Author Description

Beyond the world we can quantify, classify, and analyze there is another, more mysterious world. In this book Arthur C Clarke, whose brilliant novels of prophecy and warning are read by millions, investigates this suprascienfific world. Under his direction, Simon Welfare and John Fairley traveled five continents interviewing witnesses of strange events and unexplained phenomena. They talked to men and women who had seen monsters from the depths of oceans and lakes and had watched "unidentified flying objects" cross the night sky in brilliant light; they talked to explorers and mountain people who had seen yeti, the abominable snowman, so long dismissed as fantasy, and his cousin "Bigfoot," who stalks our North American forests. More threatening events are also examined in the hope that we can glean evidence which may prevent future catastrophe. The fiery object from the sky which destroyed a vast area of the Siberian forests in 1908 could well have obliterated Paris, New York or London; when will we be visited again? Arthur C Clarke, the creator of the classic movie 2001, which looked back to man's origins and forward to interplanetary travel, would not wish, even if it were possible, to provide answers to all the questions posed in this book. We may never know who built the stone circles of Britain nor why; we can only guess at what star the three wise men followed to Bethlehem. But we may one day have living examples of animals believed long since to be extinct or never to have existed at all. As Arthur C Clarke writes: "The universe is such a strange and wonderful place that reality will always outreach the wildest imagination."