The Prophet, page 26
Though not based upon any single individual, hedge-preachers such as Baptist Gunn certainly existed and drew crowds of followers. I enjoyed putting a pinch of Samuel Taylor Coleridge into Gunn’s character, for the youthful poet wrote at length of his project to set up a utopian group in America called Pantisocracy, though the scheme was later abandoned. After considering such cult leaders down the ages, I also placed the monstrous instigator of mass suicide, Jim Jones, in the mix, for any review of religious charismatics does sadly unearth a less admirable parade of false prophets, madmen, confidence tricksters and psychopaths.
A second surprise came when I uncovered the serious conflict in England’s woods and forests between Whig grandees enclosing common land and the poachers who defied them. In 1723 the Black Act had been passed after a series of raids by poachers known as Blacks, named from the precautionary measure of painting their faces to go hunting at night in large gangs.
The Act introduced the death penalty for over fifty criminal offences, including being found in a forest while disguised, and was infamous for punishing men and dogs by death in countless cases. Yet still poaching continued; buoyed up by the words found in Genesis, country people insisted that animals were made for the sport of all of men, not only red-coated squires.
A more widely known conflict is the one this period witnessed between the emerging and largely male medical profession and the more ancient traditions of female midwifery. Newly elevated into society, Tabitha would have faced a choice as to which source of advice to turn to. Certainly some physicians of the day continued to insist on the mother avoiding ‘maternal impressions’ from distressing events and situations in case they injured her unborn baby.
Regarding location, my forest is not so very different from modern Delamere Forest, Cheshire, which is the remnant of the ancient medieval forests of Mara and Mondrem. Though partly imaginary, it shares with Delamere a good number of barrows, hillforts and sacred wells. The forest was also the home of Anna Hollingsworth, the so-called ‘Wise Woman of Delamere’, a refugee from Germany whose quaint home and good character I hope prove of interest.
A great many books, articles, people and experiences helped me in writing this book but the following deserve a special mention:
David Cressy, Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford University Press, 1997)
Clarke Garrett, Spirit Possession and Popular Religion: Origins Of The Shakers: From The Old World To The New World, (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998)
E P Thompson, Whigs And Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act (Penguin, 1990)
Thompson; Hay; Linebaugh; Rule; Winslow, Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England (Pantheon, 1976)
Clifford A Pickover, Dreaming of the Future (Prometheus, 2001)
Steve Roud, Monday’s Child Is Fair of Face … And Other Traditional Beliefs About Babies and Motherhood (Random House, 2008)
R M Bevan, Tales of Old Delamere Forest (CC Publishing, 2008)
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1997)
P Broster, The Chester Guide: Or, an Account of the Antient and Present State of that City (1781)
Anthony Storr, Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus (Harper Collins, 1997)
Jennifer Mori, Magic and Fate in Eighteenth-Century London: Prosecutions for Fortune-Telling, c. 1678–1830 (Folklore, 129:3, 2018)
I would like to thank the following people for their help and inspiration.
My faithful writer friends, Alison Layland and Elaine Walker, who gave me invaluable feedback, guidance, and some terrific ideas to improve my story.
Also, to my friends in The Prime Writers, a group of writers who have all had their fiction debuts commercially published at the age of forty or more. Thank you, especially to those who so kindly found time to read early drafts.
An intense period of writing on retreat at Ty Newydd Creative Writing Centre in Wales was made possible by the generosity of a grant from the Francis W Reckitt Art Trust.
For crucial encouragement and belief in the novel, many thanks to my agent, Charlotte Seymour, and all the team at Andrew Nurnberg Associates.
Thank you to all at Severn House, especially Kate Lyall Grant and Sara Porter, for having faith in a sequel and for their hard work and support.
And finally, I’m grateful as ever to my son Chris for his positive encouragement, and to my sisters Marijke and Lorraine for playing their part in encouraging new readers. Finally, thanks to my husband Martin, for happily accompanying me to iron age forts, ancient houses and churches, and then reading and critiquing my early drafts.
Martine Bailey, The Prophet
