Withdrawal From Public Life

Mark Knight in May 2013, who admitted being "happy but intimidated" to have an opportunity to put questions (nothing was off limits) to Seán Manchester, was informed by the latter, during the interview, when the subject of future autobiographical material arose: 

"I have written a memoir which I doubt I shall ever offer for publication. My current instruction is to have it burned to ashes upon my demise."

There is nonetheless talk of an edited fragment of his unburned memoir one day manifesting online.

Seán Manchester withdrew from public life, apropos the broadcast media, on 13 December 2013.

His final comment on the world renowned mysterious case of the Highgate Vampire was as follows:

"It was necessary to tell the full story, even though this was not an easy decision, due to the overwhelming public interest in the case, but I really now feel the subject has been exhausted and all there is to say about it has been said. It has also exhausted me after decades of television and radio interviews, film documentaries and related projects concentrating on this one topic. There will always be people seeking to cash in and exploit my work for their own ends. Many, of course, will be too young to remember the happenings at Highgate. That notwithstanding, my book The Highgate Vampire is optioned for cinematic treatment, but that is not something I wish to elaborate upon here.

"I am willing to quietly and privately set the record straight where need be, but I gave my final interview about this case to the broadcast media some years ago and have no intention of returning to the topic despite persistent requests from television and radio programmes for me to do so almost every week. I still make contributions on unrelated matters, but this subject of intense public fascination — in some cases obsession — concerning events at Highgate Cemetery more than forty-four years ago is not something I have an appetite to return to any longer. Having said that, my memoir in its unexpurgated form obviously mentions the case in a proper and fitting context to my life. However, I have no plans to have my memoir published — now or ever.

"Unimaginable horrors were experienced by folk at the time of the contagion and these I feel are best not evoked. They should be left undisturbed. The reality that I and others, most now sadly deceased, experienced all those many years ago no longer exists, and next to the hunger to experience the supernatural, albeit in this case at its most maleficent and deadly, there is perhaps no stronger hunger than to forget.

"Should an individual have a particular query about those mysterious happenings, I will give that person an answer (but not an interview); otherwise I have too much in the present with which to be concerned without reliving nightmares from the past."

The first sentence of the first paragraph (above) was quoted by Paul Adams, author of Written in Blood (2014), to an audience attending the farcical The Highgate Vampire Symposium in July 2015.

Exactly two months and one day ago, David Farrant, a man considered to be Seán Manchester's "rival" by those standing at the periphery, died after a prolonged period of ill health. If Seán Manchester was a principal protagonist in all matters pertaining to the mysterious goings-on at Highgate, his "rival" was certainly the antagonist. Yet Farrant was only mentioned once in interviews given to broadcasters by Seán Manchester, and that was on the occasion of 13 March 1970 (Today, Thames Television) to advise against the plan by Farrant to search out the vampire alone at night. This nevertheless occurred, albeit five months later, when he was arrested by police searching for black magic devotees on the night of August 17th. All of which is now bad blood under the bridge.