Reviewed by Melvyn Willin
Lee Brickley has written a number of books, for example, Leave This House: The Frightening True Story of the Birmingham Poltergeist (reviewed by Tom Ruffles), The Black Eyed Child of Cannock Chase, On the Hunt for the British Bigfoot, and UFO's Werewolves and the Pig-Man. One of his most recent books is Enfield Poltergeist Revisited.
The front cover of this book prepares the reader for what lurks inside – an ‘artistic’ vertically levitating Janet partially surrounded by mist in a darkened bedroom. The introduction, which rather strangely like the rest of the book uses a very large font (useful for the partially sighted) refers to the “hushed corners of Enfield” with a lingering story that has “whispered its way through the decades” complete with “chilling episodes and indelible impact”.
Brickley introduces himself as a “paranormal investigator” who seeks to delve “into the scientific attempts to explain the supernatural” and who interviewed Guy Lyon Playfair about his experiences in Enfield. Unfortunately, the extensive tape recordings that were made by both Playfair and Maurice Grosse (the main investigators) were not researched by Brickley since their content provides precise details about the levitations and all the other phenomena during their investigation (see Willin, 2019). From the witnesses’ accounts (recorded on the tapes) of the levitations it was Janet’s actual body that was being hurled into the air and not some “astral form” that had detached itself from her physical form as mooted in the book. The information to be found on the recordings does not mention a “large, heavy refrigerator hovering almost six inches above the floor” on 15 October, 1977, but they do refer to some minor fridge movement on 5 October, 1977. Similar curious inconsistences can be found concerning the “series of books [that] flew off their shelves”; an alleged levitating sofa that actually just tipped over; the famous photograph of Janet levitating does not show her “surrounded by flying objects” as stated; and so on and so on.
Some interesting comments are provided by one “Dr Fiona Barrett, a cultural historian”, “Dr Helen Ashcroft, a theoretical physicist” and “Dr Marcus Grover, a parapsychologist” amongst others, but the lack of any references, bibliography or other identification means that their statements cannot be verified. However, on the positive side the interview that the author claims to have had with Playfair displays all the hallmarks of Playfair’s well-known views about the phenomena that he and Grosse experienced at Enfield.
As an introduction to the Enfield poltergeist case, despite the book’s omissions and mistakes, it succeeds in providing a relatively unbiased account of the events and their implications. It fails in its lack of references and depth of exploration.
Reference
Willin, M. (2019). The Enfield poltergeist tapes: One of the most disturbing cases in history. What really happened? White Crow Books.