Hello Craig,
Here is a coincidence story that
may be of interest. This week I borrowed a copy of your
book, The Psychic Casebook from my local library.
I have found the book very absorbing with lots of interesting
cases. The chapter on coincidences particularly caught my
attention - the true story of the shipwrecked sailors of
the Mignonette. The coincidence is, that when I borrowed
your book from the library, one of the books I took back,
having read it last week was called ' The Custom of the
Sea'. This is a new book about the wreck and survivors of
the ship Mignonette.
Regards, Greg Smith. (gregory.smith@ukonline.co.uk)
Copyright Craig Hamilton-Parker
Sent Friday, September 27, 2002 at 08:12:13 from: Tom
Gordon
Talking of coincidences. This morning I was discussing
coincidences with my 11 year old daughter who is off school
for the day with flu, and not believing some of the examples
I gave her, I suggested that we look on the Internet for
other examples. Your story of Richard Parker who was eaten
by cannibals came up and we read with interest. It refers
to the fact that David Shepherd bought the door from Falmouth
Jail which housed the real cannibals, for his house in Hascombe.
We have just moved from Hascombe where we have lived at
Hoe Farm for the last 7 years, the previous weekend retreat
of Winston Churchill, and knew David Shepherd's house well
as some friends of ours had purchased it recently. Needless
to say, my daughter is not so sceptical now.
Regards, Tom Gordon (tomg@regraphica.com.co.uk)
Copyright Craig Hamilton-Parker
Sent Tuesday, June 10 2033 by Julian Harrow
I was reading your story about Richard Parker. I wondered
if you have read Life of Pi by Yann Martel where
a boy is shipwrecked on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger called
- Richard Parker. I wondered if the author new the story
or is this yet another coincidence.
Julian Harrow j.harrow@talk21.com
Copyright Craig Hamilton-Parker
Sent by post 1 Nov 2003
From Sarah Monks - Hong Kong
it was a weekend in the early 70's. I was reading the Sunday
Morning Herald at the family breakfast table in Sydney
and saw a re-run from The Sunday Times literary competition,
in which someone (your cousin Nigel?) won the prize for
submitting an entry on fiction pre-figuring fact.
Coincidences
are covered in detail in these two books by Craig Hamilton-Parker:
 Click
to find out more about these books
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At that very time, I was reading
Edgar Allan Poe's psychedelic Narrative of A. Gordon Pym. I
had it near at hand and said to my mother "What a coincidence,
this is such an obscure book!" She said an even bigger
coincidence was in the trunk under the house.
It was a manuscript my father, Noel Monks, was working on
at the time of his death in 1960, when he lived in England.
A war correspondent and journalist with the Daily Mail in
London, he had submitted a synopsis to his publisher about
The Strange Fate of the Barque Mignonette. On the inside
cover he noted that Edgar Allan Poe had foreshadowed the horrible
death of Richard Parker. His story was to be a psychological
exploration of what happened on the life raft.
In your web site, you mention that Arthur Koestler sponsored
the 1974 prize your cousin Nigel won. I enclose a photocopy
from my father's book, Eyewitness (Fredrick Muller Ltd, 1955)
about an incident during the Spanish Civil war when he and
another correspondent helped to save Arthur Koestler's life.
Finally, you are probably aware that Yann Martel's Life of
Pi (winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize) is about a shipwreck.
One of the main characters is Richard Parker, only this time
the tables are turned. He is a 450 pound Royal Bengal Tiger
looking for his lunch! Yann Martel, to whom this is
copied, was surely inspired by Edgar Alan Poe. If I'm not
mistaken, there was a dog on A. Gordon Pym's lifeboat. He
was called Tiger...
Sarahmonks@netvigator.com
Sent Saturday, August 06, 2005 at 00:18:28
Here's a Richard Parker coincidence not mentioned in the
article:
The Francis Speight foundered at sea in 1846. There were
deaths and cannibalism aboard. One of the victims was a
Richard Parker.
Here's another one:
In Yann Martel's fablelike Life of Pi, 16-year-old Pi Patel
(the son of a zookeeper) is trapped for 227 days on a 26-foot
lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The latter doesn't really count, though, as a synchronicity,
because Martel knew about cabin boy Richard Parker and the
Poe tale.
I also use the Richard Parker story in my upcoming novel,
Romancing the Raven, which explains how Poe learned about
Richard Parker's death. The answer: time travel.
All the best,
Rob MacGregor
www.booktalk.com/robmacgregor
CRAIG: I knew about the Life of Pi coincidence (see
above)- Perhaps Yann Martel, knew the Poe story? The Francis
Speight story is also interesting as Arthur Gordon Pym
of Nantucket was published in 1838 and the Francis Speight
floundered in 1846. Another prediction or strange synchronicity
perhaps?
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