Hey Mark,
cheers for the interview invite. Here's my blurb in line with the questions you asked. please let me know if you need anything else.
Andy :)
What inspired me?
I cannot remember a time when I wasn't into tales of strange or unknown cryptids and OOPAs (Out of Place Animals). As a child growing up in the late 70's and early 80's. I remember being fascinated with television shows like 'In search of ...' with Leonard Nimoy and 'Arthur C Clarke's, Mysterious World' and that I was especially interested in their episodes on lake and sea monsters, Bigfoot and living dinosaurs.
I started taking note of sightings, photo and film evidence from age around age 12, but I didn't really take any of it seriously until December of 1999. I was then 23 years of age and had been staying near the Preseli Mountains in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with the family of my then girlfriend. A friend of her family who was also staying, was a bit of a heavy smoker and had gone out on to the patio one morning at 5am for a smoke. As she sat down and lit her cigarette she was shocked to see a large panther staring at her, too scared to even move she sat motionless, until after around 20 seconds, the panther turned and quietly melted away into the darkness. Later that day as she recounted her story, the sister of my then girlfriend also confessed that she had seen a similar animals whilst riding across the mountain a year or two earlier. In fact it was admitted that the presence of these out of place animals was well known amongst the local population and the owners of the property even claimed to have previously owned 2 lamas which had been injured by some unknown creature that left 4 inch claw marks on their necks and flanks. From this moment i was hooked, and i got my introduction to the Beasts of Britain, in the form of the Alien Big Cats or British Big Cats as they are sometimes known that have been seen by hundreds of people all across the country for many years now. For years after this I kept my eye out for sightings and newspaper stories in the press and was also fortunate to incidentally meet a few other people who had had close encounters with these exotic predatory big cats, in Britain.
This research inevitably led on to other commonplace cryptids like Nessie and Morgawr, The Owlman, Pterosaurs and the British Bigfoot et al. It was my research into these familiar faces of cryptozoology for example, that revealed to me a much larger cache of modern day lake and sea monster sightings, which seem to show a much wider dispersion of these 'prehistoric' cryptids around the British Isles (yes, i think they're plesiosaurs BTW ) and to my mind a transient or roaming population of ocean migrants who inhabit our inshore waters and lakes from time to time, (that's not to say that there aren't any resident monsters as well, no reason we cant have both), most likely following salmon or eels into places like Loch Ness, Lake Windermere or up the River Thames, as in the case of 'Tamsin' the River Thames Monster that was allegedly filmed on 3 separate occasions between March to April of 2016 and incidentally around the time of an eel migration. My research also led me to connect with many experienced researchers and authors of British Cryptids and i feel that I have been enabled to learn so much from the endeavours of these true cryptozoologists, who did most of the real research well before our internet age simplified everything.
What are my aims?
I have just finished writing my first book 'Beasts of Britain' due to be published through CFZ Press, which is about the unknown creatures living right under our noses here on this tiny island in the North Atlantic. I felt I wanted to write about British cryptids and OOPAs because it always seemed to me that most of our 'mystery' creatures were overlooked in favour of other, similar animals in more exciting and far away (and therefore more believable) parts of the world. Indeed, many of the modern reports I discovered of Water Monsters, Bigfoot, Mystery Big Cats and U.F.C's (Unidentified Flying Cryptids), were largely dismissed out of hand or used as tongue in cheek newspaper fillers to entertain us. All failed to illicit any serious investigation of these strange sightings. In my book I try to frame a few theories as to what some of these animals might be, and show taht there is a wealth of independent, corroborative reports that back up what some of these brave witnesses are claiming in to see. I also dedicate some space to known animals that are reported, but not yet accepted as being resident in the UK. Britain is largely a rural landscape dottted about with busy towns and cities, for the most part, an island in darkness, i believe we have both the environment to sustain many hidden species, if nocturnal or intelligent and the prey species to support them.
What plans do I have for the future?
I have written a TV series/documentary under the same name as my book- Beasts of Britain and once the book is released i hope to start pitching it. I kinda had something a little less sensational than Finding Bigfoot & friends and if i get my way, it'll be more of a cross between 'River Monsters' and 'Coast'. I am also involved in some other documentaries, one of which will be filming in the UK in the spring of next year, and I will be giving a few talks on the subject of British Cryptids, starting from this October 22nd at PROBE, who have opened up a section for cryptozoology this year. As far as writing goes, I do have 3 other titles on the burn, 2 of which I have made a start on and another which will be co-written with a well-known Bigfoot researcher.
My hope for the time being is to organise some expeditions and put into practice some of my research methods, in the hope of outsmarting some of these hide and seek champions, and collecting some scientific evidence along the way ;)
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