by Huguenot Jo | Jan 16, 2021 | Book review, Puritanism, The Outcast Woman
Sarah Perry’s latest publication, “Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere”, is a tiny little book based on a Harriet Martineau lecture she gave; it’s an entertaining read for any woman who doesn’t like to shut up. Sarah Perry...
by Huguenot Jo | Dec 13, 2020 | Puritanism
Bah Humbug is one response to Christmas, exemplified by Dr Seuss’ The Grinch. In 1644 Parliament was peopled with Puritan Grinches, and their declaration cancelling Christmas has now been reproduced on a tea towel. Clearly these were not populists, appealing...
by Huguenot Jo | Mar 23, 2019 | Book review, Catholicism, Puritanism, The Huguenots
I’ve been sitting in a cancer ward at the Royal Marsden Hospital, desperately relying on a Tudor detective novel to distract me. Nurses are putting cancer drugs into my child and it’s almost impossible to bear. One of them catches …
by Huguenot Jo | Jul 15, 2018 | Book review, Film/Broadcast review, Puritanism, The Outcast Woman
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...
by Huguenot Jo | May 21, 2018 | Book review, Puritanism, The Outcast Woman
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...
