I’m very excited to finally update with some news I’ve been really wanting to share with everyone. Towards the end of last year I signed a new contract with Batsford Books for the provisionally titled The Story of Witches, due to be published in 2025. The Story of Witches explores the ever evolving image and beliefs …
Test!
Who hasn’t gazed up at the moon and seen patterns and shapes in the patterns of darkness and light upon its face? Perhaps a face or a rabbit or even a fox – for millennia mankind has been finding pictures upon the moon’s surface, and there are many stories explaining just how these creatures or …
So the old year is almost at an end, and 2024 is just around the corner. The last twelve months have definitely been a roller coaster for many, and, whatever has happened over the past twelve months, the time is nearly here to start afresh and hope for better things to come. Whether …
Ring in the New: Top Superstitions for the New Year Read More »
Malmesbury, Wiltshire, 1658 One day a woman known as “Widow Orchard” asked Mary Bartholomew, Daughter of Hugh Bartholomew the brewer, for some yeast. Mary told the widow that there was no yeast to spare, but Orchard suspected – correctly – that she was lying. Telling the young woman ominously that “Then you will give me …
Sometimes research is the most fabulous fun in the world. Other times, it leaves you tearing your hair and wondering why you ever started. This was definitely the case when I decided to look into the supposed witch burning of Elizabeth Abbot in Great Canfield, Essex. I was looking for information on something else entirely, …
Elizabeth Abbot and Dionisia Josselyn: Two Essex Witches Read More »
Isobel Gowdie, perhaps the most famous of accused Scottish witches, came to the attention of the authorites in 1662. It is uncertain just what led to her arrest, although it seems there were rumblings in the area of Auldearn, Nairnshire, for a while beforehand. What is known is that Isobel made a series of spectacular …
Baptised by the Devil: The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie Read More »
Taking a little dip today into the “Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings” section of Dorsetshire Folklore by John Symonds Udal. Here are a few of the best: A peck of worry won’t pay a pound of debt. The age old advice that worrying gets you nowhere. True, but hard to live by! Better be at the …
Greasing the Fat Sow and other Dorsetshire Sayings Read More »
In a week where the phrase “you couldn’t make it up” has been uttered more often than we could have ever imagined, it seems a fitting time to write up my recent reading on the improbable topic of “animated horse hairs.” Yes, you read that right: there once existed a belief that horsehairs were capable …
While flicking through my old favourite local history tome, The History of Ilkeston by Edwin Trueman, I came across yet another fascinating snippet that had me intrigued enough to go looking for more. “A body was drowned in the canal near Ilkeston, the means taken to discover it was as follows: a loaf of bread, scooped …
