This book is jammed pack of photographic anomalies each of which the author provides information of, ie, where the photograph was taken and what year and any other information that he has uncovered about it. The author then goes into his own interpretation of what that photograph could or could not be. So, what's in here then, what makes this book so appealing to me and I'm sure, the many others who will read it after me. Let's take a look shall we.

Firstly do we really know what ghosts are? Are they really dead people coming back into our viewing spectrum and if so, how do they do it, we'll leave that discussion for another day. That ghosts appear on film there is no denying.

The author goes into those early images of ghosts which look oh so fake and manufactured and yet could well be real. We learn about those early photographic pioneers who knew photography more than the man in the street and saw an opportunity to make a quick buck by deception. During the first world war where many British and European servicemen and women lost their lives, back home some unscrupulous photographers were cashing in and making a cut and paste job of lost loved ones claiming to be the spirits of the deceased fallen. (but that's another story) I'll leave that one for another day!

Probably one of the most famous if not infamous ghostly photographs, concerns the appearance (make that Materialisation) of Silver Belle a native American spirit guide of psychic medium Ethel Post Parrish) This book shows just one photographic plate of her materialisation (there are a few others not shown in this book) It was taken sometime between 1932 and 1961 (yes I know !) and looks a bit fishy and in the other photographs (not shown) a bit one dimensional but the sitters of this séance claim that this materialisation did take place. We have photographs of a chap levitating, of the Katie King séance and controversy, and any book of ghosts photographs would not be complete without those lovely Cottingly fairies which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pinned his hat on being real, they were not. We have photographs of a materialisation of an eagle (or hawk) and the ghost of Abraham Lincoln.

The author also looks at photographs of Kirlin photography and the strange shapes and halos that can be produced in this process. Is this a real phenomenon or something else? On page 34 we have a couple photographs of what appears to be the soul leaving the body of a person who has just died, can this really be the soul/spirit (call it what you will) leaving a body, or is the explanation more mundane, well the author certainly ensures that all points are covered and gives his thoughts on this as he does with all the others.

The very controversial photographs of one Ted Serios are shown (well one of them anyway) and Melvyn goes into this photo with clever thoughts. Ted you see could just hold a camera with loaded film, hold it to his head, think of a place or image and lo and behold when someone got the film processed there on the film would be a cloudy image of what he said would be there. Controversial or what!

Surprisingly photographs of orbs only get two pages (I would have thought they might have got more) but then again, this book covers so much photographic anomalies that there has to be a cut off point. So what are Orbs then? Read the author's views and see what you think.

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