Category Archives: History

Wicked Enchantments

24 Saturday Jul 2010

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

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

With its 400th 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 →

Grace of the Gamblers

09 Sunday May 2010

Posted by in Books, Brighton, History, Poetry

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Image by Peter Griffiths

Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Ní Mháille) was born in Mayo circa 1530, daughter of a chieftain. She became Ireland’s most renowned sea-raider, and her battles with Sir Richard Bingham, the Governor of Connacht, are the stuff of legend. In 1593, when English colonisation was at its peak, Grace famously negotiated with Elizabeth I at Greenwich Palace. The life of Ireland’s ‘pirate queen’ has long been celebrated in folklore, literature and song. Most recently the poet Naomi Foyle has composed an ‘epic ballad’, Grace of the Gamblers: a Chantilly Chantey. Continue reading →

Bad Penny Blues

23 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by in Books, Fiction, History, Profumo Affair

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bad penny blues cathi unsworth

Cathi Unsworth began her career as a music journalist at the age of 19, writing for Sounds, Melody Maker, Bizarre and Mojo. She is now also a crime novelist, having published three books: The Not Knowing (2005), The Singer (2007) and most recently Bad Penny Blues (2009). In 2006, Unsworth edited an anthology of fiction, London Noir. Continue reading →

The Lancashire Witches

25 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by in Books, Fiction, History, Witchcraft

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Original artwork by John Gilbert

William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) was a historical novelist and one of the most popular English authors of the later 19th century. Born in Manchester, he trained as a lawyer and practised in London, but his true ambitions were always literary. In his youth, Ainsworth read adventure stories and was an admirer of Dick Turpin, the highwayman whose exploits were the subject of popular legend. The tale of Turpin’s overnight ride from London to York on his steed, Black Bess, featured in Ainsworth’s first novel, Rookwood (1834.)

Among Ainsworth’s nearly forty novels, several were set in his native Lancashire, including his most famous work, The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest (1848.) Continue reading →