A few weeks back, I was alerted to the publication of a new Loch Ness Monster book entitled "Loch Ness Enigma" by David Bryant and Philip Baker. Now one's initial reaction to new books these days is to ask if this is another piece of AI slop that was conjured up in a few days. Not this time, as I found out it was endorsed by fellow Nessie researcher Malcolm Robinson and it was actually a revised edition from the first edition of 1975.
My first thought was why I had never heard of this book? Being a bit of a Nessie collector, I like to track down books, magazines and so on but the title "Loch Ness Enigma" had never crossed my path in decades of research. It was not even listed in the catalogues of the British Library or the National Library of Scotland. I would certainly liked to have a copy of the original book but even David Bryant did not have a copy when I contacted him!
The answer may lie in the original edition being a privately distributed book. This type of book is far less likely to be noticed and bought for the archives of major libraries unless the authors directly contact these institutions and offer their books for inclusion into the catalogue (if they're accepted at all). I guess that did not happen in this instance, but more on that towards the end of this article.
I then looked in the Loch Ness literature and contemporary newspapers for the authors to get some historical context but found no mention of them either. That is not to say that there has to be mentions and I had not covered every possible document anyway. The truth is that a lot of people were up at the loch doing their own thing back in the 1970s who arrived without fanfare and left without fanfare (unless they got some good pictures).
So for the time being, the book is reviewed in the context of 2026. After a foreword by the aforementioned Malcolm Robinson, David Bryant takes over and informs us that he had learned of Philip Baker's death in early 2026, leading to this revised and updated edition. It is available in both paperback and kindle format, though I like to see a growing line of Nessie books in my house and so the choice was easy enough, though sometimes I may also buy the digital version if the book is big enough and I want to search it for key words.
As with a lot of Nessie books, it begins with an introduction to the area, the loch and its famous inhabitant. One would find some inaccuracies along the way but they were small enough to be of little consequence. The tone continued in a somewhat sceptical manner, making me wonder if it was going down a sceptical route, but this was more a case of being honest about some of the eyewitnesses they interviewed back in the 1970s and the likelihood some of them had misidentified known objects on the loch. The fact that the authors claim their own convincing sighting further on in the book confirmed the book would take a different approach, but not a gullible one either.
Two chapters were of highest interest and reflect the life of the co-author David Bryant. First, his degree in Zoology helped to give us a process by elimination journey through the animal kingdom, comparing and contrasting and eventually narrowing things down to the best candidates for the monster. I learnt a few things here concerning some of the things we may or may not presume concerning biological theories about the Loch Ness Monster.
Secondly, David has been a wildlife and astronomy photographer for a long time as he attests to at his website here. His experience covers the old film rolls back in the 1970s right up to the digital of today and in another chapter he tells us how getting convincing photographs of this beast is not so easy as some make out. However, the only thing I took issue with was when he states that most of the Nessie pictures out there are fakes or misidentifications although it was not clear if the author was aware that the Surgeon's Photograph was a hoax.
Moving onto the short descriptions given of the various 1970s monster hunters, it was an unexpected mix. Frank Searle seemed to get a more positive review than others! Tim Dinsdale, Ted Holiday and the Loch Ness Investigation were more negative than positive I thought while Adrian Shine and Dick Raynor came out positive. Some of that criticism was probably justified, but make your own minds up.
An analysis of a collection of two hundred reports ensues with bar charts and other observations. I will have to check if any of the sightings listed at the end of the book are new to the literature being interviews the authors conducted privately back in the 1970s. Their own sighting is recounted towards the end of the book, but David Bryant also retells it on his website at this link. There is also the curious tale of an Ayrshire Sea Monster on the same webpage.
The sighting occurred in 1974 down by the shore near the John Cobb Memorial and is a single hump account. Elsewhere, the sighting is said to have occurred in 1972, which must be a typo since it is stated at the beginning of the book that they first met in 1973. Interestingly, that sighting page begins to move in a paranormal direction.
What I found of more interest on that webpage was the statement that their book would have been published in 1975 but the publisher decided to publish Nicholas Witchell's book instead! That to me sounds like the Penguin paperback edition of "The Loch Ness Story" which appeared towards the end of 1975 as the Rines/AAS underwater pictures began to grip the media and Witchell's revised edition was rushed to the presses with a special chapter on those pictures which Witchell had been given a special screening by Rines.
That was a stroke of bad luck for "Loch Ness Enigma" and the following year, the Rines pictures led to a surge of authors having their books republished to cash in on this heightened interest in Nessie. In fact 1976 was the most published year for Nessie books. The year of 1975 was pretty quiet before Witchell's paperback with two tourist booklets being published, "Loch Ness and the Monster" published by Dixon and "Loch Ness revealing its Monster" by Owen. The main book of interest was Dinsdale's "Project Water Horse".
But 1976 topped it all with at least nine books rushed to print as you can see below. The first one is not a mistake as Witchell's book was republished in hardback only months after the Penguin paperback. So the first four were republished while the rest were new titles. As much as Frank Searle disliked Rines, he was on the bandwagon too! Bryant and Baker's book seems to have been lost in the tumult of publishing, despite 1976 looking like the best year ever to get on the bookshelves.
- Loch Ness Story - Witchell
- Loch Ness Monster - Dinsdale
- The Story of the Loch Ness Monster - Dinsdale
- The Loch Ness Monster and Others - Gould
- Monsters of Loch Ness - Mackal
- Nessie: Seven Years in search of the Monster - Searle
- The Mystery of the Loch Ness Monster - Bendick
- Strange Secrets of the Loch Ness Monster - Smith
- The Meaning of the Loch Ness Monster - Grimshaw and Lester
Even the BBC got in on the act as their Doctor Who TV show entitled the "Terror of the Zygons" was published in 1976 as "Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster"! Not to mention Marvel Comics coming out with the monster making an appearance in "Doc Savage - The Earth Wreckers". So it was a unique year for Nessie related publications.
But bringing ourselves back to 2026, I enjoyed this book and do see it as bringing something new and also something old but refreshed to the Nessie community. Although I would disagree with Malcolm's foreword that it could be the best book on the subject, though we would all likely disagree on what title of book that may be!
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The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com