BleakChesneyWold

                             Daniel Dunglas Home-  Gifted Medium or Scoundrel ?                                              First came across  the most famous medium Daniel Dunglas Home when reading Linda Stratmann's  Mina Scarletti  novels. Set in  Brighton during the  early 1870's, the lead character is set on a course to expose mediums, who are generally depicted as being tricksters and preying on the grief of those who were suffering bereavement.  In the novel Mr Scarletti's Ghost  ,Mina reads a pamphlet titled The claims of D.D.Home Refuted Containing a Very Full Account of the Lyon Case and His Disgrace  by Josiah Rand M.D.    I have not found this publication, though Mina could have read quite a widely circulated Illustrated Police News p...

                              Cosmic Horror From 1908                                                                                                             William Hope Hodgson was a master of unreality, and The House on the Borderland is a masterpiece. Rated highly by future authors such as H P Lovecraft and Terry Pratchett. Hodgson' view of the natural world is chaotic and seething with unknown possibilities, most outcomes are hostile to humanity. Disorder prevails. Hodgson is anti-Utopian and anti-pastoral.  Two young men go camping in a desolate part of Ireland, hoping to enjoy the outdoor life and fishing. The natives are not ...

                                            Review of new book by Paul Williams  On the night of 24th November 1898, a prisoner by the name of William John Onion, decided to turn his life around. Onion was seriously ill in his cell, and prayed, offering to give up intoxicating alcohol and make amends for his shocking life. He had a little over 500 hundred convictions, largely related to getting drunk, then turning offensive and often violent. Police officers, Workhouse staff, his first wife, were amongst those Onion had assaulted.  Onion had tried to change his life before. This time he succeeded, becoming teatotal, and pursued his skill as a verse writer which he had been developing throughout the 1890's.  Born near Whitechapel Road, his father died when he was an infant, his mother was severely ill in hospital. Onion and a younger sister spent some time in Selby...