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The World Atlas of the Unexplained:
An Encyclopedia of the World's Natural and Supernatural Mysteries

The World Atlas of the Unexplained: An Encyclopedia of the World's Natural and Supernatural Mysteries. (Lomond: London, 1996; ISBN 1-85868-233-9). Hb, 224 pp, colour pics, refs, index. Available from the publisher and all good bookshops.

This is the Scottish edition of The Unexplained, which retains the original choice of title for that book. However, despite its different title, dust jacket, publisher, and ISBN, its contents are identical to those of The Unexplained.

The World Atlas of the Unexplained: An Encyclopedia of the World's Natural and Supernatural Mysteries takes its readers upon a breathtaking cosmopolitan safari in search of the strange and inexplicable, but what gives this book such a positive advantage over all others in this genre is the structural format of its contents - which are grouped not by subject but by geographical locality. Consequently, by focusing upon each major region of the globe in turn, not only the major mysteries but also many of the far less familiar yet no less fascinating anomalies and enigmas of each such region are unveiled and examined.

The result is a uniquely diverse panorama of the uncanny and unexplained, in which lake monsters, sacred relics, extraterrestrials, ghosts, werewolves, levitating saints, ancient cities, ball lightning, abominable snowmen, zombies and other mystifying but famous phenomena are revealed and reviewed alongside an unrivalled array of hitherto neglected yet equally controversial mysteries - ranging from winged cats and green cats, shrieking and milk-drinking statues, flying snakes, blue-skinned humans, and vampire trees, to glowing mummies and mummified crocodile boys, stones that emit lethal beams of laser-like light, mothmen and lizard men, magnetic mountains, living UFOs in the skies, electrocuting death worms in the desert sands, vanishing islands adrift in the oceans, and other wonders far too numerous to list here.

As might also be expected from a book written by a prolific author who is a qualified scientist too, its multifarious subjects are entertainingly presented but also rigorously examined, in search of plausible solutions to their tantalising and tenacious riddles. Add to this a gorgeous selection of illustrations plus an extensive bibliography, and the result is a compelling kaleidoscope of magic, marvels, and mysteries from the four corners of the world to amaze and astonish even the most sceptical or cynical of readers. What more could anyone ask?

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