Explore every episode of the podcast The Lost Valley

Dennis Wheatley is better known for his occult novels. But he wrote several lost race novels as well. 'The Man Who Missed The War' from 1946 is by far the daftest of them all, though of course it has that Wheatley charm. Take a seat at the Explorer's Club for a tale of Atlanteans and leprechauns (with extra giant crabs).

'There are jungles of the upper air, and there are worse things than tigers which inhabit them ...'

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a few stories, other than The Lost World , which might be considered important to the history of Cryptozoology. In this episode, we examine 'The Terror of Blue John Gap' and 'The Horror Of The Heights.'

The lost 'Spider-Pit Sequence' from the original 1933 King Kong has long been the subject of much lore and myth-making. Was it truly a scene so disturbing it had to be cut? Were audiences terrified by the sight of stop-motion spiders, crabs and octopus-armed critters devouring the crew of the Venture?

Was this scene even filmed around all?

You're invited to the Explorer's Club as Cian seeks out varying versions of the tale from his many books on King Kong.

ERRATA: I mistakenly state that the Arsinotherium was an Ice Age mammal - it is, of course, much much older - 30 to 60 million years, in fact. Apologies to my better-informed listeners.

For your first trip to the Explorer's Club, crack open a copy of James Hilton's 1933 classic 'Lost Horizon.' Journey to Shangri-La, where sensitive types from many countries wait out the turbulent 1930s, recovering from the last War and hiding out from the inevitable Next War. And just what does 'Glory' Conway and his visitors think of the place? And just what do they think of the colonial powers? Surprises abound in this somewhat ambiguous example of Lost World / Lost Race fiction.