RIP Mike Howard

It is with great sadness that I have just learnt of the death of the author of The Witches' Herbal. Mike Howard died after a short illness, in the company of his friends and family. He was editor of the well-respected esoteric journal The Cauldron and author of over 30 books. He and his work will be greatly missed. 

RIP Mike.

Edward Lovett Looking Relaxed

Edward Lovett's grandson, Bill Lovett, kindly supplied this photograph of his grandfather for the book Magic In Modern London 1925 with Folklore & Legends of the Surrey Hills and the Sussex Downs & Forests 1928. He looks very dapper as he's transported along the waterway. 

Tattooing a Girl's Arm

I am keen to share Lovett's snippets so am occasionally putting sample pages from his book on this blog. This one shows how, even over the span of a century, things don't really change. Thank heavens for creative tattooists.

Paypal Buttons Not Working

Thanks to one of my customers who has pointed out the Paypal buttons on my site are not working at the moment. I think a recent upgrade to the site has caused the problem. I'm hoping to get my webmeister on the case shortly so if, in the meantime, you would like to order either Magic in Modern London... or The Witches' Herbal please email me at redthreadbooks@aol.co.uk and I will send a Paypal invoice.

Apologies for this problem but I hope to have it sorted soon.

Stumble on a FumsUp

I was delighted to find this example of a bisque FumsUp doll in a charity shop in Wadebridge last week. Thanks to Donna Hircock for giving e the "HeadUp" about the "FumsUp"....see what I did there....It still has the original label which is rather nice.

It now stands on my dresser next to my piskie letter holder. I hope Edward Lovett would be proud.

Charmed life: The solace of objects | Felicity Powell

Look Back on A Charmed Life

In October 2011 The Wellcome Trust and artist Felicity Powell collaborated on a stunning 5 month show of Edward Lovett's collected amulets (which are usually housed at The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford). These charms and the personal stories connected to them inspired Felicity's art and the show was truly amazing.

Sadly Felicity died earlier this year. We never met but spoke on the phone as she had agreed to speak on her work at one of the Museum of Witchcraft's Day of Talks which I was organising at the time. Unfortunately she became too ill to attend but she was extremely enthusiastic about Lovett's work and was obviously greatly inspired by it.

The Wellcome Collection show of both the charms and Felicity's work can still be viewed online by clicking Charmed Life - The Solace of Objects.

For The Guardian's obituary to Felicity Powell click here.