Gothic
This image from
a mono television screen, 13th March 1970,
sparked off
what, for some, would be the last remnant of the
Gothic Aftermath
- with the advent of the Highgate Vampire.
“My interest in the Highgate
ghost has been increasing in proportion to the number of ghosts unearthed. What
a pity scientific investigation has killed the romantic supernatural quite
dead, eg the United States Air Force has finally closed its books on the
unidentified flying objects investigation and found our visitors from outer
space had very earthly origins indeed. Swains Lane on a cloudy, windswept,
moonlit night, with its cemetery, overhanging branches, sparsely-peopled,
ill-lit, and rather Gothic, has the same effect on some people as reading a
ghost story, and we all see ghosts after reading a ghost story. A strange
moonlit shape, a moving shadow caused by car headlights, nocturnal animals
moving about the graveyard, are all sources of ghostly visitants, incompletely
observed and worked upon by a highly-charged imagination. Likewise, your
correspondents who report vocal ghosts must surely wonder how a disembodied
spirit acquires powerful lungs and vocal cords. I would respectfully suggest
they consult an ornithologist at the earliest opportunity or, failing that, the
owner of any dog named Hugo. Finally, with regard to the vampire theory. The
British Occult Society is to be congratulated on fighting a brave last-ditch
battle on behalf of the romantics in bringing their vampire out of its dusty
covers, and presenting it once again for public display, but alas, regretfully
it is too late, by at least three generations.”
~
S Levitt, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970
“A voice resonated deep within my consciousness. … ‘You
go!’ [… a sound not unlike ‘Hugo’ …] The bass vowels
mysteriously reverberated everywhere. I knew what I must do, and do quickly if
I was to prevent the evil spreading. I had until daybreak. … I removed the lids
and gazed at the grotesque sight of three bloated corpses, torpid and heavy
with the previous night’s feast. Gaping mouths open to reveal great gouts of
blood. Razor sharp teeth stained with congealed gore. Bodies soaked and
saturated with the putrid dregs of victims. The stench of corruption was
unbearable. … I was careful to look away from the burning-ruby eyes as I placed
the point of the stake over the heart. … Then I struck with all my might.”
~
Seán Manchester, Carmel, (Gothic Press, 2000) page 28
“Seán Manchester, the most
authentic vampire hunter in the world today, penetrated the very heart of the
mystery whose necrogenic setting has such impressionistic power that within the
shades of dark ebon the most disbelieving sceptic will witness something
spectral in the ghostly whiteness of moonbeams shining on marble tombs.”
~ Devendra P
Varma, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
“I am very impressed by the
body of scholarship you have created. Seán
Manchester is undoubtedly the father of modern vampirological research.”
~ John Godl,
paranormal investigator, Sydney, NSW, Australia
“Seán Manchester is the most celebrated vampire hunter of the
20th century.”
~ Shaun
Marin, writer & researcher, Uri Geller’s Encounters magazine, UK
“Britain’s only full-time
vampire hunter, … [Seán] Manchester is,
unsurprisingly, very well read in both classical and more recent sources on
vampires and vampirism, and cites them with great authority.”
~ Joe
McNally, associate editor, Fortean Times magazine, UK
“His lectures at universities
and organisations led to my inviting him to address members of the Ghost Club
Society which he duly did. We met at that time at the Swedenborg Hall in
Bloomsbury and the President of the Vampire Research Society arrived, suitably
attired, and gave a memorable and in many ways remarkable lecture. Certainly we
had had nothing like it before and have never had anything like it since; not a
few members at the crowded meeting revised their opinion on vampires and
vampirism after that evening.”
~ Peter
Underwood, President, The Ghost Club Society, London, UK
“One of the most notable
figures to visit the [Kirklees] haunted site under cover of darkness was Seán Manchester, whom Green has called one of Britain’s
foremost vampire hunters and exorcists.”
~ Craig
Miller, associate editor, Fate Magazine, Minnesota, USA
“I believe Seán Manchester is this country’s only genuine vampire
hunter.”
~ Nicole
Lampert, journalist, features department, The Sun, London, UK
“Dr [Seán] Manchester doesn’t just acknowledge the possibility; he
knows that vampires exist.”
~ Stephen
Jarvis, author and researcher of strange pursuits, UK
“First thrust into the public
eye in the Seventies after a spate of gruesome reports about North London’s
Highgate Cemetery, Seán Manchester is now
acknowledged as a serious vampirologist with a God-given mission.”
~ Frances
Hubbard, features’ writer, IPC magazines, London, UK
“Seán Manchester, descendant of Lord Byron, scourge of the
undead and Britain’s number one vampire hunter.”
~ Michael
Magenis, freelance journalist and researcher, London, UK
“Seán Manchester has been called in to investigate ghoulish
visitations at former Liberal leader David Steel’s Scottish castle and an old
estate in Yorkshire where a dark, demonic spook is terrifying locals. … He is
descended from the romantic poet ~ his great, great, great grandfather was the son
of a housemaid Byron got pregnant.”
~ Pam
Bentley, features’ writer, Sunday magazine, London, UK
“Seán Manchester, a self-confessed Vampire Hunter [who] knows
they exist, … has spent a significant proportion of his life pursuing reports
of vampiric and necromantic activity. His visceral account of his pursuit and
termination of a vampire he discovered entombed in Highgate Cemetery’s Egyptian
columbarium in the ‘70s, The Highgate Vampire, even includes a
photograph of the staked beast in its death-throes.”
~ Stevan
Keane, features’ writer, City Limits magazine, London, UK
“The shadow of a stone angel
stole across Seán Manchester’s face as he laid
out the tools of his trade: old Italianate crucifixes, holy water, fat white
bulbs of garlic and sharpened wooden stakes. Traditional instruments of
protection. … Risking life and soul is all part of a night’s work for
Manchester. … The founding president of the Vampire Research Society spends four or five
nights a week out hunting.”
~ Beverley
d’Silva, features’ writer, Sunday Times magazine, London, UK
“Britain’s foremost vampire
hunter [is] Seán Manchester.”
~ Len
Markham, author and researcher of the paranormal, Yorkshire, UK
“Seán Manchester, billed as ‘Vampirologist and Exorcist,’
pops up in a graveyard [on London Weekend Television’s South Bank Show]
with groovy long hair and crucifix of cinematic proportions. Is he for real?”
~ Suzy Feay,
sub-editor, reviewer and critic, Time Out magazine, London, UK
“Seán Manchester’s Vampire Research Society grew out of his
previous leadership role in [the British Occult Society] an occult
investigation bureau. The society investigates all aspects of ‘supernatural
vampire phenomena,’ a task that has led to a variety of research projects,
including the famous Highgate Vampire and the Kirklees Vampire projects.”
~ J Gordon Melton,
chronicler of vampire topics, Santa Barbara, USA