The UFO Casebook edited by Peter Brookersmith (book review).

Here’s a glimpse into the past. Back in 1980-83, the multi-part ‘The Unexplained’ magazine, which became a 26-volume set, was released. Unlike the earlier ‘Man, Myth & Magic’, which I had to give up on after volume one because I had a tiny budget, I did get this one collected. After its release, over a period of years, some books were released, gathering some of their information for those potential readers who just wanted particular subjects and for them to make a bit more money.

This book was probably the only multi-issue encyclopedia to have this treatment. When I picked up ‘The UFO Casebook’ last year, I didn’t realise it was one of these based on ‘The Unexplained’. I should also point out that there are a different number of books with a similar title and theme out there, although quite why publishers Black Cat chose to use the Devil’s Mountain imagery from ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’ beats me when they had some photographs inside.

Anyway, over the course of 84 pages, we have material from ‘The Unexplained’. Where there are no photographs, a lot of the illustrations were in crayon. I was never sure why the authors chose to use that medium. Perhaps because it gave a vagueness that matched the descriptions by the witnesses. The reports were mostly from those given to the ‘Flying Saucer Review’ magazine and comments from the likes of Professor A.J. Ellinson, Dr J. Hynck, Brian Inglis and Colin Wilson, all ‘experts’ in their field, and from reports from across the world and some events from the military from the 1950s-1980s.

Although they wished for reports from individuals with scientific backgrounds, there are several instances of people with little or no education who did not even report an occurrence to their relatives before doing so. This certainly doesn’t align with the stereotype of individuals embracing the UFO phenomenon. Even today, the prevalence of UFOs has significantly decreased, yet the extent of fakery remains uncertain. Although there are references to some fakes, they aren’t covered here. Without a doubt, our intention is not to mislead anyone or attempt to enhance their perceptions. Even so, there are a couple that have been discredited since.

We also know a lot more today than back then. Even back in the 1980s, I was tending to look at similar vessels being photographed as verification of something going on rather than so much divergence. Although a couple of vessels are present here, none of them appeared in other locations. There are certainly some odd-shaped vessels, some even landing on legs, and the occasional humanoid pilots and passengers. Some were also saucer-like, but that doesn’t mean much. One thing they did not look like was advanced stealth terrestrial high-altitude aircraft like the SR-71 Blackbird. They mostly exhibited the ability to float and speed off rapidly, something the Blackbird couldn’t do.

Although there are likely better books available today, this source material, written nearly 50 years ago, would probably be categorised as a reference to understand the perspectives of that time. Aside from acknowledging the reliability of individual reports, no effort was made to analyse them collectively, except for the mention of occasional UFO flaps. Certainly, the intention was to allow the reader to form their own conclusions.

At that time, there were enough UFO books available that followed this approach, likely because their authors were uncertain about what to say or were responding to denials from various air forces regarding the true nature of the events. We still don’t know much more today. The USS Nimitz report with film footage from 2002 is still considered the most definitive data, and that took a long time to be declassified. There have been no mad panics from people, and I suspect those who have seen them have as much puzzlement as anyone else.

There’s certainly an argument to have the military reveal what they know rather than keep it secret.

GF Willmetts

February 2026

(pub: Black Cat/Orbis, 1990. 84 page large hardback. Price: varies. ISBN: 0-7481-0302-3).