Timothy Good

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Timothy Good

Timothy Good (born 1942) is a British UFO researcher, author, and former professional violinist who has written some of the most widely read and cited books in the UFO literature. His 1987 work Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up became an international bestseller, documenting UFO sightings, encounters, and evidence of government secrecy across dozens of countries with a level of sourced detail that distinguished it from most UFO books of its era. Good has interviewed heads of state, senior military officers, intelligence officials, and government scientists across multiple countries and claims to have briefed members of the United States Congress on the UFO phenomenon. He was endorsed by British defense and intelligence figures including Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hill-Norton, who wrote the foreword to Above Top Secret.

Early Life and Musical Career

Timothy Good was born in 1942 and trained as a classical musician, becoming a professional violinist. He performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, one of the world's leading orchestras, and maintained a parallel musical career alongside his research into the UFO phenomenon. His musical background is considered relevant by some who have commented on his credibility: he was not a professional government analyst or military officer but came to the subject as an independent researcher from outside institutional frameworks, giving him freedom to pursue sources and publish material that career officials could not.

Good began his investigation of the UFO phenomenon in the 1950s and 1960s, corresponding with and meeting witnesses, researchers, and officials across multiple countries over subsequent decades. By the time Above Top Secret was published in 1987, he had accumulated one of the largest private research archives in Britain on the subject.

Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up (1987)

Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up was published by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1987 and became one of the best-selling UFO books ever written. The book documented evidence of UFO encounters and government secrecy across the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and numerous other countries, drawing on declassified documents, FOIA releases, witness testimony, and Good's own extensive interview archive.

Among the book's most significant contributions was its compilation of testimony from senior military and intelligence figures — including those who had access to classified programs — attesting to the reality of the UFO cover-up. A passage cited in the book from former CIA executive assistant Victor Marchetti laid out the rationale for secrecy: "The whole rationale for UFO secrecy was quoted in Timothy Good's book, Above Top Secret from a statement by Victor Marchetti, former executive assistant to the Deputy Director and special assistant to the Executive Director of the CIA. Marchetti thinks that we may have established contact with extraterrestrials."

The book also addressed the Apollo program, relaying testimony from former NASA employee Otto Binder about alleged communications between Apollo 11 astronauts and Houston that were intercepted by radio amateurs on VHF frequencies bypassing NASA's public broadcast. Specifically, Good documented the alleged exchange in which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin described craft of unknown origin on the crater rim: "According to a former NASA employee Otto Binder, unnamed radio hams with their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets picked up the following exchange."

Jason Jorjani has cited Good's description of a Cold War intelligence exchange: "In Timothy Good's book Above Top Secret, Timothy Good recounts a meeting between British intelligence and Soviet intelligence back during the Cold War. And the Soviet said, we were listening to the medical channel during Apollo."

Richard Dolan described Above Top Secret as a foundational text for his own research: "From Tim Good's excellent above top secret that [senior military officials] were interested [in UFOs]. So it's like we have to recognize that we're wrong... I know for a fact from Tim Good's excellent above top secret that they were interested."

Good published the list of alleged Majestic 12 original members — based on the leaked Eisenhower Briefing Document — in Above Top Secret, the first major public dissemination of the full MJ-12 personnel lineup. Michael Salla described the significance: "I believe it was in 1987 that Timothy Good published this list in his famous book above Top Secret. So this is the Lineup of Ministers or people, officials and very heavy representation. You can see four very senior military officials, generals, admirals."

Alien Liaison (1991) and Need to Know (2006)

Alien Liaison: The Ultimate Secret (1991) extended Good's research into the area of extraterrestrial contact claims, examining accounts of direct government contact with non-human intelligences. The book drew on sources including former intelligence officers, military personnel, and the accounts of contactees who claimed interactions with beings identifying themselves as extraterrestrial.

Need to Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence (2006) was Good's most comprehensive single-volume treatment of the global government UFO secrecy apparatus, incorporating material accumulated over two decades since Above Top Secret and drawing on new documentary sources and interview subjects. The book is organized around the proposition that governments of multiple nations have known about the UFO reality for decades and have collaborated in suppressing public knowledge.

Investigation of George Adamski

Timothy Good conducted what Michael Salla has described as the most thorough independent investigation of George Adamski, the contactee who claimed physical meetings with extraterrestrial visitors beginning in 1952. Good's conclusion — that Adamski's reported encounters were "fundamentally accurately reported" — was significant given Good's general reputation for skeptical rigor:

"Timothy Good concluded after looking at all the evidence, after interviewing people, checking documents, and really doing an exhaustive study, that he took the view that his reported encounters with spacecraft and their operators were fundamentally accurately reported. And Timothy Good, I think, is a very objective, impartial researcher."

According to Good, Adamski held a U.S. government ordnance card giving him access to restricted military facilities and that he was "giving regular briefings to the Pentagon" — being "flown to the Pentagon on a regular basis after his encounters to tell them about what he was learning from the extraterrestrials."

Earth: An Alien Enterprise (2013)

Good's later book Earth: An Alien Enterprise (2013) continued his documentation of claimed extraterrestrial contact with governments and individuals. Richard Dolan praised it: "Tim Good's Above Top Secret or Beyond Top Secret. His last book, Earth: An Alien Enterprise. Holy crap, that's a great book. So Tim Good is a great starting point."

Relationships and Network

Good has been a central figure in the international UFO research community for four decades, knowing and corresponding with virtually every major researcher in the field. Peter Levenda described meeting Good at a symposium: "Richard Dolan was there, Timothy Good was there. In fact, we split a bottle of Scotch."

Good has publicly stated that he has briefed members of the United States Congress on the UFO phenomenon, though the specifics of these briefings have not been publicly disclosed. He is one of the few civilian researchers whose work has been formally endorsed by senior active or retired military figures, Admiral Lord Hill-Norton's endorsement being the most prominent example.

Introduction to UFO Research

Richard Dolan has described the specific moment that Above Top Secret redirected his own career: browsing a bookstore in Syracuse, New York around 1994, he spotted the book on a shelf and was caught by its subtitle — "The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up." Dolan, then a graduate history student in his early thirties, recognised government acronyms, departments, and names from his existing research: "I know that name; I read his diaries; I know that department. Wait, what? UFO? What is this?" He described the encounter as "a great cognitive dissonance" — a realisation that a "whole ontology separate from the reality that I know" had been assembled and that it was "so well-researched." Dolan praised Good's approach specifically for its origin outside American intelligence frameworks: Good "comes up from the British Ministry of Defense, starts with the Battle of Los Angeles, but goes through the UK history" — an independent vantage point that American researchers embedded in the domestic UFO debate could not easily replicate.

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