The Blue Aura
(DE - Der Blaue Nebel)
- Publishing details:
-
UK: Faber, 1979, in print until the early 80s, h/b. ISBN 0-571-11423-7.
DE: Schneider Buch, 1982, h/b. ISBN 3-505-08228-7 (p/b)
- Synopsis:
-
Our four friends visit Guernsey to investigate the recent upsurge in UFO sightings.
They eventually meet angelic Visitors - beings who stand seven feet high and are
perfection incarnate. However, the paranoid American General Whittle, in command
of the UNO forces on the island, believes the Visitors are evil and plans to wipe
them out with a nuclear missile...
- Commentary:
-
An entertaining enough book to be sure, but in some ways the story is a mish-mash
of 'First Contact?' and 'The Caves of Drach', but with the theological content a
little less subtly handled - for example the passage where the Visitors sing a hymn
of farewell is fairly unusual material for a science-fiction novel!
There are some amusing moments provided by General Whittle however. When he first
sees the blue light which surrounds the Visitors, he wonders if it could be produced
commercially!
- Locations:
-
It will perhaps not come as a surprise to learn that Hotel La Saumarez, and its proprietors Peter &
Carla (Karla) Hamperl, and their son Freddie, were all real.
Later the hotel was renamed to the Hotel Harton Lodge, and more recently became the Les Ormes Care Home.
Below is an image of the hotel at around the time of Walters' visit, kindly provided by Fred Hamperl, in the
centre of which can be seen Peter (standing) and Karla (seated, in green).
The German Underground Hospital can be seen below - including the 'Mortuary' tunnel seen by Sue in the book:
