The Strangers - Matthew Manning (WH Allen, 1978, œ4.95)

                      Reviewed by Sue

Back in the early 70s, I read a book called The Link. It told of
the experiences of Matthew Manning who had, from the age of 11,
been the focus of poltergeist activity, both at home and, later,
at boarding school. He found that by using automatic writing, he
could limit the destructive nature of the presence and, through
this method, got into what can only be called conversation with
the entity, one Robert Webbe, who had lived in the house in the
early 1700s. He had in fact been responsible for the building of
part of it.

Not only did Robert Webbe take various items from the Manning
household, he also left objects from different time periods for
them, and caused concern by his activities such as lighting
candles when on-one was about. At one stage of the relationship
Robert Webbe signed his name on Matthew's bedroom wall, then over
the next few days fulfilled his boast that he could add over 500
more names by getting his friends and relatives to sign too, each
name being accompanied by a date. Some of the names were
positioned out of normal human reach, such as upside-down or on
the ceiling, even tucked far into a corner between two walls.

Though his automatic writings, Matthew learned much of Robert
Webbe's history, his life style, even the manner of his death.
Though much of the time Webbe seemed to fluctuate between the two
extremes of believing he was alive and knowing he was dead, he
clearly believed, all the time, that the house was still his, and
that the Mannings were the intruders. As he said at one stage,
when Matthew's father told Matthew to ask Webbe not to write on
the walls, "You must relize (sic) that it is my wall and I am at
liberty to write on my owne walls."

I hadn't re-read The Link for almost twenty years but my
recollections of it came back with full force when watching a
recent TV drama called The Healer. I knew that Matthew Manning had
gone on to do healing work some years after writing The Link but
an article in a colour supplement about The Healer mentioned him
and said that he was still carrying on his healing in Suffolk. I
checked on the computer in the local library and found he had
written a few more books since The Link so put in requests for
them.

The Strangers was the first to come through and it covers the
period when Webbe was most active in the Manning house. It details
many of the conversations between Matthew and Webbe, lists the
disruption caused by his presence and the remarkably calm way with
which the family dealt with it. It also covers in some detail the
contact Matthew had with another member of the Webbe family, a 15
year old girl called Millicent who had died in tragic
circumstances before Robert Webbe was born.

Both of these characters gave Matthew enough names and dates that
he was able to trace the Webbe family tree and also check the
accuracy of the information gained against parish records. Not
only that, he was able to trace many of the names which had been
written on his bedroom wall.  The final surprise is in the
appendix where the true identity of Robert Webbe is revealed. I
won't say more than that it makes the story all the more
fascinating.

There has been much talk in SynTax on the existence or not of
dragons, elves and other creatures. I find it far easier to
believe in Robert Webbe. The Strangers makes fascinating reading
and I found it very hard to put down.  If it IS a hoax, it is a
very elaborate one for a young boy to construct, not only because
of the amount of interlocking detail in terms of names and dates.
It would also have needed the collaboration of his whole family
and many friends and I find it hard to imagine that large a group
of people going to so much trouble. And in 20 years, no-one has
come forward to say, yes, it was a hoax. The only way I can imagine
it could be done would be to work back from the Parish Registers
to get all the information, then write the names on the walls and
reconstruct the story that way.

Matthew's reputation rests now on his on-going healing work. He
has had a lot of success helping people through it and whatever
your beliefs in how he does it, the end result is the important
thing as far as I'm concerned and there's no denying that he DOES
get results. You may also have seen him on David Frost's more
recent programs.  His books which were written such a long time
ago are rarely seen in shops. The inter-library loan copy I got
was the original 1978 printing which had been bought by Thamesmead
Library in the same year.  How much it is now, and even if it is
still available, I don't know. But if you get the opportunity to
read it, please do, and write in to tell us what YOU think!











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