BOOK NOOK: The Midnight Witch by Paula Brackston

 

"I cannot let the memory of what happened change the way I feel about this chamber.  This is my domain. Mine. Mine to keep and guard, mine to use. Tonight it will be the meeting place for five senior witches including myself. I have requested them by name, the most trusted and experienced members of the coven. I need their wisdom. I need their help." 

The Midnight Witch by Paula Brackston is a dark novel of life, death and rebirth. It is the third installment of The Shadow Chronicles and it has held me captivated from the very first chapter.  Each novel of the Chronicles stands alone, so you don't need to have read the previous titles to enjoy this one and vice versa.  In this book we follow Lady Lilith, Head Witch of the Lazarus Coven and the darling of London aristocracy. 

Set during the Edwardian period, the novel begins in 1913, just before the First World War breaks out.  Lilith is forced to lead a double life, being a young lady out in High Society - while she is also a witch who can speak to the dead.  Her coven is one that maintains regular contact with spirits - not via table tapping theatricals, but in a more natural guardian-spirit sense. 

In lots of ways this novel reads more like a ghost story than a witchy one, but that is one of the things I found most enjoyable about it. It's different from all the other witchy books I've read. As you can image, being a witch who sees and speaks to spirits can bring about its own problems, but when war breaks out Lilith is inundated with the ghosts of restless spirits who need her help.  To add to her troubles there is a rival clan of sorcerers who want the magic she possesses and they will stop at nothing to get it.  When bombs begin to drop on London she must use all her powers to ensure that her coven survives and her rivals are defeated.

This is an enchanting novel of sparkling balls and china tea-cups, of dashing, ghostly Cavaliers and dark malevolent spirits. There is an adorable black cat familiar, a secret chamber where rituals are held and magic is cast - and a touch of necromancy thrown in for good measure! Although there are more ghosts than spells in this book, that doesn't diminish the magical atmosphere of the novel.  

Lilith is is lovely character, her suitors are suitably dashing, the world she inhabits is beautiful and enchanting. With the outbreak of war the novel takes an appropriately darker turn, in keeping with the chaos and sorrow of that time, yet through it all good magic shines its light upon the blighted bomb-stricken city of London.

While The Midnight Witch isn't my favourite of Brackston's novels, that being The Silver Witch, I have enjoyed reading this one nonetheless and I have spent the last few days sitting in my garden, book in hand, escaping into this charming world of magic and wonder, ghosts and ghouls.

 If you like witchy novels, ghost stories or you are a fan of the TV series Ghost Whisperer, then you might like this book too. Paula Brackston is one of my new go-to authors for witchy novels and I am delighted that I discovered her work.  If you are looking for something to read while on holiday I highly recommend The Midnight Witch. 

Happy Reading!

Marie x

#AD: This novel is published by Little Brown Book Group and is available now in all formats.

ONCE UPON A DREAM: Oxford, Trinity Term

 

We are deep into Trinity term now and assignment season seems to have come around really quickly.  This is my second term studying at Oxford and I have been enjoying it immensely, ever since I started my course back in January. Our tutors are brilliant and the course work is interesting.  I have studied both Creative Writing and Gothic Literature before at university level and Gothic Literature is one of my favourite nerdy topics to dive into. However, the course I am currently on is taking this to a whole new level as we re-evaluate the subject matter. Its really making me think about books I thought I knew well.

The core texts include some of my favourite classic Victorian novels, including books I have adored since I was a young girl, so to study them chapter by chapter, with an emphasis on their Gothic content, is a real thrill. I'm seeing them in a whole new light, which is wonderful for a bookworm. I am fascinated by the nuts and bolts of Gothic literature. What is it that makes a story a Gothic novel, rather than just a novel with Gothic themes, and to what degree was this the intention of the author, or the perception of the reader?  

The Gothicisation of certain novels, poems and authors is quite fascinating, as we view them through a lens of doom, gloom and personal tragedy, yet these authors would have had joyful aspects to their lives as well, we just choose not to pay any attention to those moments. Instead, a dark mythology evolves that surrounds these authors forevermore. Consider the image of Robert Louis Stevenson writing in a fevered frenzy upon his death bed in order to finish Dr Jekyll and My Hyde.  Or Charlotte Bronte walking the moors all alone after watching her siblings die one after the other in quick succession. Picture Edgar Allan Poe hiding away from his personal demons and escaping into his study by candlelight, or the reclusive existence of Emily Dickinson as she spewed out a plethora of poetry.  All of these images serve to maintain the mythology that surrounds these authors, bestowing upon them a gloomy misama - that is, a Gothicisation of their lives and work. Separating mythology from biography is always the first task in understanding any classic author and their body of work. 

It is great fun to spend the summer months delving into the gloomy, Gothic romance of the Brontës, Poe, Radcliffe and so on, in order to better understand the structure of Gothic writing and imagery. As we approach the summer solstice, the course work and required reading are giving me a welcome taste of spooky autumn, which is nice. It may be sunny outside but tucked away in my study, with Enya playing softly in the background and the breeze tinkling the chimes in the open window, I can delve into the dark, foreboding worlds created by some of the best authors in the history of English Literature.  

There is quite a lot of work to do each week, in addition to the assignments, so a course such as this isn't something to undertake on a whim. You do have to put the hours into your studies, but of course, it's Oxford - you expect to have to work hard at Oxford! Just because it's an online course doesn't mean that they let you off lightly either. They don't! My tutors are lovely, but they are also rather strict. If there is so much as a comma out of place, they will jump on you for it!  I quite like that though, as it all helps to make me a better author.

Overall, I am really glad I was brave enough to apply to Oxford last year. So far I have greatly enjoyed my studies there, especially the creative writing aspects of Hilary term and now the Gothic literary aspects of Trinity term too. This weekend I have a new assignment to write and submit to my tutor, plus I need to complete my first new book title of 2024 for my publisher, so it's going to be a busy few days! I also have some new pre-release books that I need to read for review too.  It's a very bookish, scholarly life and I wouldn't have it any other way. Happy solstice!

BB Marie x

ONCE UPON A DREAM: Be Self-Providing

"Would you like an adventure or shall we have tea first?"

from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

There are many double standards in society, most of which tend to put women at a disadvantage in comparison to men.  One that really grinds my gears however, is that of berating women who provide for themselves. Its something I noticed several years ago and it happens time and time again.  While we are thankfully a long way from the time when women were expected to marry so that they had a man to provide all their basic needs, as a collective society we still haven't evolved much since then.  Interestingly, it tends to be other women who are the worst offenders here, with men being more likely to applaud a woman who is self-reliant, than her female counterparts are.

For instance, why is it okay for a woman to make out her Wedding-Gift list, thereby expecting everyone else to provide her with the exact tea-set, microwave and so on that she wants, but its not okay for a single woman to provide herself with a beautiful tea-set or whatever? Why does the bride-to-be consider herself entitled to demand an expensive dinner service, henceforth to be lovingly referred to as her 'wedding china', but a single woman is frowned upon for providing herself with her own beautiful china?  Why is that? Surely we should be beyond such judgments.  

Yet single women who provide for themselves are often viewed as spendthrifts, shopaholics or hoarders, while women who are provided for by their husbands (or their wedding guests) are showered with praise for their good taste! Its such a strange double standard and one that is frequently imposed on women by other women - usually the ones who have spent a lifetime being provided for or those who are struggling to provide themselves and their kids with the basics. We see evidence of this on social media all the time, when influencers are shouted down and trolled because they have dared to show something they have worked for. Is it envy, female relational aggression, insecurity on their part or something else? I'm not sure where it comes from, but it has been directed at me many, many times.  

As a single woman I pay all my own bills and provide everything I need for myself with the income I make working as a writer. Even when I spent over eight years studying at university, I also worked long hours in an emergency vet hospital to provide for myself throughout my studies. I work just as hard as anyone else. The things I own are things that I have earned and worked for. Nothing has been handed to me on a plate - not even my V&A Alice in Wonderland plates!  I'm just a woman who works hard, who likes pretty things and who has built up a beautiful collection over the years - as many married couples do, I would hasten to add! 

I have often advocated for buying pretty things over plain ones because surrounding yourself with beauty is a well-known aspect of overall happiness. So why is it deemed acceptable for a married woman to proudly display and use her wedding china (which she didn't pay for and didn't actually earn!) but unacceptable for a single woman to also display the china that she worked hard to buy for herself? Why is the married woman entitled to such pretty things, but the independent woman isn't? What are we supposed to do, eat off paper plates?! Would that make everyone feel better? Maybe, but it isn't going to happen - not in this house!

Women who have collected a lot of lovely things are often labelled in negative ways by society. We are over-consuming the worlds resources, we are spendthrifts who don't understand the true value of money, we have more money than sense, we must be in a lot of personal debt and so on. Or, we must have come by our belongings through ill-gotten gains, via unexplained wealth, or due to some sort of underhand behaviour. In short, we are meant to be the problem. But purchasing isn't pilfering and buying crockery isn't a criminal offense. Its just life. People will always need plates!

I am always going to be fond of a nice tea-set and that hasn't changed since I was a girl. Now that I am an adult I can afford to indulge this little quirk and buy my own tea-sets, so that's exactly what I do.  I have a large dresser, which is filled with items that mean as much to me as any married woman's wedding china means to her.  

I have a mug-tree full of Disney Princess tea-cups. I have the V&A Alice in Wonderland tea-set, which is my pride and joy, I have the pink floral Bronte dinner set, plus a few pieces from Emma Bridgewater's autumn and winter collections and the quirky Yvonne Ellen Boozy tea-set, pictured above, which always makes me smile. I have a tea-pot in the shape of a white rabbit and another in the shape of an owl. When the internal lights of the dresser are on in the evenings, these tea-sets glow with colour, shimmering glaze and brilliant gold leaf. 

It makes my heart happy to see it each morning, to throw open the dresser doors and pick out a tea-set to use that day. I'm proud to know that I have been able to provide these things for myself, with money I made from my writing and from working hard throughout my life. I am proud of my ability to self-provide, from the basics to the pretty extras that turn day to day life into a lovely treat. 

Another woman might prefer to collect shoes, or handbags or something else, but whatever she provides for herself, she is entitled to it. We should all be providing for our own needs and wants, even married women - especially married women! Its such a thrill to know that you have bought something wonderful with your own hard-earned cash, no man required. And if its not his money you're spending, but your own, then he has nothing to say about it does he? So long as you are not getting into debt for it, you can purchase whatever you want with your own money. 

So if someone tries to belittle you for your own hard-earned purchases, whatever that might be for you: if they spitefully suggest that you must be doing something illegal or underhand to be able to afford it, remember that this usually comes from a place of envy and very deep insecurity on their part. Perhaps they feel that they will never be able to rise above the struggle of meeting basic needs, or maybe your success shines a light on their failure. Whatever it may be, bear in mind that it is their issue, not yours. You don't need to feel guilty for having nice things, just because someone else's insecurity has been triggered by it. Take joy in your possessions - you've worked for them, you earned them and you absolutely are entitled to them. No-one else deserves them any more than you do, whatever they might try to suggest to the contrary.

As for me, I'm just going to bask in the warm glow of a well-stocked dresser, knowing that it is entirely self-provided. I might even host a tea-party this weekend, for as the Mad Hatter said, it's always tea-time!

BB Marie x