Category: Events

I am presenting a talk on “The Mystery Animals of Suffolk” at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, on Friday 21 February 2025. Kick-off is at 6.30.

For details and to book a ticket see the Moyse’s Hall website.

The talk will briefly take in some of Suffolk’s fantastic animals of ancient folklore – wildmen, the fairies of Stowmarket, Black Shuck, evil freshwater mermaids (including some around Bury) before examining in more detail some far more plausible and recent mystery animals of Suffolk – big cats!

There have been quite a few sightings of these in the area around Bury, so there will be a hyper-local look at recent Suffolk big cat sightings.

As ever, signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be on sale after the talk.

I’ll be in the Bury area from 20-24 February if you want to arrange to meet to show me any locations for big cat sightings round there.

Reconstruction of one of many sightings of “the Haverhill puma” around the Steeple Bumpstead Roundabout  on the edge of the Suffolk town of Haverhill in 2010s

Read More

I am giving a talk on “the big cats of Suffolk” at Dunwich Museum on Saturday  20 July at 6.30. This will include some hyper-local big cat reports from the immediate area and an update since the publication of Mystery Animals of Suffolk.

Entry is by donation, the Museum recommend a donation of around £10. Drinks and nibbles will be served. It should be over around 8pm.

The talk’s in the Reading Room, directly behind the Museum in St James’s Street. For news of future talks on the big cats of Suffolk, join the mailing list – scroll down the the form at the bottom of the home page.

There’s now a short report on the talk here.

I have a talk on The Woodwoses and Wildmen of Suffolk for Orford Museum on Wednesday 24 April 2024, it’s at Butley Priory (nearest station Wickham Market), starting at 6.15pm, finishing at 7.15.

Book tickets in advance – £18 for non-members of Orford Museum via the Museum’s online booking system.

Signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be on sale at a discount.

More details are here.

This talk replaces the  talk on the big cats of Suffolk previously advertised at the same venue on the same date.

There is a completely different talk on the big cats of Suffolk on Saturday 20 June 2024 at 6pm at Dunwich Museum, St James’s Street, Dunwich, Suffolk (nearest station Darsham, a 45-minute bike ride).

Admission is by donation. There’s no need to book, but  let the Museum know if you plan to come via events@dunwichmuseum.org.uk so they know how many people are coming. Signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be on sale at a discount at this talk too. Details will be on the Dunwich Museum website shortly.

That’s “Reports and sightings of big cats in the county of Suffolk, 1974-2022” in English.French doesn’t really have a concept of “big cats” as they are understood in English, so it’s just felins (felines).

That’s the title of my talk at the Rencontres Europeennes de Cryptozooligie (European Meeting on Cryptozoology) in Dinant, Belgium on 5 November 2023. I had to send my PowerPoint slides to the organisers way back in September for the translation team to look at, as there will be simultaneous translation into French.

This year the talks are in a combination of French and English, at a previous meeting I went to it was nearly all in French. Back in 2017 I gave a talk at the event in French, on Les elephants nain (pygmy elephants) – I was pleased not to have to do it in French again!

Dinant is best known as the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone (there’s a statue of Sax sitting on a bench near where his house was). It’s also known by Belgians as the scene of a terrible massacre at the start of World War One.

My report on the conference appeared in Fortean Times, see here.

There is a local event to launch the recently published book Mystery Animals of Suffolk – including an account of over 150 mystery big cat sightings by Dunwich resident Matt Salusbury

On Sunday 22 October, 2pm-4.30 pm (last admission) at The Reading Room, St James’s Street, Dunwich, Suffolk IP17 3DT (behind Dunwich Museum).

Drinks and nibbles served. Meet the author. His large map showing big cat sightings across Suffolk will be on display.

Signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be available to buy at a discount on the day. (Dunwich Museum nextdoor is open until 4.30 on that day, one of the last chances to visit it before it closes down for the winter at the end of October.)

Big cat witnesses and sceptics welcome! (Testimony of Suffolk Shuck sightings in the 1970s also accepted.)

 This is a hyper-local “soft launch”. A bigger event in Ipswich – accessible by public transport – is expected in early 2024. For further details get on the mailing list mysteryanimalsofsuffolk@gn.apc.org.