I bought myself this as a birthday present. It's more money than I'd usually spend on a book, but I figured I should treat myself as it was my birthday. It turned out to be worth it -- it's the best book on the paranormal that I've ever read. It takes a neutral standpoint, presenting a variety of theories on each subject and mostly just reporting various unusual incidents. Instead of just telling the same old ghost and UFO stories that everybody's heard before, there are also chapters on more unusual things -- rains of fish or frogs, species that are thought to be extinct and then reappear, and people who lose items in the sea only to find them again in the stomach of the fish they are about to eat, and other interesting things. Get this book if you're at all interested in the unexplained!

The Virgin Mary’s recent visits to Boksburg prove that unexplained phenomena can occur anywhere – even on the East Rand – which makes this book doubly interesting.

Do not be mislead by the term ‘rough guide’: there is nothing rough in the serious and systematic synopsis of everything from teleportation to alien abduction, stigmata, lake monsters, hauntings and talking pets.

Nothing is ever debunked, scorned or explained away; instead the inexplicable is described, elucidated and contextualized. Primary source material may be taken from the not-always impartial Fortean Times, but it is still a fascinating and even convincing read. ( )