Lucy Allen-Goss

Yes, and they were shorter anyway (my parents still have a rural phone number that's a digit shorter than all automated forms expected it to be, and I remember both times it acquired new digits).

The ancient ones performed feats of memory, as their culture required them to commit long strings of numbers to their mind palaces.

I know - hence the 'now I've got your attention' bit. It's a bit of a running joke amongst medievalists that people think witch-burning was a medieval thing.

What the Witch and her Cow-Sucking Bag can tell us about Early Modern Misogyny Medieval witch stories, and a literary grandmother for the Wife of Bath

Did you know they burned witches in medieval times?

Right, now I've got your attention, here's some *actual* medieval witching - and it is entirely adorable, if slightly smutty.

lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/what-the-w...

What the Witch and her Cow-Sucking Bag can tell us about Early Modern Misogyny Medieval witch stories, and a literary grandmother for the Wife of Bath

The Witch and her Cow-Sucking Bag is, and always will be, the best ever medieval witch story. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/what-the-w...

This looks excellent.

Some of them are, though apparently it's not a good idea as there's an acid in them that really ought to be cooked. NB, I discovered this several years ago, *after* my toddler munched handfuls. She suffered no ill effects. :D

So satisfying!

*Want*

Dill, Sour Cream, and Memories The wind is getting up again now.

New post meandering around nostalgia, and food, and Eamon Duffy on memory and loss.
lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/dill-sour-...

Lovely! Thank you. :D

'Breaking Bread with the Dead': Marlowe, Greenblatt, and Living Latin ‘Breaking bread with the dead, sir, it’s what we do.’ The speaker in Alan Bennett’s History Boys (the 2006 film of the 2004 play) is 18-year-old Akhtar, en route to Oxbridge, entirely convinced of his...

Snarking at Greenblatt's Marlowe. But also, Cynthia Harnett doing (so I am assured) an extremely accurate, lovely depiction of a fifteenth-century boy enjoying writing in Latin. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/breaking-b...

Reading Diary, September 5th to September 13th, 2025 Graeme Macrae Burnet, His Bloody Project. This Booker-shortlisted novel purports to be a collection of papers concerning a (fictional) notorious murder case; in 1869, a seventeen-year-old crofter c…

New blog post: some recent reading reviewed, from Booker-shortlisted historical fiction to 70s SF to a forthcoming literary novella drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/r... #booksky

'Breaking Bread with the Dead': Marlowe, Greenblatt, and Living Latin ‘Breaking bread with the dead, sir, it’s what we do.’ The speaker in Alan Bennett’s History Boys (the 2006 film of the 2004 play) is 18-year-old Akhtar, en route to Oxbridge, entirely convinced of his...

This is a reflection on Greenblatt's Marlowe biography, and a medievalist's take on his presentation of grammar school Latin. I do think he misunderstands some of the joy that might underpin Marlowe's plays. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/breaking-b...

Ooh! I shall look forward to it. And how appropriate!

No idea! (What an inadequate medievalist am I?!). But I will go look; thank you!

How wonderful!

Ha! It does. And if you do, please let me know?

It should, shouldn't it?!

Ha! Don't all the best things include the humours? (Actually, I would *love* to see a medieval reference to how the humours affect us drunk and sober ...).

Thanks!

It is a bit late. But no harm! I'll have a browse.

I know, right?! :D I actually posted this question on behalf of a friend, and 10 minutes in I thought 'ah, this one is going to run and run'. Good times.

I'm really going for medieval, if possible. I think the Porter is drunk rather than hungover?

Ale-killed! Wonderful! Thank you so much.

But rather fun.

Thank you! And YY, I suspect so!

Do any lovely medievalists know of good medieval descriptions of hangovers? Thank you!

'A sullen or smoakie yellow … a Crimson Fooles Coat …': Spring Bulbs in a New Garden This morning I bought bulbs for a client’s garden.

Here are some gorgeous snippets from historical garden writers about bulbs, and flower colours, and general loveliness that might make Monday morning feel a bit better.

lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/a-sullen-o...

'A sullen or smoakie yellow … a Crimson Fooles Coat …': Spring Bulbs in a New Garden This morning I bought bulbs for a client’s garden.

If you are choosing spring bulbs, you might like this post of mine, where I am choosing them while leaning over John Parkinson's shoulder as he writes Paradisi in Sole in 1629. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/a-sullen-o...