Joy Rowe (1926-2020): tribute to a historian
Joy Rowe, who died on 7 September 2020 at the age of 93, was a key figure in the study of the religious history of early modern East Anglia, and … Continue reading
Review: The Penguin Book of Exorcisms edited by Joseph P. Laycock
Joseph P. Laycock (ed.) The Penguin Book of Exorcisms (London: Penguin, 2020), 313pp. The Penguin Book of Exorcisms is the latest addition to a series of readers published in the … Continue reading
Publication of Yellow Glass and Other Ghost Stories
I have long contemplated bringing out a collection of antiquarian ghost stories, and it has finally come to pass with the publication of Yellow Glass and Other Ghost Stories, my … Continue reading
Review: The Book in the Cathedral by Christopher de Hamel
My review of Christopher de Hamel’s book The Book in the Cathedral has just been published in this month’s Catholic Herald. This very short book advances a fascinating theory that … Continue reading
Edmund: In Search of England’s Lost King out in paperback
Today is publication day for the slightly revised paperback edition of Edmund: In Search of England’s Lost King, my book about St Edmund of East Anglia and the hunt for … Continue reading
Review: Anyone for Edmund? by Simon Edge
Simon Edge, Anyone for Edmund? (London: Lightning Books, 2020), 304pp. It is rare for me to review fiction on here – indeed, I don’t think I have ever done so … Continue reading
Review: The History of Magic by Chris Gosden
Chris Gosden, The History of Magic: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present (London: Viking/Penguin, 2020), 482pp. To describe Chris Gosden’s History of Magic as ambitious … Continue reading
Contract signed with Routledge: English Catholicism, 1558–1642 (Second Edition) by Alan Dures and Francis Young
Published in 1983, Alan Dures’s textbook for A Level and undergraduate students English Catholicism, 1558-1642, is something of a minor classic; long out of print, it remains the only textbook … Continue reading
The face of Abbot Curteys – in glass from St Edmunds Abbey?
As reported recently by Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, I have been working with a stained glass expert, Martin Harrison, to identify some fragments in a window on the south … Continue reading
Article in History Ireland: ‘St Edmund: Patron Saint of Ireland?’
The July and August 2020 edition of Ireland’s history magazine, History Ireland, features my article ‘St Edmund: Patron Saint of Ireland?’, which outlines the almost incredible story of English attempts to … Continue reading
