The Enigmas of History - Reviewed by Roddy Lumsden

I've mentioned before here that books on the paranormal, supernatural and historical mysteries – what are often referred to collectively as Forteana, after the folklorist and investigator Charles Fort – is one of the growth areas in the publishing industry. Not a new genre by any means – as someone who laps this sort of stuff up, I've been reading books called things like The Unexplained or Mysteries of Our Time since my teens.

The problem with mysteries is that there is often more speculation than fact when they are retold, so books of this sort are often best when the stories are recounted concisely, with the speculation of others referred to, weighed up, but not added to. Alan Baker's new book The Enigmas of History takes this approach thankfully (another thing to be thankful for is the slightly more jaunty sub-title 'Myths, Mysteries and Madness from Around the World' which offsets the somewhat haughty title).

Now what do you suppose would be in a book like this? The old favourites? Turin shroud? Check. Nazca Lines? Fatima? Pope Joan? All present and correct. But I encountered quite a lot of fresh material here in these thirty-one chapters of ten pages or so each. It would be wrong to put a spoiler on too many of these mysteries by extracting tidbits, but I was intrigued by the revelation that black madonnas, always a cultish mystery, are now thought to be a throwback to pagan times when the goddess Ceres was represented as having brown skin, reflecting the earth.

Modern science is sometimes able to wrap up these enigmas – though many faithful believers go on believing in the shroud despite overwhelming circumstantial and scientific evidence dating it to around 1100. Part of me welcomes these advancements and solutions, another part feels sad to see some solved and some relegated to mere myth. What for example do we think now of Woolpit's dubious green children (long one of English folklore's favourite quandaries)? Probably a myth, with some possible connection to an arsenic poisoning case – according to Baker, the locals seem to think so.

The Enigmas of History is an enjoyable romp through familiar material (bible mysteries, witchcraft, conspiracy theories) with some surprising new takes (an interesting comparison between belief in fairies back then and aliens more recently). It's a good starting place for anyone who hasn't read such a book before. There are also some engaging and colourful characters I hadn't encountered before. These chapters on the occultist Count Cagliostro, the artist and magician Spare, well-known a century ago and forgotten now and the eccentric churchman turned experimental scientist John Murray Spear are some of the best reasons for acquiring this book.