Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of the World’s Best Documented UFO Incident

Pope (The Uninvited) collaborates with retired U.S. Air Force veterans Burroughs and Penniston to detail their uncanny experiences at Rendlesham Forest, England. In December of 1980, Burroughs and Penniston, who were stationed there, were sent into the forest to investigate red and blue lights believed to be related to a plane crash. Upon closer inspection, they found a strange, smooth craft that was decorated with strange symbols that they are convinced was a UFO. Pope starts off strong in his account of the subsequent investigations, including internal memos and transcripts of interviews with others who returned to the site to corroborate Burroughs and Penniston’s experiences. However, Pope eventually loses his narrative thread by entertaining a number of theories, ranging from the plausible to the far-fetched, in search of an explanation. It is not until the book’s waning chapters that Pope reveals Penniston’s shocking claims that the UFO flashed a series of ones and zeroes—later transcribed as binary code—to him while he was bathed in the light. Pope never reaches a definitive conclusion, but his questions and detailed evidence certainly give readers on both sides of the UFO debate plenty to chew on. [em](May) [/em]