Author: Kirst Mason D'Raven

31 Days of Fear – 17. Fear of the Moon

The Moon has always held a powerful sway over human imagination. It has been the subject of countless myths, legends, and scientific inquiry. Yet, for […]

Aleistor Crowley – The Wickedest Man in the World.

Born Edward Alexander Crowley on the 12th October 1875 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. The self proclaimed Great Beast of the Apocalypse is regarded by some as the greatest magician of all time.

Trapped in Time – The Ghosts Behind Britain’s Walled-Up Tales

Whether these ghosts are seen as restless spirits seeking vengeance, tragic figures seeking peace, or simply echoes of a brutal past, their stories continue to captivate and terrify those who hear them.

The Church Grim – Derbyshire’s Mysterious Guardian

If you’re into cosy vibes and spooky tales, Derbyshire’s got some creepy history! The Church Grim is a black dog spirit guarding graveyards, ensuring the dead stay safe from darker forces. Folks claim it shows up before a death, but it’s more of a watchful protector than a pure fright. Just be cool and let it do its thing!

The Vampire of Berwick – Britain’s Medieval Walking Dead

Long before Dracula gave Britain its elegant, aristocratic vampire, our dead were considerably less sophisticated. They got out of the grave, lumbered around frightening the neighbours, spread disease and occasionally required somebody to hit them with a spade.

The Speed Wolf

From medieval wolf hunters to modern roadside encounters, the strange story of the creature said to haunt the roads around Buxton.

Dead Man Walking: When the Condemned Survive Execution

The rope has failed. The electric chair has malfunctioned. Lethal injections have gone wrong, and bodies delivered for dissection have unexpectedly begun breathing again. For centuries, condemned prisoners have occasionally done the one thing an execution was designed to prevent: survive. But if the state has already tried to kill someone and failed, should it be allowed to try again?

Star Jelly

For centuries, strange translucent jelly found on fields and hillsides was said to be the remains of fallen stars. In Wales it acquired the magnificent name pwdre sêr – “the rot of the stars”. But what if star jelly isn’t one mysterious substance at all, but several very earthly things sharing one extraordinary piece of folklore?

When the Sky Turns Red – Blood Rain

For centuries, red rain was recorded as a warning of war, plague and divine displeasure. But sometimes the explanation was travelling towards Europe from thousands of miles away. From ancient omens and medieval chronicles to Saharan dust carried across continents, what happens when the sky appears to bleed?

When It Rains Frogs and Fish

Fish falling over Wales. Frogs appearing after downpours. For centuries, people have reported animals apparently raining from the sky. Waterspouts and powerful winds offer a surprisingly plausible explanation – but explaining how it could happen isn’t quite the same as proving how a particular shower occurred.

The Rain Garden – Kirst D’Raven

It came down with the rain.

At first, Dr Carys Morgan thought the strange silver threads spreading through the soil at Dyffryn Glas were just another problem to solve. Then the insects began to disappear. The ground started changing. And something impossible began quietly rewriting a Welsh valley.

Carys has science, several tonnes of mud and a rapidly diminishing list of sensible options on her side.

Whatever came out of the sky has the rain.

The Kentucky Meat Shower

A clear Kentucky sky. A woman quietly making soap. And then pieces of flesh began falling from above. The Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876 sounds like folklore, but contemporary reports, preserved samples and microscopic examinations make the truth considerably stranger – and possibly much more disgusting.

Beatrix Potter

Forget Peter Rabbit for a moment. Beatrix Potter was a mycologist, scientific illustrator, shrewd businesswoman, prize-winning sheep breeder and conservationist who helped preserve thousands of acres of the Lake District. Behind the little animals in jackets was a considerably more formidable woman – and one with a surprising fondness for fungi.

Lilian Bland

In 1910, when aviation was still in its infancy, Lilian Bland decided she could build an aeroplane herself. Armed with determination, ingenuity, a Jameson’s whisky bottle and her aunt’s ear trumpet, she built the Mayfly – and then climbed aboard and flew it.

Eglantyne Jebb

Eglantyne Jebb founded Save the Children, was arrested for campaigning for starving enemy children, and helped establish the revolutionary idea that children had rights of their own. One remarkable Shropshire woman whose legacy changed millions of lives.

The MT Almanac – September ’26

September always feels like a month caught in the act of becoming something else. It can begin in summer. There may still be warm afternoons, […]

The Seventh Chair – Kirst D’Raven

Six women. Seven chairs. One invitation that makes no sense. Around a dinner table where time has apparently stopped, Florence Nightingale, Beatrix Potter, Maria Dickin, Lilian Bland, Elsie Inglis and Eglantyne Jebb discover they have rather more in common than history remembers. But one place remains empty. And perhaps it was never meant for them.

Florence Nightingale

Forget the gentle Lady with the Lamp. Florence Nightingale was a statistician, political operator and relentless reformer who used evidence to expose preventable deaths and force the British establishment to change.

Chung Ling Soo – The Magician Who Became His Own Illusion

For years, Chung Ling Soo couldn’t speak English. Then somebody shot him. Behind the robes, make-up and carefully constructed identity was William Robinson from New York, a magician who turned himself into perhaps his greatest illusion. But in 1918, at the Wood Green Empire, one tiny mechanical failure made something on his stage horribly real.

The Davenport Brothers – When Magic Met Spiritualism

Two brothers are tied inside a wooden cabinet. The doors close. Bells ring, instruments play and objects move – yet when the cabinet is opened, the brothers are still bound. Spirits, trickery or something in between? Meet the Davenport Brothers, the performers who set Victorian Britain arguing and inadvertently helped launch a new age of stage magic.

Adelaide Herrmann – The Queen of Magic

She caught bullets, conjured ghosts and commanded spectacular illusions on stages around the world. When her famous husband died, Adelaide Herrmann refused to disappear with him. Meet the London-born performer who stepped out of the magician’s shadow, demanded recognition on her own terms and became the Queen of Magic.

The Great Lafayette – The Magician Who Died Twice

In 1911, the Great Lafayette died in a catastrophic fire at Edinburgh’s Empire Palace Theatre. His body was recovered, identified and cremated. There was just one problem: three days later, they found Lafayette again. The extraordinary true story of a master illusionist, a mistaken corpse, a beloved dog named Beauty and one final macabre disappearing act.

The Golden Age of Magic – When Conjurors Became Superstars

In the late nineteenth century, London’s Golden Age of Magic emerged, transforming magicians into celebrated entertainers. Figures like Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and John Nevil Maskelyne utilized technology and theatrical techniques to captivate audiences. The rise of Spiritualism also inspired magicians, fostering a collision between entertainment and belief. Magic became a respected art form, paving the way for its future.

The Berners Street Hoax.

On 27 November 1810, an ordinary London house became the destination for an extraordinary procession of chimney sweeps, coal merchants, furniture, musicians, tradesmen, professionals, servants — and even the Lord Mayor. Someone had sent a barrage of convincing requests in the name of the unsuspecting woman at Number 54 Berners Street. More than two centuries later, we know the hoax happened. The question is: did Theodore Hook really do it?

The Boy Who Gave His Father Shakespeare

A forged signature was enough to delight his Shakespeare-obsessed father. So William Henry Ireland produced another document. Then another. Before long, he had created letters, poetry, relics – and an entirely “lost” Shakespeare play. What began as a son’s attempt to win his father’s approval became one of Britain’s most audacious literary hoaxes.