Patricia Leslie

Every now and again I like to share some of the little gems of knowledge and trivia I pick up in my reading and researching. Sometimes the tiniest mention of an item, incident or location, especially when it’s historical in nature, requires more research that you’d think. Luckily, I enjoy the odd bit of fact-checking. But once the item has been mentioned, I have knowledge that I probably won’t need again (and by the time I do then I’ll have forgotten it anyway). I call these

I use a lot of traditional hearth magic in my stories. It's often recognised as witchcraft, but to an outsider who doesn't understand or who has differing beliefs, witchcraft is more an accusation hurled to belittle, alienate, and hurt. Looking around at various belief systems it seems that contemporary religious types often refer to pagan or indigenous practices as witchcraft: placing them on the primitive, or worse, ignorant superstition shelf. Primitive and tradition do no