Leo Ruickbie is Elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society At a meeting on 26 November 2021, the Council of the Royal Historical Society elected 95 Fellows, myself among them. Founded 1868, the RHS is a British learned society promoting historical research based at University College London. It is a great honour to join…
Tag: history
The Witchcraft Trial of Jean Grenier
I Was A Real Teenage Werewolf: The Seventeenth Century Witchcraft Trial of Jean Grenier In 1603, the French teenager Jean Grenier was tried for assault, murder, cannibalism and witchcraft by the Parlement of Bordeaux. Despite the loss of the trial records, the case is known through the writing of Pierre de Lancre (1553?–1631), but was…
15th Anniversary of Witchcraft Out of the Shadows
It’s amazing to think that my first book was published fifteen years ago this year. A lot has happened since then, I got my PhD, published five more books and fifty-eight articles and chapters (as well as a ton of online posts), launched six websites and became the editor of the Paranormal Review. But Witchcraft…
Angels in the Trenches Reviewed by Jayne Harris
The subject matter instantly grabbed my attention, as someone who has long held a fascination with spiritualism and the supernatural, especially from an anthropological point of view. I’ve always been in two minds about the rise of spiritualism during both world wars, questioning the motives of many mediums of that time. Brilliantly captured the wave…
Angels in the Trenches Out Now!
New Book Explores Spiritualism, Superstition and the Supernatural During the First World War The mechanised slaughter of the First World War brought a sudden and concentrated interest in life after death, living in spite of death and trying to predict, or even influence, when the merciless killing would end. People asked, can one communicate with…
Angels in the Trenches
Spiritualism, Superstition and the Supernatural during the First World War
Fabulous Beasts Reach Estonia
The Impossible Zoo in Estonian Yesterday, a box arrived full of books, strange yet familiar. The title read Voimatu Loomaaed: Fantastiliste Loomade ja Mütoloogiliste Olendite Entsüklopeedia. And there was my name as the author. It was, of course, The Impossible Zoo translated into Estonian and published this year by Tänapäev. It’s a lovely hardback edition,…
Little Horrors
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Anomalous Children and the Construction of Monstrosity, edited by Simon Bacon and Leo Ruickbie
Faustus
The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician
The Supernatural
Explore the Myths and (Possible) Realities of the Paranormal
Witchcraft Out of the Shadows
A Complete History
Black Magic Code
“It began with a letter to a dead man…” My article ‘The Black Magic Code’ on Trithemius, cryptography and nigromancy published in Abraxas Journal. For more details see http://fulgur.co.uk/shop/abraxas/abraxas-journal-issue-6/
Nothing was spoken of but vampires
Just found this review at http://pelicanist.blogspot.de/2013/08/the-universal-vampire.html: Another observation that caught my eye was that the start of popularising the vampire was, ironically enough, the Enlightenment. Leo Ruickbie gathers together what was, at that time, impressive testimony as to the actual existence of such creatures, from medical, legal and military sources. By way of a slight…
Friday the 13th
You’ll want to stay at home tomorrow after you read this (maybe): http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/428727/Why-are-we-so-scared-of-Friday-the-13th by yours truly (of course).
Spiritualism Anthology Details Released
Just arrived in my inbox are the full(er) details of the forthcoming anthology on spiritualism: the anthology is to be published as: Christopher M. Moreman (Ed.), The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking withthe Dead in American and around the World (ABC-CLIO, 2013). It isscheduled for release in the summer. Sub-titles (and authors for each) are:Vol. 1: American…
Vampire Autopsies
The True Story of the Eighteenth Century Vampire Epidemic What happens when you cut open a vampire? Read Dr Leo Ruickbie’s analysis of the eighteenth-century vampire epidemic and the medical experts who examined the undead corpses in the Fortean Times, issue 288 (Special, 2012). Visit: Fortean Times For back issues of Fortean Times call +44…
Witchcraft Out of the Shadows 2nd Edition
A second edition of Witchcraft Out of the Shadows is now in the works. First published in hardback in 2004, the last copies of the first edition of Witchcraft Out of the Shadows left the warehouse some months ago. There are now only four copies being sold through Amazon.co.uk. There are more Stateside with ten…
History of the Devil
New two-part history of the Devil to be published in Paranormal magazine. In the first of a two-part feature Leo Ruickbie reveals the history of the force of evil known in the Western tradition as variously Satan, Lucifer, the Enemy, the Adversary, and most commonly the Devil. In part one Leo reveals the Devil’s origins…