsters, UFOs and Fortean Strangeness on 18 April 202o at Conway Hall, Holborn, London. Hosted by the London Fortean Society. Andrew J Bartlett & Jamie Lewis and Darren Naish on seeking monsters. Dominic Chorney reveals History's Weird Money: Treasures of the Occult. Meanwhile… Alice Vernon, Ben Machell & Sarah Sparkes go Ghost Hunting in the Archives. Mark Pilkington discloses UFOs and politics in New Trump America David Clarke reveals the New Folklore of the Calvine UFO Strange Central 2026: Mysteries, Monsters, Ghosts and UFOs Saturday 18 April 2026 10 am - 5 pm Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL Standard: £23, Student: £18, Living Support: £15. Online is £12. forteanlondon.blogspot.com
Folklorist Icy Sedgewick on stage at Conway Hall on 22 November 2025. The stage is wood-panelled and Icy is in a green dress. Text on a screen says: "The most dramatic and awesome of all the boggarts. A Frightful goblin armed with teeth and claws, having eyes as big as saucers, and loaded with heavy chains, which rattle and clank."
Strange Central 2026: Mysteries, Monsters, Ghosts, and UFOs Online and @conwayhall.bsky.social
Saturday 18 April 10 am - 5 pm forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2026/02/stra...
(1/8)
@forteantimes.bsky.social
Treat yourself to the full set!
Highlighted text reads: “Reports seven-inch dildo inserted into rectum when it accidentally went too far. He attempted to use pliers to remove it. Pliers stuck too"
From a round up of stories about unusual (or, perhaps, not *that* unusual) unfortunate insertions in this month's @forteantimes.bsky.social ...
...this could be the start of a dark reimagining of that old woman who swallowed a fly story.
The new Fortean Times is out, including my Fortean Traveller article on Druid's Temple in Yorkshire, a place that has hosted bikers, students, (possible) devil worship, and pet hermits!
New issue now on sale!
John Cowper Powys; ghosts of the Colorado gold rush; the Ditchingham Chicken Roundabout; 3I/Atlas aliens; puzzling pongs; Bigfoot's big butt; morgue mix-ups; raccoon rampage; talking plants; phantom boobs; folklore of fibbing; toad-licking myths; Druid's Temple and more!
Thrilled to share my piece on the quirky Ditchingham Chicken Roundabout in @forteantimes.bsky.social And I’m on the front cover! 🫨
FT has been part of my life since I was a kid, sneaking my mum's copies under the covers.
Grab a copy to learn more! 🐔
#forteantimes #ChickenRoundabout
Get 2026 off to a properly weird start with our January issue! The occult origins of television; Martin's Devils; Viennese esoteric art; Fortean Pynchon; the Washington Stain; partying ghosts; Japanese bear wars; rampaging robots; werewolf arrested; baby vs snake; Antarctic mystery signals and more
We're finally winding down for the festivities and wish all our lovely readers a wonderful Christmas! We'll leave you with a cautionary seasonal headline from the archive:
SHROPSHIRE FAMILY HAVE CHRISTMAS DINNER RUINED BY FLUORESCENT GREEN TURKEY FROM TESCO, Shropshire Star, 3 Jan 2017.
I have been reading this magazine for decades, it is part of who I am.
To all you writers out there it is a goldmine of weirdness. Honestly, throw a Fortean scene in a book, even a romance or YA, just for fun #writer #authors #writingcommunity
You most definitely should! Give yourself an early Christmas present!
Illustrious Eunuchs is definitely a band name. As is Phantom Twanger. Or Masonic Super Mario.
Well, that takes us back!
Our Christmas issue is now on sale! South Shields Poltergeist at 20; SAS vs Gnomes; Enys Tregarthen's Cornish tales; Europe's Yuletide spectres; Warminster Thing; Fortean TV 1988 Christmas Special; illustrious eunuchs; phantom twanger; Masonic Super Mario + much more
shop.forteantimes.com/subscribe
If you're looking for a Hallowe'en gift for the witch, warlock or furry familiar in your life, we can wholeheartedly recommend our latest Fortean Times special collection...
Available in shops or order online from:
shop.forteantimes.com/product/witc...
We aim to please...
The way the schedules fall means we're a bit ahead of the rest of the planet... but we're used to it
New issue on sale ! Colonel Fawcett's mystery beasts; lucid dreaming; Greek dream oracles; police vs panthers; Colin Wilson; Indian drone panic; haunted furniture; Etsy witches; flat-pack aliens; extreme fart horror; Nosher remembered and much more!
shop.forteantimes.com/current-issue
Saturday 18 Oct, 6.30pm: The Woodwoses and Wildmen of Suffolk. FT regular Matt Salusbury investigates Suffolk's wildmen in an online event. Please email chronicles@dunwichmuseum.org.uk and get your free ticket at on our Eventbrite page!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-woodwo...
Halloween is a good time for promoting @forteantimes.bsky.social in the newsagents 🙂
On sale now!
Witches and Witchcraft: Stories of Sorcery, Spells and Superstition
A new special edition from the archives of Fortean Times, with an introduction and commentary by historian of witchcraft Malcolm Gaskill.
In shops now, or order direct from:
shop.forteantimes.com/product/witc...