Sam Knight: The Premonitions Bureau (1967)

In this episode we’re heading to the 1960s to meet a man who tried to uncover the difference between fate and coincidence.

Have you ever had a feeling that something would happen before it did? Or seen something you couldn’t make sense of? In 1967 the psychiatrist John Barker set up a bureau in the offices of the London Evening Standard where members of the public could phone in and report their premonitions.

A strange dream. A headache and an overwhelming feeling of dread. A vision without any clear meaning. Over the courses of its two year existence the Premonitions Bureau collected countless sinking feelings and strange suspicions. They were categorised, logged and when a disaster occurred, they were cross-referenced to see how accurate they had been.

The premonitions bureau was so much more than a curious oddity. As our guest today, Sam Knight, shows in his new book, the bureau not only gives us insight into this moment in British social history, but also into the human condition.

Sam Knight is the author of The Premonitions Bureau.

Show Notes

Scene One: January 4, 8:50am in the newsroom of the Evening Standard newspaper, just off Fleet Street.

Scene Two: April 21, 10am in the office of John Barker on the first floor of Shelton Hospital, outside Shrewsbury.

Scene Three: November 5, 9.16pm, Hither Green railway station, south London.

Memento: The files containing all the premonitions recorded at the bureau.

People/Social

Presenter: Artemis Irvine

Guest: Sam Knight

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours

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