Flying saucers and commonsense

Belle provenance (nom en première page). Bon état général. Quelques annotations

More nonsense are probably been talked about flying saucers than about any other subject. It is small wonder, therefore, that public opinion has become confused and the topic has not received the serious study it deserves.

Waveney Girvan has been in a privileged position  with regard to this subject over the last five years, as a publisher of several books on flying saucers. He was largely responsible for launching the subject in this country when, in 1950, he sponsored Gerald Heard's pioneer work, The riddle of the flying saucers, which was serialised for several weeks in a widely-read Sunday newspaper. In 1953 he published Flying saucers have landed by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski which caused a world-wide sensation.

Waveney Girvan's method in this new book is to examine closely the sceptic's case against the inter-planetary saucer, and to demonstrate that it is compounded of prejudice, ignorance and faulty reasoning. Having destroyed the conventional objections to the saucers with many shrewd, penetrating and often humorous thrusts, he is able to put the whole matter in its proper perspective in which the positive evidence can be clearly brought out. One of the most interesting chapters in the book concerns the attitudes of governments to this world-wide mystery : his explanation of their apparently contradictory statements is both novel and arresting.

The book takes teh reader not only behind the scenes of the whole saucer story but is a valuable contribution to one of the most sensational and controversial topics of the day.

Contents

The Will-to-believe

The Will-not-to-believe

Charles Fort : the father of the flying saucers

The flying saucers come to England

"The riddle of the flying saucers"

The Lull

The Adamski photographs

The saucers fly again

The West Malling Incident

The attitude of governments

Public opinion : past and future

Cedric Allingham and the Martian

Frederick Muller Limited, 1955, 160 p.