Gef the Talking Mongoose

Gef the Mongoose a.ka. the Darby Spook was an alleged talking mongoose that inhabited a farmhouse on the Isle of Man in the 1930s. The Irvings, the family that lived there said he would throw stones, ride the bus for the gossip and sing bawdy renditions of “Home on the Range.” It claimed to have been born in New Delhi, India, in 1852 and described himself as “the fifth dimension...the eighth wonder of the world!” The story was given extensive coverage by the tabloid press in Britain at the time. Voirrey Irving, who took Gef under her wing, died in 2005. In an interview published later in her life, she maintained that Gef was not her creation.