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lauragessert's review against another edition
5.0
Incredible fascinating subject regarding The Premonitions Bureau. Really enjoyed the way the book flowed into the life of one of the founders. For those who have this ability there are some really interesting notes on how this ability works .Knight was able to bring Barker back to life Really a very unique read .
ellie_cripps's review against another edition
3.0
A very strange story, without really enough to it to justify a full book without all the extra details about the things people had premonitions about, but still curious enough to make it worth a bit of your time.
derekjohnston's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.0
moscat's review against another edition
2.0
This book is a mess. The Premonitions Bureau is a cool title but not really what the book seems to be about. Structurally it's hard to work out what it's trying to say, we hop from "this plane crash matches that prediction if you squint a bit and treat the information very generously" to "here's a tangent about quantum physics" to "here's a foot and mouth outbreak" and the throughline is not super apparent.
Overall it's far too credulous and I'm not wholly sure what the book is trying to say. It feels like there are nuggets in here, certainly a long form article or two, but as a book it falls well short.
Overall it's far too credulous and I'm not wholly sure what the book is trying to say. It feels like there are nuggets in here, certainly a long form article or two, but as a book it falls well short.
connie_reads_books's review against another edition
4.0
if you're looking for a non fiction that isn't too long or too dense, but still manages to cover a lot of ground in an informative way... this one has you covered
sandman_1961's review
4.0
The title of this book and the blurb on the cover give great expectation of this book as a non-fiction story that delves into the role of premonitions in foreseeing disasters. The cover and the title are reminiscent of Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats. I was expecting something along those lines (...book by its cover...).
I don't think that this is what the book turned out to be. The Premonitions Bureau doesn't feature highly. Maybe there just wasn't enough material to expand this idea any further.
However, what you do get is an interesting biography of John Barker, the psychiatrist at Shelton Hospital in the 1960's who initiated the Premonitions Bureau. Shelton hospital was a very large institution, bigger than most hospitals today, firmly rooted in the past at Barker's arrival. You get a narrative in terms of old fashioned methods of managing mental illness. You also get a commentary of John Barker's feelings about these outdated mental health practices and institutional settings of the old style 'asylums' that were set up in the 19th century and were still in place, largely unchanged, until the 1980's in some locations.
The Premonitions Bureau of the title was set up by John Barker and Peter Fairley, a reporter and science correspondent of the London Evening Standard. I remember Peter Fairley from my youth as the ITV science correspondent at the time of the Apollo missions.
The Bureau was set up following the Aberfan disaster in the 1960's following the discovery that several people had 'foreseen' the disaster. There really isn't much to write about the bureau itself. Most of the references are of numbers of premonitions being called in and documented, but very little information about the content of these disasters. I think the hit rate was around 3%. There is a small discussion on the nature of time and its possible relevance to premonitioons.
It is an engaging book. I enjoyed the biography and the historical perspective. If you are looking for something more focused then you are likely going to come away disappointed.
I don't think that this is what the book turned out to be. The Premonitions Bureau doesn't feature highly. Maybe there just wasn't enough material to expand this idea any further.
However, what you do get is an interesting biography of John Barker, the psychiatrist at Shelton Hospital in the 1960's who initiated the Premonitions Bureau. Shelton hospital was a very large institution, bigger than most hospitals today, firmly rooted in the past at Barker's arrival. You get a narrative in terms of old fashioned methods of managing mental illness. You also get a commentary of John Barker's feelings about these outdated mental health practices and institutional settings of the old style 'asylums' that were set up in the 19th century and were still in place, largely unchanged, until the 1980's in some locations.
The Premonitions Bureau of the title was set up by John Barker and Peter Fairley, a reporter and science correspondent of the London Evening Standard. I remember Peter Fairley from my youth as the ITV science correspondent at the time of the Apollo missions.
The Bureau was set up following the Aberfan disaster in the 1960's following the discovery that several people had 'foreseen' the disaster. There really isn't much to write about the bureau itself. Most of the references are of numbers of premonitions being called in and documented, but very little information about the content of these disasters. I think the hit rate was around 3%. There is a small discussion on the nature of time and its possible relevance to premonitioons.
It is an engaging book. I enjoyed the biography and the historical perspective. If you are looking for something more focused then you are likely going to come away disappointed.