Couple
chronicle close encounters http://www.redditchadvertiser.co.uk/misc/print.php?artid=2208644 AFTER
a close encounter of the third kind, an Alvechurch resident has spent the last
10 years researching UFOs. John
Hanson and his partner Dawn Holloway are working on a series of volumes dating
from 1940 to 2008 which catalogue a day-by-day account of UFO activity in the
UK. The series,
called Haunted Skies, contains an in-depth examination of UFO events as well as
illustrations and interviews. John,
who is retired from West Midlands Police, said: "In 1995 I was at home in
the depth of my armchair watching, of all things, the X Files, when a colleague
of mine told me about a UFO that had been seen over Birmingham. "My
colleague and his partner drove around looking for the object when they came across
a massive saucer shaped object with a thin rippling red line running through it,
surrounded by a blue haze. "This
was the trigger that raised my curiosity. Surely there was no such thing as UFOs
or flying saucers, they didn't exist - or did they?" Over
the next few years John continued to receive information about other sightings
which had taken place on that same evening and began to look into the subject
of UFOs. At the
same time he began giving talks and lectures on UFOs at local colleges and met
his partner Dawn. After
one talk he had his first close encounter. "A
strange thing happened, I was at home getting ready for bed when I looked out
of the window and saw a silvery blob of light about the size of a football hanging
on the tree opposite the house," he said. "I
picked up a video camera and started filming and then the next thing I know I'm
waking up the next day. When I realised what had happened I checked the video
and was astonished to see the object again. "Within
a couple of minutes it rushed up into the sky and was gone. "Like
so many others before me and after I went straight to the library and read as
much as I could about UFOs." Feeling
uneasy about the way authors had carried out their research, John decided the
only way to form his own conclusions as to what this phenomena is was to carry
out his own research. He
added: "The majority of the information in the volumes was obtained from
literally hundreds of interviews with UFO researchers and the witnesses themselves,
defunct 1970s magazines and newspaper appeals. "It's
something people will find very interesting but I think we have to be wary of
alienating ourselves against a general public who still remain sceptical of the
existence of UFOs and have no comprehension as to how prolific UFO activity was
during the middle of the last century. "There
is an abundance of all manner of strange and weird phenomena out there, but one
has to see and experience for themselves before they believe it." For
more information about Haunted Skies or if any business would like to help John
and Dawn publish the series, call 0121 445 0340. | 
