For me personally, this story goes back to 2018 trying to access this manuscript with a view to the cryptozoological world reading this work by one of the most notable researchers on the Loch Ness Monster. Ted Holiday died in 1979, but before then he had at least two unpublished works which ended up in the hands of the well-known paranormal author, Colin Wilson.
The two men were friends and corresponded on matters related to UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster and so on over the years. Indeed, Holiday had been involved in the investigation of UFO reports in Wales and had co-published a book on the subject called "The Dyfed Enigma" with Randall Jones Pugh just months before his fatal heart attack.
Colin Wilson considered the two manuscripts, and with the permission of Ted's mother, published one manuscript in 1990 entitled "The Goblin Universe". This could be said to be the logical conclusion to his prior book, "The Dragon and the Disc" where Holiday began to explore what he saw as the paranormal aspects of the creature in Loch Ness.
But Colin did not take the other manuscript any further. In his introduction to "The Goblin Universe", he says that Ted had sent the "Goblin" manuscript to him in 1977 but had written back some months later saying he was dissatisfied with it and was scrapping it in favour of another book. After his death, Wilson wrote to Holiday's mother asking if he had left any other manuscripts and he received one in the post some days later. He continues:
I tore it open eagerly - and discovered, to my disappointment, that it was the typescript of a book about lake monsters. It contained much important and fascinating material, but simply lacked the daring range and sweep of The Goblin Universe.
Colin thought the underwater photos taken by Robert Rines and the Academy of Applied Science in 1975 had cast doubt in Holiday's mind about an intangible creature and hence the two differing manuscripts. Back in the 1970s, the intense interest in the Loch Ness Monster had spun off publications on other aquatic cryptids. Holiday would have been following in the steps of Peter Costello and his 1974 book, "In Search of Lake Monsters" and Tim Dinsdale's 1976 work, "The Leviathans".
But it never reached the publishers and one can but speculate that Ted Holiday would have had much to say on the matter of lake monsters in that document. Apart from the obligatory sections on the main cryptid of Loch Ness, we know that Holiday also spent time amongst the small lakes of Ireland. Beyond that, could more be found out?
By the time I began to look into the matter, it turned out that Colin Wilson had sadly died some years before in 2013. That may have been enough to call it a day, but on further investigation I managed to contact a friend of Colin who had been involved in sorting out his estate. He got back to me in April 2018 informing me that there was a box full of material from Ted Holiday which included letters, slides, diagrams and photographs.
It also contained three manuscripts entitled "Goblin Universe", "The Dyfed Enigma" and "The Paradox of Monsters". The last title must have been the work on lake monsters which never saw the light of day. I asked how I may be able to view the items and offered to help them deposit the materials in an appropriate and respected archive house where researchers could access the items.
The initial problem was that the materials were hundreds of miles away in the South of England and could only be viewed there. Progress then became slow at this point. The correspondent, on behalf of Colin Wilson's surviving relations, had contacted one archive to enquire about deposition but had got no reply. By the end of July, another archive had expressed an interest and it was left in the hands of the relatives.
By September, I was told the items were boxed and ready for transportation and my hopes of seeing Ted Holiday's unpublished research heightened. But by January 2019, the archive in question told me nothing had been received. The correspondent said it was now down to Colin's relatives to finish the job.
By August 2019, I took a different tack and managed to make contact with one of Colin's relatives. She replied and confirmed the box was ready for posting and would check it out. Once we got to March 2020, there was no progress and the Covid-19 lockdowns were now in effect and I decided to step back and let more important events run their course.
Sadly, no further contact was established after that. A recent attempt to try again did not succeed so I am left wondering if the cryptid community will ever get their chance to see what is effectively Ted Holiday's last words on these mysterious creatures?
Where does one go from here? I can think of various reasons why things have stalled but in the end I do not think this is something I can progress on my own. Hence this posting and as some may know of me, I have sometimes expressed regret that so many archives of leading researchers just disappear when they die. Sure, almost all the important stuff will be in their published works, but not all as "The Paradox of Monsters" will demonstrate. Moreover, this would not have been Ted Holiday's main archive.
I had expressed a desire to put that manuscript into a PDF and make it freely available to all but I now realise that is not my decision to make as it potentially belongs to Ted Holiday's nearest living relatives. I don't know if Ted had siblings or whether this expands out to his wider family. How to find these people is another challenge.
So there you have it. Opinions and advice are welcome.
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The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com
