A Question of Representation

If there is one thing that Ramsey Campbell has harped on about more than anything else over the decades since he read the book, it is a photographic representation of what the vampire looked like after being exorcised. The image appears on page 142 of the first edition of The Highgate Vampire.

This representational picture gets Ramsey Campbell agitated and excited like nothing else. He regards it as his coup de grâce in his mission to dismember and destroy Seán Manchester's book.

Nota Bene: Dictionary definition of the word representation — one that represents; such as an artistic likeness or image, ie a substitution. (Ramsey Campbell, please note).

Seán Manchester took the image from an old copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland which he had hung onto for sentimental reasons. In the early 1960s, he had a robust and friendly correspondence with the magazine's editor, Forrest J Ackerman, which, a quarter of a century later, led to him requesting use of the magazine's image for his foray into telling the full and unexpurgated account of his Highgate Vampire investigation. Permission was granted and the picture appears in the 1985 edition bearing the caption: "A representation of the vampire in its final moments of dissolution."

"It is nothing of the kind," protests Ramsey Campbell. "It is an early makeup by Dick Smith for an American television production of Dorian Gray, and perhaps that is why it has vanished from the reprint." It was dropped by Seán Manchester in the revised and significantly expanded edition of The Highgate Vampire, which, as Campbell of all people should know is not a "reprint," with good reason. It was no longer necessary to provide a dramatic and sensational picture to illustrate what the vampire looked like in its final moments because the expanded edition, unlike the first edition, contained multiple images from a strip of 35mm film of the actual vampire decomposing. 

The first edition published a rather dark and obscure image from the same roll of film, but so close  to the case itself (closed three years prior) it was considered imprudent to reveal anything too stark for very obvious legal reasons. Farrant's trials at the Old Bailey were still relatively fresh in people's minds. However, one thing is clear about the pictures of the representation and the real thing. They are very different. The captions leave the reader in no doubt that they are not one and the same.

Having provided the address on YouTube where the Dick Smith makeup process can be found, Campbell proceeds to nit-pick about how one of the genuine images in the 1991 edition is "balder" and "has been superimposed onto a different background." Quite what that would achieve is not explained, but the sequence on the original 35mm roll shows the exorcised vampire disintegrating.

Once again, Campbell overlooks the fact that the images themselves have been viewed by all manner of people, and television production companies inspected the film in negative. This was done when Seán Manchester was interviewed for an hour long programme in the UK, and also for a documentary film made by a foreign television company. They had no quibble over the background and understood from the book's narrative exactly what was happening, which explained why everything was changing from frame to frame. Campbell, of course, dismisses all things supernatural.

He ends his penultimate paragraph, his coup de grâce, with this sarcastic salvo:

"But enough, I should respect Seán Manchester's aversion to publicity."

This about a man who, unlike Ramsey Campbell himself, has long since ceased to permit interviews or partake in the media; indeed, a man who shuns publicity now it no longer serves a purpose. 

More Farrant Lite than Farrantite

Ramsey Campbell makes very little mention of David Farrant in his essay about Seán Manchester, which is strange in view of the fact that ultimately the source of much enmity communicated about the latter via others, notably Anthony Hogg, springs solely from the utterances of Farrant. What passing reference that is made is purely for use as a brickbat against the subject in question with Farrant receiving a sympathetic treatment in as much as he receives any treatment at all. Such gems as him having "the temerity to found the British Psychic and Occult Society, apparently in opposition to our investigator's British Occult Society, before (according to Manchester's account) he is convicted of interfering with corpses and sent to Blunderstone Prison." Is that what Seán Manchester wrote?

Here is the relevant extract from The Highgate Vampire (British Occult Society, 1985):

"In July 1976, almost exactly halfway through his sentence, Farrant was released on parole from Blunderstone Prison in Suffolk." That is found on page 80 of the first edition, and on page 82 of the same edition: "For the record, David Farrant was found guilty of malicious damage to a memorial, evidenced by chalk symbols on the floor of a mausoleum, and offering indignities to remains of the dead which was the result of being photographed next to a vandalised coffin in the terrace catacombs." He served his sentence in various prisons, Blunderstone being the last. These crimes resulted in two years of Farrant's four years and eight months sentence. In the first edition its author did not feel the other offences (not related directly to Highgate Cemetery) for which Farrant was found guilty, necessary for his narrative. The enlarged second edition, however, does include them.

Another mention is made of Farrant in Campbell's essay: "David Farrant has a last confrontation with him in a wood before they 'each dissolved into the night's shadows in opposite directions'." He is now quoting from Seán Manchester's From Satan To Christ (Holy Grail, 1988), a story about salvation.

The book was ridiculed in Shock Xpress, and both editions of Ramsey Campbell, Probably.

Does Seán Manchester describe a "confrontation"? This is what we actually find on page 73:

"The venue was a mist-shrouded Highgate Wood. He dodged between the trees and when convinced that I was alone made himself available. We strolled along the isolated paths until a seat was found in the middle of the wood. Only words were parried, and they were softly spoken. As night's canopy spread over the desolate spot bebeath the trees where we talked, I could not repress a sense of pity as the nervous Farrant gradually stammered his grievance. ... We spoke for several minutes in that fatal place still haunted by the memory of witchcraft, and indeed once the scene of his own peculiar brand of devilry. Walking slowly towards the exit I think we both sensed that this was our final meeting."

And so it transpired.

A final mention is made of Farrant in the essay: "Seán [Manchester] still has books in him. 1997 saw The Vampire Hunter's Handbook. ... Admittedly, it's the one about David Farrant and an identity crisis. The Handbook's author asks us 'Who knows what went through [Farrant's] mind as he listened to my improvised harmonic structures, accompanied by a perspiring rhythm section in that dimly lit venue for modern jazz aficionados?' Who indeed."

Once again, Campbell carefully omits a crucial piece of information, ie Seán Manchester was totally unaware of David Farrant's presence in the audience. He only learned about it at a later date.

Ramsey Campbell's raison d'être throughout his treatment of Seán Manchester, especially in Ramsey Campbell, Probably, is taking things out of context while omitting a crucial qualifying item which either makes sense of the extract, or completely alters what would be deduced when it is isolated.

Demons on the Brain

"What kind of person would be the best for the job of vampire killer?" These are the opening words to the chapter ergo essay on Seán Manchester in Ramsey Campbell, Probably. "The narrator reveals more about himself than vampirism," says Campbell. "This at least it has in common with The Highgate Vampire, Sean (now Seán) Manchester's account of his experiences with vampirism."

Seán Manchester, of course, was always Seán Manchester, but certain formats in the past were not always able to facilitate the fada accent over the "a" without which the forename sounds phonetically the same as the word "seen." Such minutiae appears to be of importance to Campbell, ie that most publishers printed the author's name without a fada over the second vowel in his Christian name. Thus nit-picking plagues Campbell's commentary on Seán Manchester. It is really quite tedious.

What is apparent from the outset is exactly how much of Seán Manchester's The Highgate Vampire Campbell is prepared to quote at length. He literally retells the entire book, annotating it with churlish remarks of his own, and he gets very personal in the process; mentioning Seán Manchester's nanny, and, more unpleasantly, his wife about whom he has nothing particularly nice to say. You would have thought Campbell would have learned his lesson after having defamed the lady in an earlier publication in the previous century, and being obliged to apologise in writing at the behest of his publisher. Yet he ploughs on with one error after another, even attributing the wrong university degree to her. He half-remembers, half-forgets things; relying on sources who know even less than him. 

"Our man is unable to prevent Sarah from undergoing an impregnation by a demon," Campbell claims rather alarmingly. All complete twaddle and utter poppycock, of course. This is something more redolent of one of Campbell's own horror fiction paperbacks. It was not written by Seán Manchester. 

At this point in Campbell's narrative he feebly explains: "In the original version of this review my mind must have been clouded by some demonic influence, causing me to misread Manchester's hypnotic prose." Campbell is now referring to the libellous allegation he made in Shock Xpress in 1991. He remains unrepentant, and probably resentful of having been forced to apologise all those years ago. 

Here the narrator reveals more about himself than "some demonic influence." And Ramsey Campbell's essay tells us far more about Ramsey Campbell than it does about Seán Manchester.

Bishop Seán Manchester with his wife Sarah.

Back Story to Ramsey Campbell's Book

In Ramsey Campbell, Probably, in order to lend him some authority on his subject, its author claims to have met Seán Manchester twice. In fact, they have barely met at all. The first occasion was accidentally being in the same studio where they appeared separately on a television programme, but, according to Manchester, did not speak. The second was when Campbell sat in an audience along with others to watch Seán Manchester speak for an hour on television. They did not meet.

Ramsey Campbell harbours considerable hostility; so much so that he libelled Seán Manchester's wife in Stefan Jaworzyn's Shock Xpress, 1 (Titan, 1991) to which Campbell made a contribution. Not only were Seán Manchester's books in print attacked and misrepresented, but the most outrageous allegations imaginable were levelled against his wife whom Campbell does not know and has never met. Seán Manchester threatened to take legal action. Titan promised to make it right, and extracted a written apology from Ramsey Campbell whose anti-Seán Manchester articles in Shock Xpress comprise some of the essays in the recently enlarged collection Ramsey Campbell, Probably (2015).

On 3 November 2015, Seán Manchester wrote to the founder of PS Publishing, Peter Crowther:

"Mr Campbell has not once consulted me to iron out anything he might require clarification on, but, according to those in touch with him on the internet, has consulted and used material provided by people with an axe to grind. Those who have apparently been most influential in my denigration all have a connection, directly or indirectly, with a man who was found guilty and sentenced to a term of imprisonment for satanic crimes at Highgate Cemetery in the 1970s. He is the source of the majority of antipathetic material where I am concerned. My being a Christian traditionalist has made me a target. All the aforementioned share a sympathy for the dark occult. Therein lies the agenda.

"I have only met Ramsey Campbell once, which was on 26 April 1990 when I featured throughout the morning on BBC’s 'Open Air' and did a concentrated interview with Eamonn Holmes around 10.00am. Mr Campbell appeared in a slot on the same morning to talk about his books that I witnessed him carefully assemble out of a case and display in readiness. However, I cannot remember any conversation taking place between us. He was totally preoccupied with arranging his paperbacks and didn’t want to be distracted, or, at least, so it seemed. The second and only other time to my knowledge that I have been in the same space as Mr Campbell was on the occasion of my Central Weekend Television appearance before a studio audience on 14 September 1990, which audience included Ramsey Campbell among its number. I did not meet Mr Campbell on that occasion, as I was the featured guest with scant opportunity to talk to any audience members. I was afterwards whisked away via the stage on which I entered

"I am puzzled, therefore, in view of this total lack of communication between us, why Mr Campbell harbours such exceptional resentment toward me."

Peter Crowther ignored a request from Seán Manchester to see the publication in question, and indeed did not respond to emails to the publisher's office or the private message from which a section appears above courtesy of its author. On November 5th, however, Seán Manchester managed to reach Crowther via the publisher's office telephone and calmly raised his concerns. He was brusquely told to speak directly to Ramsey Campbell. The publisher did not regard the matter his responsibility and, after telling Seán Manchester to buy the book, abruptly put the telephone down.

Ramsey Campbell had confirmed his conspiracy to further denigrate Seán Manchester by publishing the following comment on one of Anthony Hogg's anti-Seán Manchester Facebook hate groups:

"If I may indulge in self-promotion, this considerably expanded and revised reprint includes a longer Highgate Vampire piece, thanks to both Anthony Hogg and Carl Ford, who supplied me with rare material I'd previously overlooked."

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.

†Seán Manchester — Profile

Bishop Seán Manchester with Anastasia Cooke at LWT studios in the previous century.

Ramsey Campbell — Profile

In response to an interview question about religion, Campbell has stated "As I got older I’m more Agnostic," and added "I don’t think there is any supernatural force out there to make you do stuff."

— Neil Buchanan, "An Interview With Ramsey Campbell" (Starburst, June 2013)

Ramsey Campbell - pictured right - (photographed in 2018)