A review of my book Where is St Edmund? by Edward Martin has appeared in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 43:2 (2014), pp. 293-94. Dr Martin suggests that ‘the truthful answer to the question posed in the book’s title is that it is (to paraphrase an inscription found on many World War I gravestones) something known only to God’, but he acknowledges the contribution the book makes in revealing William Hitchcock’s alternative story about St Edmund’s final resting place. I am not sure I agree with Dr Martin that we should doubt Hitchcock’s sanity: the story he quotes from Weldon about Hitchcock consuming a consecrated host vomited up by another monk is fairly typical of monastic behaviour of the time (such stories occur in the annals of many religious communities). However, Dr Martin is quite right to say that the ‘iron chest’ story is a rather insubstantial piece of evidence. I am grateful to such a learned and distinguished scholar for taking the time to review the book.
Francis Young 