March 2012
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Masquerade.
I think this is one of my favourite things EVER:
Masquerade is a children’s book, written and illustrated by Kit Williams, which sparked a treasure hunt by concealing clues to the location of a jewelled golden hare, created and hidden somewhere in Britain by Williams. It became the inspiration for a genre of books known today as armchair treasure hunts.
Challenged by Tom Maschler, of...
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Spring-Heeled Jack.
Spring-heeled Jack is a character in English folklore of the Victorian era who was known for his startling jumps. The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837. Later sightings were reported all over England and were especially prevalent in suburban London, the Midlands and Scotland.
There are many theories about the nature and identity of Spring-heeled Jack. This urban legend was...
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The Green Children of Woolpit.
The story of the Green Children of Woolpit reads rather like a typical English fairytale, but are there any elements of truth mixed in with the mythology and folk beliefs of fairies and the afterlife?
During the troubled reign of king Stephenof England (1135-1154), there was a strange occurrence in the village of Woolpit, near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. At harvest time, while the reapers were...
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The Devil's Footprints.
The Devil’s Footprints is a name given to a phenomenon that occurred in February 1855 around the Exe Estuary in South Devon, England. After a heavy snowfall, trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow covering a total distance of some 40 to 100 miles. The footprints were so called because some people believed that they were the tracks of Satan, as they were allegedly made by...
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The Art of Errol le Cain.
I’m not into art at all but I recently saw Errol le Cain’s illustration for The Brother’s Grimm’s Thorn Rose (above) adorning the front cover of a rather dull text book and was kind of mesmerised. I would definitely recommend a quick browse of his website for a look-see at some of his other work!
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"Jill the Ripper"
The notion that Jack the Ripper might not in fact be a man at all, but rather a woman, was one postulated by Inspector Abberline himself at the time of the killings. According to Donald McCormick, author of The Identity of Jack the Ripper published in 1959, Abberline raised the theory in a conversation with his mentor, Dr. Thomas Dutton after the murder of Mary Kelly. Testimony given by Caroline...
