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Half-Hanged Mary and The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood dedicated her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” to Mary Webster – “Half-Hanged Mary”. Webster was hanged from a tree for witchcraft in 17th century Puritan New England, yet – remarkably – survived overnight, was cut down, and subsequently lived on for...
read moreVersailles Series III: The Sun King and the Huguenots
“Versailles” is a Franco-Canadian TV series: an expensively-made costume drama about the court of Louis XIV, famous for its extravagance, fashion and fireworks - both literal and metaphorical. Apparently it was shot in English rather than French to lure a global...
read moreAn Englishman’s history of France
The writer, broadcaster and popular historian John Julius Norwich died on 1 June 2018, aged 88, just after publishing “France: A History from Gaul to de Gaulle”. Poignantly, the author says in the preface: “I know I have said it before, but this is almost certainly...
read moreCardinal Richelieu and the Devils of Loudun
I had to buy a second-hand copy of Aldous Huxley’s “The Devils of Loudon” from Amazon Marketplace, having searched unsuccessfully in independent bookshops for a current edition. “Do people no longer read it?” I wondered. When the vintage Penguin paperback arrived...
read moreCorrag, The Highland Witch
Susan Fletcher’s novel “Witch Light” is set in 1692, a handful of years after my Huguenot ancestors fled France and landed in England – hopeful of a warm welcome, since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had ousted James II (a king too prone to Catholicism) and installed...
read moreDreams, nightmares and the possibility of flight
The stand-off between pagan superstition, Christian rationalism and science is a central theme in Sarah Perry’s second novel The Essex Serpent. Perry was brought up a Strict Baptist; Strict Baptists, like monks, live in the world but not of it. The mortal world is...
read moreThe fear that someone, somewhere may be happy
I read Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction with a sense of recognition. Here were my people, all down in black and white. Strict Baptists – the sect I was brought up in – must be the rump, the tiny remainder, …
read more2018: Doors open on a year of Huguenot walks, talks and other events
The Huguenots of Spitalfields, The Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, The French Hospital in London, The French Protestant Church of London and The Huguenot Museum in Rochester have come out this Spring with all guns blazing, each announcing a programme of...
read moreKing Billy and the Bank
Protestant King William III set up the Bank of England in 1694 to fund wars against his Catholic French nemesis – King Louis XIV, the Sun King. The first Governor of the Bank was Sir John Houblon, great-grandson of a Huguenot refugee. Various Houblons were involved...
read moreThe Sign of a Huguenot
I once walked into a Huguenots of Spitalfields Festival event where the name "JC Decaux" alone was projected onto a white screen at the front. In common with everyone else, I thought: “Why do I know that name?” We knew it from a million billboards – those huge...
read moreThe Final Girl
If you’re any kind of film buff, you’ll love Robert Eggers’ debut film The Witch; and if you’re interested in Puritanism or Calvinism, it’s an extraordinary eye-opener. I heard several interviews with Eggers before I saw the film; he’s a genial and entertaining...
read morePuritanical Diary Keeping
I want to write about diaries, so I’ve brought out all my family’s diaries and put them on the bed. I had to find them first – they were stashed away in various places where they couldn’t torment me. My dad kept diaries all his life – the first one I have...
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