{"id":166,"date":"2017-02-13T08:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T08:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hebulstrode.co.uk\/?p=166"},"modified":"2017-04-04T11:00:16","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T10:00:16","slug":"the-cleft-owl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hebulstrode.co.uk\/?p=166","title":{"rendered":"New Publication: The Cleft Owl"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A cunning man, a sick man and a dead man, united by charm and rite. Seventeenth-century Devon was never stranger.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The Cleft Owl\u2019<\/a> \u2013 a tender discomfort and a gory crown.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We find ourselves in Widecombe, Dartmoor, in the late autumn of 1683. Dr Robert Tooley \u2013 wise man, conjuror and confidence trickster \u2013 takes in hand the fortunes of a vulnerable family, as the harshest winter of the century is about to take the parish in its grip. Through his bizarre rites, paid for with their money, he has promised to deliver them from the reach of their tormenter, but the man in question happens to be dead. The gullible villagers, however, entrust their faith to his occult practices, at least for a time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Based upon a little-known and strange case, a number of the characters here portrayed \u2013 Tooley, the Reverend Tickle and the Worshipful Sir William Bastard \u2013 all lived and played a role in the life of this late seventeenth-century community, although it should be noted that the words written here are a loose work of fiction.<\/span><\/span><\/span> Inspired by an incident related in Keith Thomas\u2019s \u2018Religion and the Decline of Magic.\u2019 To read a sample, or to purchase for 99p, click the image above.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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