‘Maf the Dog’ Review Goes to Print

03 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by marina72 in Books, Marilyn Monroe, Periodicals

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Andrew O'Hagan, Mad About Marilyn, Maf the Dog, Marilyn Monroe

My review of Andrew O’Hagan’s comic novel, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, is featured in the Issue 15 of the UK fan-club magazine, Mad About Marilyn, as well as coverage of the summer auctions, a profile of photographer Bob Beerman and a 1961 article by Louella Parsons.

Charlotte Brontё’s Corset

25 Wednesday Aug 2010

Posted by marina72 in Books, Poetry

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Branwell Bronte, Brontë Parsonage, Bronte, Brontё, Charlotte Bronte, Charlotte Bronte's Corset, Emily Bronte, Haworth, Katrina Naomi, Patrick Bronte, Yorkshire

charlotte-brontes-corset1

Earlier this month I took a holiday in the North-West of England, where I first lived as a student nearly twenty years ago. The trip was partly a sentimental journey, and partly for research as the novel I’m currently writing is set in the area. One of the places I always wanted to visit while at university was the Brontё Parsonage Museum, but I never got round to it.

Over the last year I’ve been digging out all my Brontё novels and re-reading the biographies, so finally decided it was time to make the journey to Haworth, the Yorkshire village where this extraordinarily gifted family created some of the masterpieces of English literature.

Among the treasures I picked up was Charlotte Brontё’s Corset, a pamphlet from the parsonage’s current (actually, first) writer in residence, the poet Katrina Naomi. Continue reading →

Wicked Enchantments

24 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by marina72 in Books, History, Non-Fiction, Witchcraft

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Early Modern History, Joyce Froome, Lancashire, Museum of Witchcraft, Pendle Witches, Wicked Enchantments, Witchcraft

Wicked Enchantments: A History of the Pendle Witches and Their Magic by Joyce Froome

With its 400^th anniversary approaching, the Pendle witch trial of 1612 is once again the focus of historical discussion. What was the largest investigation of its kind in England (until the Matthew Hopkins purges in East Anglia some thirty years later) is now, ironically, a mainstay of the East Lancashire tourist industry.

In 2007, John C. Clayton’s The Lancashire Witch Conspiracy brought a new focus on local history and genealogy to the now legendary case. This year, Joyce Froome, an assistant curator at the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall, has brought her own knowledge of magic to the table. Continue reading →