...It is, perhaps, no surprise that – spoiler alert – authors Christ opher Reeve (a local historian) and David Waldron (an Australian anthropologist) quickly dispose of the idea that this alarming incident was in any way ‘real’. Citing parish records, Reeve notes that two men actually did die in St Mary’s during the storm, but he shows that they were struck by lightning while sitting in the belfry. Churchwardens’ accounts dating to two years later give further details of the destruction wrought. Shuck only entered the story later, when Abraham Fleming (a London clergyman and hack) wrote a sensational pamphlet, A Straunge and Terrible Wunder, and used it to illust rate some points of Protestant theology.

Taking these facts as their springboard, though, Reeve and Waldron thoroughly flesh out this Black Dog legend. They sketch life in 16th-century Bungay, and supply detailed analysis of Black Dog lore.

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