This book was begun over thirty years ago. It came about via Patrick’s book Can You Speak Venusian?, first published in 1972, in which, at the end of Chapter 13, he had written:
During the present century, Pyramidology seems to have declined, and when I cast around for an enthusiast to discuss the matter with me, I met with utter failure. Perhaps the truth is that nobody could possibly hope to out-Smyth Smyth.
I wrote to tell Patrick of the existence of the Institute of Pyramidology, based in Harpenden, and that led to a lengthy correspondence about a variety of eccentric theories. Eventually Patrick suggested we collaborate on a follow-up to Can You Speak Venusian?, and to lay plans for that, we met up, face to face for the first time, in Liverpool, at the end of December 1979. Part of the plan was that I should research some more material about Velikovsky via The Society for Interdisciplinary Studies, which was what actually led to my writing A Guide to Velikovsky’s Sources, published in the USA in 1987. As for the follow-up to Can You Speak Venusian?, for which Patrick chose the title More Things in Heaven and Earth, it was written piecemeal over the next few years following our meeting. Unfortunately, personal circumstances in both our lives meant that we didn’t actually meet again to piece it together and edit it until early in 1987. Alas, having done that, we could find no interested publisher for it, and the manuscript was confined to a shelf to gather dust for the next twenty years.
In 2008, Ivor Hutchinson – a friend whom I had not met for many years – asked me one day what had happened about the book with Patrick Moore. When I told him, he very kindly offered to help me word process the manuscript, and to prepare neat and tidy digital images of the illustrations for it, so that we could give it another go. I got in touch with Patrick again, and he seemed keen to give it another go as well, so, after adding a few updates to the original manuscript, and an additional chapter (Chapter 18), I went to see him at his house in Selsey, just after Christmas 2009. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realised the extent of his disability at that time, and it was sad to see him virtually wheelchair-bound, with limited use of his fingers, and to see him so saddened by the fact that he could no longer play cricket for his local team. Though he expressed a wish to do the book and to publish it electronically (he seemed to have developed an aversion to orthodox publishing methods for some reason!), it became clear that it was not going to be. Sadly, though I spoke to him over the phone at intervals, I wasn’t actually to see him again before his death in December 2012.
Following Patrick’s death, it was my old friend Michael Behrend who suggested that since the book was not far off ready-to-go, we should go ahead and issue it as an ebook, as Patrick had wished. Here, then, thirty-three years on, is More Things in Heaven and Earth.
Bob Forrest, Manchester, January 2013.