Round the Herne

Today is both the summer solstice and Suffolk Day (a celebration of my home county instituted a year or two back by the local council). Having got up at silly o'clock to see the sun rise over the eastern seaboard - see photo inset showing the Golden Road to the Dawn - and I'm not quite with it as yet. I was going to record a long Lithuanian myth about the fairies of midsummer and the fern flowers (there are quite a few tales from that region of the world involving solstice fairies), but settled on a short local Suffolk tale instead. A late 17th century account mentions an odd incident in Bury St Edmunds involving the local MP who believed himself under attack by witches. The happening is given as contemporary fact with eye witness testimony, rather than as ancient folklore. The account is quite brief and does not give a reason why the MP thought as he did, nor does it describe what happened next. So, being a typical storyteller, I have padded the gaps. The witches in questio...

Part of my new job involves promotional work, getting the degree programme known locally. the college media liaison team contacted the local newspaper (East Anglian Daily Times) who were keen for an article. That lead to requests for a whole series of articles - on wolf lore in East Anglia ( Page One & Page Two ), witch trials in Suffolk ( Page One & Page Two ), a shortly-to-appear one on storytelling. There's another article in the Bury Free Press about the course, but I look like some bizarre kind of bobblehead in the accompanying photo - so I've decided that I'd sooner not share that one! I now have a regular column tackling ethical and philosophical dilemmas sent in by readers. The first moral issue is tackled here . Today, I also had an interview on BBC Radio Suffolk with Lesley Dolphin on her afternoon show. If you fancy listening, it starts just after the 3pm mark: Radio .

I wanted to write a glowing review of a book on Goodreads, but it's not even on their system, and Amazon won't let me write a review until I have purchased a book via them (which I do not wish to do). So I have decided to post it here instead, and hope that it circulates to a decent-sized audience who will rush forth to buy the book and keep the author's in the public consciousness! 'The Ipswich Witch' by David Jones (someone I also happen to know via his involvement with the interfaith movement) is a fascinating and smoothly written account not only of the trial of Mother Lackland, but of witchcraft trials in general within Suffolk in the 16th and 17th centuries. The historical research is excellent and goes into far greater depth than any other book I have looked at on the subject. The author draws reasoned conclusions based on the evidence, and challenges some of the conventional thoughts surrounding both Lackland herself and also Matthew Hopkins, the infamous...