The Mandrake Root
31st October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe Mandrake Root At my desk this evening, the fire burns low, the hour deep, and the scent of herbs and wax thickens the air. On the shelf before me lies a small glass phial containing what the ancients once called Mandragora officinarum — the mandrake root. It is a curious thing, twisted and gnarled,..
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The Lady of Shalott: The Mirror Cracked
31st October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe mists of dawn coil around the riverbanks, where willows dip their branches into silver water. Within her tower, the Lady of Shalott sits before her loom, the rhythmic clatter of the shuttle her only company. By some ancient enchantment she is bound: she may see the world only through the reflection of a mirror,..
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30 October – Samhain Approaches
30th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedWhen the Veil Begins to Thin At my desk this evening, as the last light drains from the sky and the wind murmurs through the old trees, I can feel the year turning. The hearth burns low, the air smells faintly of smoke and apples, and somewhere beyond the window the dark fields breathe a..
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SPELLS – THE SHAPE OF INTENTION
30th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe word spell has a double meaning, one that bridges language and magic. To spell is to assemble letters into meaning — to shape thought into visible form. In the medieval world, that same act of shaping was the essence of enchantment. A spell was not simply recited; it was constructed, woven from words, herbs,..
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Gunpowder Plot – The Wider Circle
30th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe November winds will soon groan against the beams, and the candle before me sinks lower, its wax spilling onto the desk. In such hours, the mind recalls not only the chief conspirators but the wider circle who gathered around Robert Catesby’s desperate design. Sir Everard Digby, knight and landowner, young and fervent in his..
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Gunpowder Plot – Ambrose Rookwood
29th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe November wind will soon beat upon the house and the candle gutters low, its flame casting long fingers of shadow across the desk. Nights such as these bring back the memory of Ambrose Rookwood — young, loyal, and doomed. Rookwood was born in 1578 to a wealthy recusant family in Norfolk. His devotion to..
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Gunpowder Plot – Robert Keyes
28th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe November wind will soon moan through the rafters, and the candle at my elbow flickers low. Shadows lean and shift across the room, as if listening. Nights such as these bring back the names of men now half-forgotten, yet once central to a scheme that shook England. Robert Keyes was one such figure. Born..
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Gunpowder Plot – Jack Wright
27th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedGunpowder Plot – Jack Wright With November close at hand, the nights are heavy with wind and rain. The candle gutters and leans, throwing long shadows that sway like ghosts upon the wall. It is in such nights that we recall the men who moved quietly into treason. Among them was Jack Wright, born into..
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Gunpowder Plot – Jack Wright
26th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedWith November close at hand, the nights are heavy with wind and rain. The candle gutters and leans, throwing long shadows that sway like ghosts upon the wall. It is in such nights that we recall the men who moved quietly into treason. Among them was Jack Wright, born into a Yorkshire Catholic family that..
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Gunpowder Plot Thomas Wintour
25th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedWith November close at hand, the nights grow darker still. The wind drives rain against the beams, and the candle before me wavers as if troubled by the weight of the air. Such nights bring back the figures who moved in secrecy, drawn to treason as moths to flame. One such figure was Thomas Wintour,..
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Gunpowder Plot – Robert Catesby
24th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedWith November close at hand, the nights grow heavy. Rain falls in dark sheets, wind rattles the timbers, and the candle at my desk flares and gutters, painting the walls with restless shadows. Such nights remind us of storms that once shook England itself — when men conspired to light November with fire. At the..
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Crown Jewels Attempted Theft at The Tower of London 1671
23rd October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedCrown Jewels Attempted Thief at The Tower of London 1671 Today we remember one of the boldest heists in royal history — the audacious attempt by Thomas Blood (often dubbed “Captain Blood”) to seize the English crown jewels. The date: 9 May 1671. The place: The Tower of London, under the quiet night burdened with ambition and glittering..
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The Gunpowder Plot
23rd October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe Gunpowder Plot As November approaches, the nights deepen. The wind rattles the beams and rain runs in dark rivulets down the panes. My candle flickers, the flame guttering as if it too listens to the groan of the house. Such nights draw us back to moments when England trembled — when plots and fears..
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Borley Rectory: “Most Haunted”
21st October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedBorley Rectory: “Most Haunted” Bells that rang themselves, messages on walls, a nun in the lane — and Harry Price with notebooks and headlines. Fire took the house in 1939; debate took the legend afterwards: frauds alleged, believers steadfast, archives pored over again and again. Whatever you conclude, the story’s grip is real — the..
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Witch Bottles
21st October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe candle trembles, and the timbers above my head creak in the stillness. The night air is filled with distant sounds: an owl’s mournful cry, the sharp bark of a fox, the restless whisper of the wind. These are the sounds of old England, and they carry with them memories of how our ancestors sought..
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Witches of Warboys
20th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe rafters strain as the wind drives rain against the windows, a constant drumming that seeps into the bones of the house. Wax runs down the side of my candle, hissing as it pools, while the shadows shift and lean across the room. Nights such as this belong to dread — and dread belonged to..
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Pluckley, Kent: A Dozen Ghosts
20th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedOrchards, lanes, and — say the guidebooks — a roll‑call of ghosts: a White Lady, a miller, a coach that stops for no door. The village even embraced (and sometimes rolled its eyes at) the “most haunted” crown. Recent local research tries to separate folklore from fact — but in autumn fog the yew still..
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All Hallows Eve
20th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedAll Hallows’ Eve, now referred to as Halloween (31 Oct), is the evening before All Saints’ Day—a Christian vigil that, in Britain and Ireland, grew alongside older seasonal customs marking the turn into winter. Medieval communities kept the Hallowtide (All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints, All Souls) with prayer for the dead and acts of remembrance…
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Pendle Witches
19th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedPendle Witches At this time of year, I often find myself still at my desk long after night has settled. The candle burns low, its light throwing uneven shadows across the pages. Outside, the wind rattles against the panes, as though something presses close, eager to be heard. In such moments the mind turns more..
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Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General
18th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMatthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General The night deepens. Candlelight trembles, and beyond the walls the country is alive with sound — the hoot of an owl, the bark of a fox, the sigh of the wind through the hedgerows. Such a night belongs to shadows, and it was in such shadows that Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General,..
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My Diary of October 2025: The Ghost of the Tulip Staircase
17th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe night is still, the moon a pale lantern above the fields, and the fen mist curls close against the windows. From the hedgerows I hear the rustle of some unseen creature, the distant call of an owl. These are the sounds that stir my thoughts towards old tales — stories that linger where silence..
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Elizabeth Sawyer: Witchcraft Accusation
17th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe night deepens, and candlelight trembles on the page before me. Beyond the window lies silence, yet in memory the voices of the past return — voices like that of Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton, tried and executed in 1621. Elizabeth was a poor woman, elderly and often quarrelsome. She begged for scraps of firewood, fell..
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Agnes Sampson: Women and Witch?
16th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedAt this hour, when the candle burns low and the shadows of my desk creep further into the room, I think of the voices once forced to speak in darkness. Some whispered in fear, others cried out in agony. So it was in Scotland in 1591, when Agnes Sampson, the Wise Wife of Keith,..
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Wicca: A Modern Nature Religion
15th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedWicca is a modern pagan religion centred on reverence for nature, seasonal cycles, and the sacred as both feminine and masculine. Most Wiccans honour a Goddess and a God in many guises, mark the eight festivals of the ‘Wheel of the Year’ (solstices, equinoxes, and the cross-quarter days), and work ritual in circles for celebration,..
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Merlin
15th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMerlin isn’t one person but a literary composite. Early Welsh tradition gives us Myrddin Wyllt, a wild prophetic figure; Latin chronicles add Ambrosius; Geoffrey of Monmouth (12th c.) fuses strands in Historia Regum Britanniae and Vita Merlini—then French and English romances turn Merlin into Arthur’s counsellor, engineer of Stonehenge in legend, and tragic victim of..
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Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)
14th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedPoet, mountaineer, ritual innovator: Aleister Crowley styled himself ‘The Great Beast 666’ and set out to remake Western esotericism as magick with a ‘k’. Trained in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he split from it amid quarrels, founded the A∴A∴, and later reshaped the Ordo Templi Orientis, fusing Kabbalah, Enochian calls, and sex-magick..
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What is the River Styx?
14th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe River Styx belongs to Greek myth: one of the rivers of the underworld, a boundary between worlds. The dead were ferried by Charon if they had the fare; the coin-on-the-tongue custom echoes that passage. The gods themselves swore oaths by the Styx; to break such an oath brought divine penalties. In literature the Styx..
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The Hell-Fire Caves
13th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe Hell-Fire Caves at West Wycombe aren’t proof of a satanic order; they’re a window onto 18th-century satire, politics, and performance. Sir Francis Dashwood’s circle met below ground at Medmenham and in the man-made chalk caves, borrowing Rabelais’ “Fay ce que vouldras” and staging mock rituals to lampoon hypocrisy. Members overlapped with Parliament and the..
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The Cutty Sark and a Witch
12th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThe Cutty Sark and a Witch Cutty Sark takes her name from Burns’s Tam o’ Shanter: cutty-sark means “short shirt,” the shift worn by the young witch Nannie. When the 1869 tea clipper was launched, she carried Nannie as her figurehead—folklore literally on the bow. She raced tea from China and later wool from..
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Why We Carve Faces in Fruit (Jack‑o’‑Lantern)
11th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedBefore pumpkins, there were turnips. In Ireland and Scotland, people carved grimacing faces in roots and set a light inside to ward off mischief on the liminal night; immigrants in America found pumpkins a better canvas, and the glow grew with them. The folktale often cited is Stingy Jack — doomed to wander with an..
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Edinburgh’s South Bridge Vaults
10th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedBeneath the South Bridge runs a honeycomb of rooms: once workshops, then stores, then slums where the city hid its overflow of hunger. Close your eyes and you can count the candles, hear the damp tick on limestone. Ghost tours speak of knocks and cold spots; history speaks louder — of lives pressed thin between..
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The Screaming Queen (Hampton Court’s Haunted Gallery)
9th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedThey say the sound comes first: the rush of skirts, a cry that breaks into pleading. Visitors stand aside as if for someone who will not pass — Catherine Howard running for mercy along the gallery towards the Chapel Royal. Whether footsteps are memory or imagining, the palace acknowledges the tradition; the gallery still carries..
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Jane Seymour’s Candle (Hampton Court)
8th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedA gentler haunt: a pale figure with a taper on the Silverstick Stairs, near where Jane Seymour gave Henry his son and then died days later. The story is tender, almost domestic — a mother gone, a light left burning. The palace keeps the tale alongside the history, as places do when memory and loss..
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Meet the Characters – The Reflection in the Mirror
8th October 2025 by lobster1970 | Uncategorized Henry Maddox Music Teacher Maddox was a young and talented musician, brought into the household of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk to teach her wards their music lessons. Amongst his pupils was Catherine Howard. Because of her noble birth, Catherine’s education was treated with greater importance than many of the others, as she was..
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The Phantom Bear (Tower of London)
7th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedOf all the Tower’s stories, the strangest may pad on four feet: a spectral bear by the Jewel House, an “unusual workplace risk,” as one curator deadpans. The menagerie is long gone; the Crown Jewels glitter under glass. Still, warders swap the tale — not for proof, but because old fortresses collect echoes the way..
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Meet the Characters – The Reflection in the Mirror
6th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedSuleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I (1494–1566), known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East as Kanuni (“the Lawgiver”), ruled the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power. Crowned in 1520, he expanded Ottoman territories deep into Europe, conquering Belgrade, Rhodes, and Hungary, and laying siege to Vienna. At sea,..
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My Diary of October 2025: Ghosts at Raynham Hall
5th October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedAs night draws in fast in these early autumn months, the wind gusts and the rain beats against the glass. We huddle up in our homes, perhaps with a glass of wine. My log fire burns bright, and my dogs lie lazy and quiet by the hearth. I cannot help but hark back to..
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All Things Tudor: The Six Queens: Info Extracts from The Reflection in the Mirror
3rd October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedAll Things Tudor: The Six Queens: Info Extracts from The Reflection in the Mirror Where the Six Queens are to be found now: Henry VIII Queens Katherine of Aragon — Peterborough Cathedral (d. 1536). Her tomb is honoured annually with ‘Katherine Queen of England’ tributes. (Note: her and Henry’s infant son, Henry, Duke..
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Lady Jane Rochford (Jane Boleyn), Viscountess Rochford
2nd October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMeet the Characters – The Reflection in the Mirror Lady Jane Rochford (Jane Boleyn), Viscountess Rochford Married to George Boleyn, her union proved unhappy for both. When George’s sister, Anne, returned from France, the siblings were notably close, and as Anne drew the eye of Henry VIII, the Boleyn fortunes rose sharply. After the..
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Ivan the Terrible
1st October 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMeet the Characters – The Reflection in the Mirror Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV “the Terrible” (1530–1584) was the first Tsar of all Russia — a ruler both formidable and feared. Crowned in 1547, he transformed Russia into a centralised empire. He was a man of contrasts. Ivan introduced sweeping reforms, modernised Russia’s military, expanded..
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Duke of Norfolk
30th September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMeet the Characters – From my first novel being published next month October 2025 The Reflection in the Mirror Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk — ‘Old Norfolk’ His niece was Anne Boleyn, and the Howard fortunes faltered when she met the axe. When his other niece, Catherine Howard, blossomed into a girl of about..
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Meet the characters from The Reflection in the Mirror
26th September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMeet the characters from The Reflection in the Mirror Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester Sharp-eyed, heavy-browed, and impossible to wrong-foot, Stephen Gardiner was the king’s lawyer-theologian who preferred statute and canon to sweet talk. Trained in law at Cambridge and Paris, he could unpick an argument thread by thread, and he did not mind..
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Wolf Hall Or Wulfhall
25th September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedWulfhall was the Seymour family’s great house near Savernake Forest, Wiltshire. It was remodelled in time for Henry VIII’s visit in 1535, where Jane Seymour’s family cemented their rise. Historically, the house was always called Wulfhall (with spelling variations like Wulhall or Wolhall). The name “Wolf Hall” is not Tudor usage — it became popular..
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The Mary Rose
24th September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMeet the Characters – The Reflection in the Mirror Few artefacts bring us closer to Tudor England than the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s beloved warship. Launched in 1511, she was a proud symbol of the king’s naval ambitions, built in the Portsmouth dockyards to guard the Channel and project English power overseas. With her..
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The Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London.
23rd September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedGood morning, With my first novel due for publication next month, I have been sharing posts to introduce you to some of the characters who bring its pages to life. Yet it is important to remember that people alone do not tell the whole story. The houses, palaces, artworks, ships, and remarkable objects of the..
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Meet the Characters – The Reflection in the Mirror
22nd September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedDowager Duchess of Norfolk Agnes Howard (née Tilney) (c. 1477–May 1545), Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, was the second wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. A pious matriarch with many wards in her care, she presided from Chesworth House near Horsham, Sussex, managing a vast estate of land and household staff. The sheer scale..
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Meet the Characters – The Reflection in the Mirror
22nd September 2025 by lobster1970 | Uncategorized Catherine Howard (aged about six years old) As my first book will be released next month, I thought you might enjoy getting to know some of the figures who step from the pages into the light. Today we meet the young Catherine Howard. Orphaned at around five years old, Catherine lost her mother, Jocasta..
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The Thomas More Skull Project — Exhumation of a Saint
19th September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedInterview at St Dunstan’s, Canterbury, Kent 26 August 2025, Gemma Morris-Conway meets church warden Sue Palmer at St Dunstan’s, Canterbury, to talk about stewardship, evidence, and the weight of a legacy — then traces how King Henry VIII’s might brought Thomas More to the scaffold. Part One: In conversation with the warden Canterbury in..
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Princes Murdered in the Tower: Sir James Tyrell and the Chain of Office of Edward V
18th September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedSir James Tyrell’s name has long been linked to the fate of the Princes in the Tower. Tudor writers, decades after the events, claimed he confessed to arranging their deaths. Yet no original record of such a confession survives. Tyrell was executed under Henry VII in 1502, and only after his death do stories of..
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Two young princes vanished from the Tower of London in 1483 — their fate remains one of England’s most enduring mysteries.
17th September 2025 by lobster1970 | UncategorizedMy fascination with the case began when I was eight years old, standing beside the Thames on my first school trip. Having come from Kent’s fields and farms, the Tower’s ancient stone walls left a lasting impression. Even now, I believe there is no building in England more capable of inspiring the sense of a..
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