In 1931, the Irving family began hearing strange animal noises behind the wooden walls of their isolated farmhouse on the Isle of Man. According to the family, those sounds developed into speech. The voice called itself Gef, said it was a mongoose, and began taking an interest in everything happening around him. From an opening in the ceiling, he could read James Irving’s newspaper and offer comments on the news.

The Irvings left him food and learned which records he liked on the gramophone. They described glimpses of a small, yellow-furred creature, brief encounters close enough to feel his fingers and teeth. But Gef also threatened them, watched from places they could not see, and called himself an earthbound spirit. Margaret considered whether a human intelligence inhabited the animal they had come to live with.

As word spread beyond Cashen’s Gap, visitors climbed the track to the farmhouse. Some described hearing a voice while every member of the family was in view. Others waited through silence. Gef could interrupt the household for hours, then refuse to speak when someone came looking for him. Decades after leaving the island, Voirrey Irving still stood by her account. She remembered the creature and the conversations behind the woodwork. She wished he had left her family alone.