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Mike Hallowell was born in South Shields, Tyne & Wear, in 1957. He was educated at Jarrow Central School before starting an apprenticeship in Dental Technology. He then changed his career path several times before spending a number of years in the Police Service. Finally he launched his own media business and became a full-time freelance journalist.
Drawing on over four decades of research, Mike specialises in writing about the supernatural and paranormal phenomena, although he also pens books and features about local history and other subjects.
Mike has written over twenty columns during his career, including WraithScape, which is the longest-running paranormal newspaper column in the UK, and From Across the Pond, a UFO-centred blog for the IRAAP website which has been running since 1998. Mike also penned Mike Hallowell's Backlight for UFO Matrix magazine and currently writes the Geordie Monsters blog for the website of the Centre for Fortean Zoology.
Mike has lived all of his life in the north east of England, and is passionate about his Geordie roots. He has been married to his wife Jackie for over thirty years, and has three children and three grandchildren.
In 2007, Mike was diagnosed with the brain disorder narcolepsy. His symptoms have been described as "moderate to severe", and he needs to take a number of different medications to enable him to function "with anything akin to normality". Mike also suffers from a potentially fatal cardiac condition called ventricular standstill which came very close to killing him in 2006. His near-fatal episode made the headlines, but he survived and is now kept alive by a pacemaker buried within the muscles of his chest. Despite his poor health, he continues to write and broadcast unabated and once said he is determined to do so, "until the Grim Reaper sends me an e-mail telling me that my services are needed elsewhere".
Mike's books include the now-infamous South Shields Poltergeist (co-authored with Darren W. Ritson), Invizikids, The House That Jack Built, Ghost Taverns (Also co-authored with Darren W. Ritson), Paranormal South Tyneside and Christmas Ghost Stories.
Michael J. Hallowell penned over a dozen books before his conversion to Islam. Some were on subjects such as herbal medicine, others on local history. The majority were on various aspects of the supernatural, although since embracing Islam his views have changed regarding the origin of many paranormal phenomena. He is currently writing books on the same subject, but from an Islamic perspective. Notification of their publication dates will be made on his page: http://www.mikehallowell.com/.