Richard Muirhead is probably the best researcher that I know. He has, what I am sure Charlie Fort would have called, a ‘Wild Talent’ in that you can let him loose in any library or archive, and with the innate powers of a truffle-hound he will extract all sorts of pieces of arcane knowledge that one would never have suspected to be there.

For example, about a decade ago, he phoned me telling me he was going to look in the archive of the Hong Kong Yacht Club. “Whatever for?” I asked and received a completely non-committal reply. That evening, he telephoned me to tell me that he had found a hitherto unsuspected sea-serpent report. That’s just the kind of guy he is.

Some years ago, he started his own magazine, Flying Snake, which has proven to be a wildly eclectic and thematically diverse publication that, every few months, continues to delight and amuse. Here, in book form, is the first volume of the collected editions.

Enjoy,

Jon Downes (Director, Centre for Fortean Zoology)