A spooky story about a great man

We're busy organising the John Grace conference at work and on Thursday, we had a really spooky moment. John died in March 2004, but his presence still affects us every day, and the conference has really brought home how much we miss him. Me and John used to talk about spooky things all the time, he was a real fan of anything Fortean, and talked at length about past lives and extraordinary people and phenomena.


When I joined the University, I was still really interested in all forms of ghostly electronic communication, mainly because of the EVP stuff I'd used on 'Angels' and a pitch I was working for an animated documentary about an EVP researcher.

John was convinced that his illness and suffering was part of the cosmic plan, and that this was only a part of a longer set of lives and forms, something I have to say I was a little uncomfortable with, but fascinated by, and we'd share ghosty, psychic and mediumistic stories throughout the days.

A few days after his death, I went back into work and as I sat at my desk, I heard John's monitor spring to life. I looked round and true enough the monitor was on, and on the screen, the cursor was moving around, clicking open emails, documents and folders. I was absolutely petrified! I backed out of the office and nearly ran to the other side of the building where Andy's office is. Luckily, rather than run into Andy's office burbling lke Shaggy trying to explain to Fred that there's a ghost behind him, I looked through the window, and saw that Andy was using remote desktop to access John's computer! I skulked off, releived that I hadn't made a first class idiot of myself. I think it took me about 6 months to admit that to Andy!

The other day, we had another spooky moment. Me and Andy have both become slightly obsessed with Pocoyo, and Andy has been talking to Zinkia for the book he is writing about CGI, as well as filling his office with Pocoyo vinyl toys. Anyway, on Thursday, we were talking on the phone about images for the booklet for the conference, and as we spoke, Andy began to sift through the backup of John's hard drive, looking for Portland Bill images. Suddenly he stoppped, I thought the phone had got cut off cos he went completely silent. Then, after an interminable pause, he said 'I don't believe it'. He had discovered three script outlines by John for Pocoyo from 2003! The format was the same, except the character names were different (Pocoyo was the same). None of us knew anything about it till that moment. Were the scripts ever commissioned? Did John create Pocoyo? We were in a real tizzy, and I guess we'll never know what actually happened. The thing is, one of the reasons Andy loves Pocoyo is because he always says 'John would have loved this', as he was a brilliant pre-school writer; Pablo and Zoo Lane are still on now.

I don't quite know how to finish this (and I've wanted to blog about John for some time), but without sounding mawkish, those spooky stories are SO John and seem to ensure his presence is a constant in the Fairbairn. I'm not suggesting for a minute that he is haunting us, which would be crass, but it's a seductive notion, and one that he would have found delicious. What I think it has done is made us determined to fight to continue the legacy of his work, which was the inspiration behind the Animation Academy and this conference.