Cedric Allingham (born June 27, 1922) was a fictional British writer reputed in the 1954 book Flying Saucer from Mars to have encountered the pilot of a Martian spacecraft. It was speculated that Allingham's account was fabricated and that Allingham himself never existed. Three decades later the elaborate hoax was revealed to have been perpetrated by British astronomer Patrick Moore and his friend Peter Davies.

HOAX REVEALED

Thanks to further enquiries to Allingham's publisher, they were able to trace a friend of Moore's named Peter Davies who admitted that he had written the book with another individual whom he declined to name. Davies also claimed that the talk at the UFO club given by "Allingham" had in fact been given by himself while wearing a false moustache. Moore had admitted to being invited by Lord Dowding to be a guest at this meeting. These and other clues led Allan and Campbell to identify Patrick Moore as the main culprit in the hoax, which was intended to expose the gullibility and uncritical research methods of British ufologists. Specifically Flying Saucer from Mars seems to parody of Flying Saucers Have Landed, the 1953 book written by the aforementioned George Adamski in collaboration with Desmond Leslie.

Further articles on Moore's involvement appeared in "The Star", July 28, 1986 and the 'Feedback' page of "New Scientist" Aug 14, 1986.

Moore, however, immediately denied being responsible for Allingham's book, and threatened to take legal action against anyone suggesting otherwise, although he took no such action on any of the three articles mentioned above. Moore, who died in 2012, never confirmed his involvement in the affair, even though the telescope, background foliage and portion of shed shown in the book's portrait of Allingham bears a remarkable resemblance to the 12½-inch reflector telescope in Moore's own garden, as shown in a photograph in Moore's Observer Book of Astronomy, 1971 edition, and in film footage

Nice. Didn't even claim to keep the original statement so someone made a facsimile!


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