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The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight

The Mine

Duration: 14 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for years

Richard Goulding reads the Sunday Times bestselling book The Premonitions Bureau by The New Yorker journalist and author Sam Knight, which accounts the true reported premonitions of disasters in 1960s Britain.

The story follows the real life establishment of a Premonitions Bureau by Dr John Barker in the 1960s to scientifically record and investigate the claims of those who believed they had the power of foresight and could predict an impending disaster. From coal mining disasters, to the largest train and plane accidents ever recorded (and also to the prediction of Barker’s own death) The Premonitions Bureau is an enthralling and eerie true story of psychology, science and the supernatural – a journey to the most powerful and unsettling reaches of the human mind.

In this episode we hear of the moments leading up to one of Britain's most tragic disasters, of those individuals who claim to have predicted it, and meet the psychologist who believed he was on the edge of something momentous.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Anne Isger and Rick Woska Show less

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