British ufologist. She was born on October 30, 1951, in Bacup, England, and studied chemistry, mathematics, and physics, receiving advanced level General Certificates of Education in these subjects. She went on to post advanced level studies in geography and geology, receiving City and Guilds Certificates with distinctions in audio-visual technology and education. She was a teacher at a Cheshire Middle School (1972-74), a Research Coordinator on the council of the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) (1975-77), and an audio-visual technician in a college of education, servicing teachers (1977-78). Through the 1970s she became increasingly involved in UFO research. She has held a variety of positions and has done a variety of tasks simultaneously.
In 1973 she helped form the Northern UFO Network and became the editor of the Northern UFO News in 1974. In 1977 she became a columnist for Flying Saucer Review. After 1978 she became secretary of the Northern UFO Network (NUFON) and the UFO Investigators' Network (UFOIN), concerned with procuring reports on UFO sightings in Britain. Her first book, co-authored with Peter Warrington, UFOs; A British Viewpoint, appeared in 1979.
In the 1980s Randles also allowed her interest in psychic phenomena and the paranormal to emerge. In 1983, she wrote and presented a thirty-week series of features on mysterious phenomena for the independent British radio station Radio City. She has also appeared in, researched, and helped to produce numerous other radio and television programs on British and foreign channels. During these media appearances, she met many celebrities who provided the inspiration and material of her book Beyond Explanation? (1985). This deals with the paranormal experiences of past and present public figures such as John Lennon, Edgar Allan Poe, Susannah York, Kevin Keegan, Donald Sutherland, Arthur Koestler, Winston Churchill, Anthony Hopkins, Lindsay Wagner, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others. It was followed by Sixth Sense (1986).
As a result of many years of study and investigation of the UFO phenomenon and the paranormal, she advised caution in reaching firm conclusions about UFOs and stated that she had found no objective evidence to support the belief that we are visited by extraterrestrials. She suggested that there may be several different answers to the unexplained cases, some of them possibly relating to new types of natural, physical phenomena. She has now explored the UFO question from almost every angle and continues to produce a new book based on her recent research every few years.
Sources:
Clark, Jerome. UFOs in the 1980s. The UFO Encyclopedia. Volume 1. Detroit: Apogee Books, 1990.
Randles, Jenny. Abduction: Over 200 Documented UFO Kidnappings Investigated. London: Robert Hale, 1988.
——. The UFO Conspiracy: The First Forty Years. Poole, England: Blandford Press, 1987.
——. UFO Reality: A Critical Look at the Physical Evidence. London: Robert Hale, 1983.
Randles, Jenny, and Peter Warrington, UFOs; A British Viewpoint. N.p., 1979.
