Neil Gaiman & Others

"Learn the dark truth about Sean Manchester the real life Vampire Hunter (based on Ramsey's hilarious review of both editions of his biography)." — Neil Gaiman (2 March 2003)

Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire (either edition) is not his "biography," or, to be more precise, his autobiography. For something approaching an autobiography, Ramsey Campbell would have needed to have included The Grail Church (1995), an illustrated hardcover book he does not mention or refer to in Ramsey Campbell, Probably. It is highly improbable that Campbell has read it.

Neil Gaiman, a friend of Ramsey Campbell, is a writer of short fiction in the horror genre, including the comic book series format. He was born on 10 November 1960. (Campbell was born on 4 January 1946). Gaiman's family is of Polish Jewish and other Eastern European Jewish origins. His great-grandfather emigrated from Antwerp, Belgium, to the UK before 1914, and his grandfather eventually settled in the south of England in the Hampshire city of Portsmouth. After living for a period in the nearby town of Portchester, Hampshire, where Neil Gaiman was born in 1960, the Gaimans moved in 1965 to the West Sussex town of East Grinstead, where his parents studied Dianetics at the Scientology centre in the town. One of Gaiman's sisters works for the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles. His other sister, Lizzy Calcioli, has said: "Most of our social activities were involved with Scientology or our Jewish family. It would get very confusing when people would ask my religion as a kid. I'd say, 'I'm a Jewish Scientologist.'" Gaiman says that he is not a Scientologist, and that like Judaism, Scientology is his family's religion. About his personal views, Gaiman has stated: "I think we can say that God exists in the DC Universe. I would not stand up and beat the drum for the existence of God in this universe. I don't know, I think there's probably a 50/50 chance. It doesn't really matter to me." He is married to songwriter and performer Amanda Palmer. They have an "open" marriage.

David Farrant (born 23 January 1946 in London) is nineteen days younger than Ramsey Campbell. They have never met, but share a kindred obsession as far as Seán Manchester and his exorcism ministry are concerned. Those who use Farrant's propaganda against Seán Manchester also support Campbell and at least two, namely Anthony Hogg and Carl Ford, have assisted Campbell with additions to his reprint of a collection of essays titled Ramsey Campbell, Probably. Hogg is Facebook friends with Farrant's son (born November 1967), Jamie, and Farrant's lieutenant, John Pope, who engaged in a series of Crowley-like attempts to summon a demon in December 1973 when the pair of them were arrested and appeared at the Old Bailey, plus innumerable other black magic dabblers.

Seán Manchester first publicly commented on Anthony Hogg when he opined some years back:

"Anthony Hogg, ultra-liberal, modernist, claims to be a non-conformist Protestant 'Christian' but evinces exceptionally unChristian behaviour, eg profane and sacrilegious utterances against an ordained and consecrated Christian. There is hardly a day that passes where Hogg is not trolling and posting harassing comments about me somewhere on the internet. This self-proclaimed Christian's cyber-friends are either immersed in witchcraft and/or diabolism, or boast about their atheism. Constantly critical of me because I am a Traditionalist Bishop, Hogg opts to remain anonymous — either using an image of Brad Pitt, or wearing a demonic 'devil' mask to hide his face and identity." *

* Subsequent to the above comment, Hogg came out of the closet (on 17 August 2014) when he began using his true likeness for the first time. He finally realised self-publicity is pointless unless he basks in it and everyone is aware of who he is. Hogg chose to become a publicity-seeking troll, bringing him even further into alignment with David Farrant, the ultimate bandwagonner and stalker.

Anthony Hogg lives in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and has never ventured to England or indeed Europe. He was not born when the Highgate Vampire case was active, and has never had contact with the focus of his obsession. That has not prevented him from writing nonsense about Seán Manchester on websites, blogs, forums, groups and, of course, Facebook. He might mostly be fixated on the Bishop, but has also managed to annoy a great many other people down the years.

Carl Ford, pictured above, provided Ramsey Campbell with old magazine articles which contents were then misrepresented, misunderstood and misused in Campbell's chapter on Seán Manchester. Ford helps disseminate David Farrant's self-published pamphlets, booklets and books on the internet.