My career as a councillor (8 years) has sunk without trace, my work for the party since I joined in 1982 has become invisible and even my day job as a writer of history books has vanished entirely. No. All the press are interested in is the fact that I have written a few books about ghosts, a couple on UFOs and one on sasquatch.
For the most part these stories have been fairly good natured. See the Independent, the Telegraph (scroll down a bit) and the Leicester Mercury for examples. After all, journalists are in the trade and know that a freelance writer must write about whatever his publisher likes and pays for.
There have been two exceptions. The Financial Times wanted to quiz me on my "belief in the paranormal" and tried to lure me into declaring a belief in such things as alien invaders, conspiracy cover-ups and the unquiet dead. Then the BBC wanted to do an exclusive interview with me on my supposed, but non-existent, full time career hunting ghosts and ghouls. I had to disappoint them both. I don't have a generalised belief in the paranormal, nor do I chase around the country hoping to catch a white lady in the act. I write books on the subject, presenting the evidence so that readers can decide for themselves. That is what I am paid to do. End of.End of? Not quite.
You would not gather from this that Mr Matthews is a lecturer with the International Metaphysical University.
And he is on record as saying: "The evidence for UFOs and for the humanoid creatures linked to them is pretty compelling."
Besides, this blog at least has taken a keen interest in Matthews' political views. The problem is that when you do you find him discussing the possibility of European Commission tanks invading Britain.
Even among Conservative MEPs, all this is enough to mark him out as a bit of an eccentric.
"a freelance writer must write about whatever his publisher likes and pays for"
ReplyDeleteYou also wouldn't gather from this article that - he is his own publisher!