SOURCE: Oakeshott, Robert. “The Charm of the Even Queerer.” Spectator 277, no. 8766 (20 July 1996): 31.

In the following review, Oakeshott offers a positive assessment of Dinosaur in a Haystack.

When and why was the column—or more accurately the puzzle strip—‘Believe it or Not’ by Ripley, axed by the Sunday Express? From memory, it relied quite heavily on reports of prodigies of one kind and another, though with more two-headed chickens than young Mozarts. At boarding school in the 1940s I became rather an addict and can't believe I am the only one among Spectator readers in that age group.

In the same genre, though at a somewhat more high-brow level, are various anthologies collected by the late Lieutenant Commander R. T. Gould. As others of my age group among Spectator readers will doubtless again recall, this Gould (as opposed to the author of the book under review) was a...