The medina is the beating heart of the old city of Marrakech, with narrow winding streets that propel you past cave-like shops filled with everything a tourist might desire – silver jewellry, berbere rugs, brass lamps, the softest leather slippers and bags, and silver teapots with patterned glass cups. The all-pervasive fragrance of the medina …
My knowledge of the amazing kingdom of Morocco was sadly influenced by popular culture. I had seen Patsy and Edina visit Marrakech in a drug-addled haze, and Swinton and Hiddleston swoon with vampiric boredom in Tangier. Neither a realistic representation. Our plane swooped into Menara airport, Marrakech, over flat roofs and pink walls, flat brown …
Everyone knows the old adage about kissing under the mistletoe, but how did that originate? Well, we can thank the Romans for that (yes, yes, another vestige of the Roman Empire!). The Romans considered mistletoe to be powerful enough to ward off evil spirits and hung it over doorways to protect their homes. They …
Living in the tropics, I’ve forgotten what it is like to experience really cold weather. The internet became my trusty go-to for information about living in cold desolate places, for my next novel, I discovered a place where people choose to live for five months at a time, in the freezing cold, without …
Chocolate eggs and rabbits on supermarket shelves announce Easter to us in a modern world. But how are rabbits and eggs related to a religious holy day mourning the death of Jesus? It’s all in the name.. The festival of Easter is named after the goddess, Eostre, the Saxon Goddess of fertility. Eostre’s sacred …
Beware the Ides of March? The Ides of March correlates to the 15th. But why is it so notable? Shakespeare coined this particular phrase, for his play, as it was the date of Julius Caesar’s assassination, but it was also the day by which ancient Romans cleared their debts. And why was that? Romans didn’t …
I came across a marvellous piece of research recently, for a short story I was writing, about the shamans of Siberia. I learned that like most shamans, they are not adverse to using psychotropic substances, in their case magic mushrooms, namely the Amanita Muscaria variety. Amanita Muscaria are the beautiful red shiny variety with white …
In Original Sinner, the story takes place over the course of one night—the first night of the festival of Samhain. There is a certain irony to this pagan celebration being integral to Eve’s quest for redemption. But I also chose it to illustrate the connection between religions. Many Christian holidays fall on pagan ones and …
I always wondered why God placed a tree with luscious fruit in the Garden if it wasn’t to be eaten. The standard answer is that it was a test, but why was a test necessary and what was it testing? Some texts say there were two trees in the Garden of Eden; the Tree of …
In my novel, Original Sinner, Eve recounts her experiences during the Siege of Caffa and the outbreak of plague. It was certainly thought-provoking to research those times whilst in lockdown because of our pandemic. I read accounts of people who had experienced the confusion and horror of the plague, and their reactions were similar to …