Happy New Year

I've been meaning to get onto this blog for a couple of days but haven't quite managed it. I've been up to my eyes with the two new books.

However I did want to wish you all a Happy New Year and I hope that for you all 2012 will be a good one.

What prompted me to write this is an e-mail I received through Career Publicity from a Sandie Williams taking me to task about part of what I had written about the Cornish pellar Tamsin Blight. She claims that the Blights arte ancestors of hers, and I have no reason to doubt her, and that she had obviously done a fair amount of geneogical research into her ancestry and I had "got it wrong". I have tried to get in contact with her to explain a few things but curiously I am told that the e-mail address she has quoted does not exist so I thought I'd use this function to reply. Please bear with me for a moment whilst I answer her.

Firstly Sandie you send the communication to Career Press which was the wrong publisher. They are not the publishers of Mysterious Celtic Mythology and indeed have nothing to do with it. Had you checked the publisher you would have found it was Pelican Press in Louisiana.

That aside, I did not have the ancestral archives that you - having taken a person al interest in the family - would have at your disposal so I am therefore grateful for any information which you might be able to furnish, although I feel you did not have to be so abusive.

My source on Tamsin Blight was William Bottrell who as you may know is regarded as one of the foremost Cornish folklorists and whose work is widely quoted in many Universities and colleges. He wrote several pamphlets on her. However, as you point out that his work is supect, I will only use it again with qualifications. Thank you for this information.

Also puzzling is the reference which you say I make to Aleister Crowley as a woman - I have looked through the relevant section mentioned quote and can find no reference to that. Perhaps you have a different edition of the book and if so perhaps you could furnish me with the details so that I can get in contact with the publisher regarding it.

I don't know whether Sandie reads my blog - she would have found it much easier to contact me through this than by bothering publishers who have nothing to do with the book in question but I will be pleased to answer any questions that she has.

Right, apologies for all that but as I said, I could find no other way of contacting her.

In the meantime A Haunted Mind - which is published by Career/New Page - goes apace. Both Christmas and New Year were quiet. I only went and saw Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows which was something of an effort for me. As you all may know I'm a great Sherlock Holmes fan and struggle with anything that's outside the framework of the original books. But it wasn't bad. And I went and saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol which was the latest Tom Cruise vehicle - all absolute nonsense but good fun. Too much Cruise though - it's over 20 minutes too long and I gather he wanted that to keep in onscreen. But go and see them both. And peace and prosperity in 2012 to you all - Sandie Williams included!