Hist Fic Saturday ~ Blog Tour ~ The Running Wolf by Helen Steadman

 

On Hist Fic Saturday I am thrilled to be on this blog tour today

Let's go back to...the latter part of the Seventeenth Century, England

Impress Books
1 December 2020

My thanks to the author and to Love books Group Tours for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

When a Prussian smuggler is imprisoned in Morpeth Gaol in the winter of 1703, why does Queen Anne's powerful right-hand man, The Earl of Nottingham, take such a keen interest?

At the end of the turbulent 17th century, the ties that bind men are fraying, turning neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend and brother against brother. Beneath a seething layer of religious intolerance, community suspicion and political intrigue, The Running Wolf takes us deep into the heart of rebel country in the run-up to the 1715 Jacobite uprising.

Hermann Mohll is a master sword maker from Solingen in Prussia who risks his life by breaking his guild oaths and settling in England. While trying to save his family and neighbours from poverty, he is caught smuggling swords and finds himself in Morpeth Gaol facing charges of High Treason.

Determined to hold his tongue and his nerve, Mohll finds himself at the mercy of the corrupt keeper, Robert Tipstaff. The keeper fancies he can persuade the truth out of Mohll and make him face the ultimate justice: hanging, drawing and quartering. But in this tangled web of secrets and lies, just who is telling the truth?

What did I think about it..

Hermann Mohll is a master sword maker from Solingen in Prussia, who discovers momentous cracks in the foundation of everything he once held true and with a heavy heart he moves to the north east of England with his family. The transition between countries isn’t easy, especially when Mohll gets drawn into dangerous events which are beyond his control and as we move effortlessly in time so we have a tantalising glimpse into a country which is steeped in deadly turmoil. The latter years of the seventeenth century are fraught with danger and religious adversity, and the dark shadow of history is very much apparent as this complex story progresses.

The Running Wolf is wonderfully atmospheric. The opening chapter creates such an immediate sense of time and place that I was catapulted back through time and became part of the Solingen community, conjuring the dreams thieves as they tipped their beady eye over the sleeping villagers.  And for a master craftsman like Hermann Mohll, who is struggling with the indecision of leaving his homeland and breaking with the guild, his life will never be the same again.

There is no doubt as to this author’s ability to tell a good story. The Running Wolf as all the trademarks of her undeniable skill in discovering a hidden truth and writing an authentic and historically accurate story which is just waiting to be told. She did this with the Newcastle witch trials in Widdershins and Sunwise and has done it again in The Running Wolf, combining little known factual history with an engrossing fictional tale of intrigue, danger and skulduggery.

Exciting, atmospheric and filled with a deadly sense of danger, The Running Wolf is expertly researched and beautifully written historical fiction.

About the author

Helen Steadman lives in the foothills of the North Pennines, and she particularly enjoys researching and writing about the history of the north east of England. Following her MA in creative writing at Manchester Met, Helen is now completing a PhD in English at the University of Aberdeen to determine whether a writer can use psycho-physical techniques to create authentic fictional characters. 

Twitter @hsteadman1650 #TheRunningWolf

Website

Amazon UK

@ImpressBooks1

@LoveBooksGroup

Blog Tour ~ Sunwise by Helen Steadman

On Hist Fic Saturday

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to be part of the blog tour for Sunwise

Impress Books
1 April 2019

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book and my invitation to be part of the blog tour

"There is a madness come upon England of late..."

When Jane’s lover, Tom, returns from the navy to find her unhappily married to his betrayer, Jane is caught in an impossible situation. Still reeling from the loss of her mother at the hands of the witchfinder John Sharpe, Jane has no choice but to continue her dangerous work as a healer while keeping her young daughter safe. But, as Tom searches for a way for him and Jane to be together, the witchfinder is still at large. Filled with vengeance, John will stop at nothing in his quest to rid England of the scourge of witchcraft. Inspired by true events, Sunwise tells the story of one woman’s struggle for survival in a hostile and superstitious world.

My thoughts..

From the very start of Sunwise there is a real sense of foreboding and those who have read Widdershins will, like me, want to know what happened to Jane Driver and her baby daughter, Rose, in the aftermath of the Newcastle witch trials.

At the start of the story we discover that Jane, although still grieving her beloved mother, is kept busy looking after her young daughter. She continues to help the villagers of Mutton Clog, delivering their babies and carefully preparing the healing potions her mother once taught her to make.

John Sharpe, the notorious witch finder, is still at large and is just as determined to rid the north of England of the witches he is certain still hide amongst the ordinary God fearing folk. However, in his crazed quest to root out evil, he has never forgotten Jane Driver, or of his insane ambition to rid the country of the one woman he considers to be the most dangerous witch in all of England.

Beautifully written, Sunwise is a worthy continuation of the story, and is filled to bursting with all the trademarks of this author’s exceptional writing, however, it must also be said that it is not an easy read. It’s dark and dirty and so insidiously evil that the individual chapters which feature John Sharpe made my, already chilled blood, run even colder. The author’s undeniable skill with words brings the story to life in glorious detail, from the lure of superstition and the absolute torment of lost love, to the very real threat of danger and the undeniable evil which lurks in the shadow of an ancient church. From start to finish there is never a moment when the story doesn’t hold every scrap of your imagination, taking you very firmly by the hand towards an inevitable conclusion, which, it must be said, made me gasp out loud.

I started to read Sunwise on a rather dreary afternoon and didn't look up from the seventeenth century, except to make restorative cups of tea, until the whole of the story had played out, and even after I'd closed the book, vivid images still ran in my mind and I couldn't stop thinking about the  places, the people and the roles they had all played in this remarkable story.

Whilst Sunwise can be read as a standalone story, I do think that it will work so much better if you read Widdershins first.

About the Author

Helen Steadman lives in the foothills of the North Pennines, and she particularly enjoys researching and writing about the history of the north east of England. Following her MA in creative writing at Manchester Met, Helen is now completing a PhD in English at the University of Aberdeen to determine whether a writer can use psycho-physical techniques to create authentic fictional characters.

Website

Twitter @hsteadman1650 #Sunwise #Widdershins #Witch

@ImpressBooks1

Blog Tour ~ Home is Nearby by Magdalena McGuire

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on the Home is Nearby Blog Tour

It gives me great pleasure to introduce, author, Magdalena McGuire

Hi Magdalena, welcome to Jaffareadstoo. Tell us a little about yourself and what got you started as an author?

I was born in Poland – or, the Polish People’s Republic, as it was known at the time. My mother is Polish and my father was Australian. They met in the university city of Wrocław, where my book is set. My mother was studying literature and my father was teaching English and learning Polish. Despite the language differences between them, it didn’t take long for them to fall in love, get married and have a baby – me!

At the time, food was scarce in the shops in Poland, and my parents believed Australia would be a better, or at least easier, place to raise a child. We moved to Australia when I was two years old. I grew up in tropical Darwin, with cyclones and palm trees and multiculturalism. So a very different place to Poland!

I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but somehow there was always a compelling reason not to write. Looking back at it, it’s clear that fear of failure was holding me back. I was paralysed by the notion that I had to write something ‘good’ instead of just writing for the pleasure of it. Finally, I broke out of this way of thinking by scribbling random thoughts in a journal as part of a regular writing practice. After that I started writing and publishing short stories. These days, writing is my absolute passion. I’m so lucky to have writing and books in my life.

Where did you get the first flash of inspiration for Home Is Nearby?

The inspiration for the novel really came from my own family heritage. Growing up, I often wondered what my life would’ve been like if we’d stayed put in Poland. What would it have been like to grow up in communist Poland, to live through the momentous decade of the 1980s when the country was on the cusp of radical change?

While the novel started out as an attempt to explore my family history, it only really came to life when I departed from that history. When I let the story unfold on its own terms. That was really exciting for me: the discovery that this story could take on a life of its own.

What can you tell us about the story without revealing too much?

Home is Nearby is about a young Polish woman, Ania, who wants to be a sculptor. She moves from her small village to the university city of Wrocław to study art. There, she befriends a group of bohemians who, despite the difficult political and economic circumstances that surround them, live life to the fullest. Everything changes when martial law is declared in Poland. When love and politics collide, Ania is forced to make a decision that will shape the rest of her life.

In researching Home Is Nearby did you discover anything unexpected?

Before I started doing the research for this book I knew next to nothing about Polish art. When I started looking into it I discovered that the art scene in 1980s Poland was rebellious and exciting and totally wild! In fact, some of the artworks were so out-there that if you transplanted them in fiction they would sound totally implausible. One that comes to mind is a performance in which an artist installed herself outside a government censorship office and solicited passers to have sex with her in public, right outside the office, in order to critique the country’s censorship policies. Apparently there were a few takers…

Whilst you are writing you must live with your characters. How did you feel about them when the book is finished? Are they who you expected them to be?

The characters in the book started out as sketches of people, but as the book progressed they became very real to me. Sometimes I’d even dream about them at night.

One of the unexpected things I learned was that you can’t force characters to inhabit either ‘minor’ or ‘major’ roles within a book. In the end, they take up the amount of space that they want to take up. Some characters who I thought were pivotal ended up not being so, whereas others really took on a life of their own.

How do you plan your writing, are you a plotter, or a see where it goes kind of writer?

Generally I start with a vague idea for a story and then take it from there. I don’t like to plot everything out beforehand as this feels tedious and doesn’t leave any room for the twists and turns that make writing fiction exciting. Not that there’s anything wrong with plotting! It’s just not the way I work.

What do you consider to be your strongest points as a writer?

Ooh, that’s a tough one. I’ve got a background in human rights and I like to think that I bring that to my writing. I don’t want my writing to be didactic, but I do want it to shine a light on the lives and histories of people who can be marginalised, people whose stories aren’t always told in mainstream settings.

Again, without giving too much away, what do you hope readers will take away from reading Home Is Nearby?

First of all, pleasure! I hope that Home Is Nearby is an enjoyable read and that it contains some strong images – particularly of art – that will stay in people’s minds after they’ve finished reading.

As well as that, I hope that the book gives people a different perception of Poland to the one that they might have. There are a lot of stereotypes about 1980s communist Poland and I hope that my book complicates them. I’d also love it if readers could find the parallels between Polish history and some of the political developments that are happening in our own time.

My thoughts about Home is Nearby

Impress Books
1 November 2017

Poland in the 1980s saw a great deal of change, both political and social, and for those who lived during that momentous time, life was changed forever. For Ania, living in small village with her father, her hopes of becoming a sculptor are just a dream, until she gets accepted onto an art course at the University of Wroclaw. Once there, Ania comes into contact with a group of young people, and swept along in their ideology, she finds that her life takes a very different turn.

The complex and difficult political situation is brought to life in this detailed story which explores what it was like to live in the shadow of oppression. All of the characters are finely developed, but I especially liked Ania, her relationship with her father is both loving and gentle, which is in direct contrast to some of her more challenging relationships. Time and place is brought quite vividly to life, and I enjoyed travelling Ania's journey with her, learning much about the political situation in Poland, and the effect that martial law had on the people living during that time.

The impression that home is always nearby is an interesting idea and one which is particularly evident at the end of Ania’s momentous journey and I won’t spoil anything by saying too much about what happens. But I must admit to shedding a few tears at the end of the final chapter.

I think that this is a strong debut novel from a talented new author and I look forward to seeing what follows, Home is Nearby.


More about the author can be found on her website by clicking here 

You can follow the Blog Tour #HomeIsNearby @Magdalena_McG @ImpressBooks1

Huge thanks to Magdalena for spending time with me on the blog today and for answering my questions and also to Natalie at Impress Books for the invitation to be part of the blog tour and for my review copy of Home is Nearby

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Review ~ Legacy by Bill Mesce, Jr

** Paperback Publication Day **

Impress Books
17 July 2017

What's it all about...

Dante DiMarchese is a forensic psychologist, an expert in the workings of the criminal mind and the man responsible for putting the Bailey Beach serial killer behind bars. When a soldier home from a tour in Afghanistan is charged with manslaughter, Dante is immediately called on to help. Meanwhile, the Bailey Beach killer is threatening to smear Dante's name, while Dante's persistent ex-brother-in-law ropes him into an inheritance dispute between a still-living father and his family. In the heart of New York, will Dante's unravel the legacies and lies that others have left behind? Can he contain his own deceptions?

What did I think about it ...

To be honest, it took me a little while to get into this story, but once I had settled to the characters, and into the writer's unique style of presentation, I found that the story started to move along quite decisively, which may have something to do with the fact that the story originally started off its life as a screenplay. Within the story are some wonderfully descriptive passages which I could well image being translated to screen or theatre.

I enjoyed getting to know the central character. Dante DiMarchese is a forensic psychologist who understands the intricacies of criminal psychology, a subject which is as complex and intricate as the story in which he plays an active role. DiMarchese is a complicated protagonist, a multi-layered character who strips away the minutiae of the cases he works on with precise and specific concentration. I’m not sure I liked him over much, but then I guess that what makes reading about the way he operates so interesting.

I read a great deal of British psychological suspense, so it's always fascinating for me, as a reader, to note the difference in style and presentation between a novel, for example, set in the UK and one set in the US. The noticeable similarities and spotting the differences are what make Legacy all the more enjoyable to read.

Best read with... Dante's chocolate chunk cookies...

About the Author

Bill Mesce, Jr. is an award-winning author and playwright, as well as a screenwriter.

My thanks to Natalie at Impress Books for my review copy of Legacy

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Blog Tour ~ Widdershins by Helen Steadman

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of the Widdershins Blog Tour

I'm excited to be able to share this fascinating and informative guest post

 from 

Helen Steadman, the author of Widdershins

What kind of people were accused of witchcraft during the 17th century?

Many people who were tried as witches were often simply cunning women who provided plant-based medicine, midwifery and healthcare services for those who were unable (or unwilling) to pay for a physician. Likewise prone to suspicion were barber surgeons who also provided plant-based medicines and carried out blood-letting, bone-setting and amputations.

Other people who often fell under suspicion included the green women who gathered plants to provide the ingredients for cunning women and barber surgeons to prepare simples (herbal remedies made from a single plant) as well as more complex medicinal compounds. For instance, a green woman might pick elder berries and sell them to the cunning woman.

The cunning woman would then boil the elder berries with honey or sugar, along with warming spices, such as ginger or cinnamon, to create a curative linctus.

The resulting elder-berry linctus would then be sold to villagers to prevent or cure coughs, colds, flu and lung diseases. A close look at the freshly picked sprigs of elder berries will show that the sprigs resemble the inner lung, which may be why elder is associated with the lung. 

Beyond this, suspicion also fell on neighbours when times were hard. It seems it was easier to accuse a neighbour of witchcraft than to accept that sometimes bad luck was behind horses going lame, babies being miscarried or crops failing. It must have also been a convenient solution to anyone you didn’t like the look of, who posed any kind of threat (whether real or imagined), or who might have posed a burden on the community – for example, the old, the poor, the disabled.

But it wasn’t just those administering folk medicine who risked accusation of witchcraft. Men of the cloth were also not safe. In the south of England, John Lowes, the vicar of Brandeston was swum; because he floated, he was then further tested and interrogated after being kept awake for several nights, before finally confessing to witchcraft.

Interestingly, it seems that the Rev. Lowes conducted his own burial service shortly before his execution. It’s interesting, not just because it’s strange to conduct your own funeral, but because most witches found guilty of witchcraft were put to death ‘without benefit of clergy’, which imperilled their eternal souls. So perhaps this was Lowes' attempt to ensure that he at least had a Christian funeral.

Sources:

Wallace Notestein (2010) [1908] A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718. New Haven, CT: Yale University.

Dilston Physic Garden runs excellent courses in botanical medicine. For more information, click here

About the Author

Helen Steadman lives in the foothills of the North Pennines, and she particularly enjoys researching and writing about the history of the north east of England. Following her MA in creative writing at Manchester Met, Helen is now completing a PhD in English at the University of Aberdeen. When she’s not studying or writing, Helen critiques, edits and proofreads other writers’ work, and she is a professional member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

Impress Books
1st July 2017

'Did all women have something of the witch about them?’

Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world.

From his father’s beatings to his uncle’s raging sermons, John Sharpe is beset by bad fortune. Fighting through personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witch-finder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft.

Inspired by true events, Widdershins tells the story of the women who were persecuted and the men who condemned them.

Huge thanks to the author and also to Natalie at Impress Books  for the kind invitation to be 

part of this blog tour. You  can follow the Tour on Twitter #Widdershins

You can read my review Widdershins by clicking here

Widdershins is published on the 1st July 2017

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Review ~ Widdershins by Helen Steadman

Impress Books

What's it all about...

Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world.

From his father’s beatings to his uncle’s raging sermons, John Sharpe is beset by bad fortune. Fighting through personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witch-finder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft.

Inspired by true events, Widdershins tells the story of the women who were persecuted and the men who condemned them.

What did I think about it...

Living in Lancashire I am well aware of the lure of stories which feature witchcraft. Tales steeped in legend that tell of unfortunate women accused of hexing and bewitching local communities, so that when babies died, people fell ill, crops failed or general misfortune came a-calling there was always someone to blame.

Did all women have something of the witch about them?

Widdershins takes us into the North East of the mid-seventeenth century and back to a dark, dark place where superstition and mischance are as dangerous as stumbling widdershins around a graveyard in the chill of night.

Jane Chandler has learned the use of herbs and healing from her mother, Anna, and Meg, both local wise women. These generous women taught her the old ways and the cunning ways, the traditions and teachings of country folk and how to watch for signs that creep and crumble in the dark.

John Sharpe, a product of his time and Scottish upbringing, seeks to clear the world around him of evil. Evil that he feels can be found in the shape of a woman's body, in a wife that trembles before him, in the savage fury of his fist and in his absolute belief that witches lurk in all the dark recesses of daily life.

The narrative within Widdershins is superbly controlled by a very talented writer, someone who is a definite weaver of tales, and who has brought to perfect life the inner workings of a disturbed mind. A mind which is convinced that, with God on his side, he can do no wrong. Intertwining Jane and John’s story is inspired and gives a disturbing account of how lives can be brought together and changed irrevocably by the sly capriciousness of fate.

I am intrigued by stories that coalesce, which creep ever so carefully, which cleverly intertwine lives so that truth and fiction merge and blend and become so terrifyingly convincing that it hurts to read about lives which are tumbling out of control. The last section of Widdershins strikes at the very heart of terror. Its calculated evil scared me and I wasn’t anywhere near the witch pricker as he sought to condemn the innocent to their death and send them to lie forever in an unmarked grave, unshriven and unblessed.

Based on the true events of the 1650 Newcastle Witch Trials where sixteen petrified souls were taken to a needless death, the author has brought to life a chilling story of persecution, superstitious mania and terrifying ineptitude.

I can't praise Widdershins highly enough, and for someone brought up with the stories of witchcraft, believe me, this one stands up with the best I've read.

Best read with...a sip of mead and a slice of Beltane cake , carefully avoiding the carline...

About the Author

Helen Steadman lives in the foothills of the North Pennines, and she particularly enjoys researching and writing about the history of the north east of England. Following her MA in creative writing at Manchester Met, Helen is now completing a PhD in English at the University of Aberdeen.

When she’s not studying or writing, Helen critiques, edits and proofreads other writers’ work, and she is a professional member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

Website

Twitter @hsteadman1650 #Widdershins

My thanks to Natalie at Impress Books for the opportunity to read 

Widdershins in advance of its publication.

Coming : 1 July 2017 

Preorder Here 

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Cover Reveal ~ Widdershins by Helen Steadman

I'm delighted to be able to share the cover of an exciting new historical fiction novel

Widdershins by Helen Steadman

Impress Books
Coming in July 2017

‘Widdershins was inspired by the seventeenth-century witch trials in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Although fifteen people were executed on the same day for alleged witchcraft, the trials aren’t widely known about outside the north east of England. So, I’m pleased that the story of this travesty will now reach a much wider audience.’ (Helen Steadman, Author)

‘I’m thrilled that we are publishing Helen Steadman’s engrossing novel, Widdershins. I loved following the interplay of John and Jane’s stories in this vividly evoked and fascinating period of history.’ (Laura Christopher, Commissioning Editor)

‘Her writing reminds me of Hannah Kent’s bestselling novel, Burial Rites, which follows the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Helen’s writing has a similar persuasive and empathetic force, weaving together historical fact with modern concerns about the treatment of women.’ (Helen Marshall, Award winning author)

'Did all women have something of the witch about them?’

Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world.

From his father’s beatings to his uncle’s raging sermons, John Sharpe is beset by bad fortune. Fighting through personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witch-finder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft.

Inspired by true events, Widdershins tells the story of the women who were persecuted and the men who condemned them.

For more information go to #Widdershins @ImpressBooks1 @Helen1650 (Published 1 July 2017)

Visit Helen on her website by clicking here

Impress Books

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