Andy's book explores vital signs

A LEWES author and leading expert on crop circles is to give a talk at the screening of a new film on the subject.

Andy Thomas first published Vital Signs in 1998 and it is now in its fourth edition.

The new edition has been revised and updated and has a foreword by film director Mike Leigh, himself a firm believer in the phenomina.

Andy is to give his presentation tomorrow (Saturday) evening at the Odeon in West Street, Brighton, after a screening of Signs, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who previous directed Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.

The film tells the story of a retired priest who finds a crop circle in his field.

Andy will explain about circles and answer questions from the audience.

The updated Vital Signs (SB Publications, 14.95) contains information and photographs of new crop formations which have appeared over the past four years.

Andy also deals with the issue of human circle makers. He accepts that they exist, but that does not mean that all crop circles are hoaxes.

There is also a section on the so-called star maps first found in 1994. Research using an astronomical computer programme has, says Andy, linked them with the positions of a variety of conjunctions of planets.

And there is the story of the Avebury farmer who erased one 'galaxy-shaped' circle within 24 hours of its arrival. Some suspected that the military had found something so important that the information couldn't be allowed to reach the public!

Conspiracy theories abound whether you believe or not in the non-human origin of some crop circles.

It all makes for a remarkable debate and the circle photographs to be seen in Vital Signs are certainly beautiful.