The Premonitions Bureau
A Sunday Times bestseller
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3.3 • 9 Ratings
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- £8.49
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
'A stunning piece of work' Patrick Radden Keefe
'Beautifully ordered, humane, capacious' Hilary Mantel
'An eerie and amazing account of coincidence and fate' Emma Cline
'Completely compelling and beautifully written' Anil Seth
The story of a strange experiment - a journey into the oddest corners of 60s Britain and the outer edges of science and reason.
Premonitions are impossible. But they come true all the time.
You think of a forgotten friend. Out of the blue, they call.
But what if you knew that something terrible was going to happen? A sudden flash, the words CHARING CROSS. Four days later, a packed express train comes off the rails outside the station.
What if you could share your vision, and stop that train? Could these forebodings help the world to prevent disasters?
In 1966, John Barker, a dynamic psychiatrist working in an outdated British mental hospital, established the Premonitions Bureau to investigate these questions. He would find a network of hundreds of correspondents, from bank clerks to ballet teachers. Among them were two unnervingly gifted "percipients". Together, the pair predicted plane crashes, assassinations and international incidents, with uncanny accuracy. And then, they informed Barker of their most disturbing premonition: that he was about to die.
The Premonitions Bureau is an enthralling true story, of madness and wonder, science and the supernatural - a journey to the most powerful and unsettling reaches of the human mind.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In 1966, the Aberfan tragedy saw 144 lives lost, most of them children, after coal waste slid down a mountain and engulfed a Welsh mining village. When experimental psychiatrist Dr John Barker heard how dozens of Britons claimed to have foreseen this awful accident, it inspired his groundbreaking initiative: asking the public to share their visions of the future, with the aim of preventing such catastrophes. It was called the Premonitions Bureau and now New Yorker journalist Sam Knight tells its stranger-than-fiction story in his debut book. Emerging from the cranks and time-wasters came two eccentrics who seemed to be genuine seers, predicting plane crashes and political assassinations with chilling accuracy. Could Barker utilise their eerie psychic gifts to save lives? What about when they dreamt he was about to die himself? It’s a haunting slice of pop science. Knight’s beautifully paced prose is packed with historical insight and quirky digressions. His cast of supporting characters ranges from Freud to Socrates, from J.B. Priestley to the Bee Gees. Fans of Jon Ronson, The X Files or paranormal podcasts will find much to savour in this meticulously researched, stunningly atmospheric piece of narrative non-fiction. Don’t have nightmares.
