HELLISH NELL: THE LAST OF BRITAIN'S WITCHES

In Hellish Nell - Last of Britains's Witches the historian Malcolm Gaskill reveals the life story of Victoria Helen Duncan, a Scottish woman, born in 1867, who had supernatural abilities that eventually proved to be her downfall.The book is divided into three main parts. Part one, Helen Valorized, deals with Helen's childhood, depicting in a very detailed way the recognition and development of her second sight skills. Moreover, the first part gives insight to her position in society and illustrates her ambiguous reputation she enjoyed already in her early life: she was either treated with respect, anxiety or hatred. Gaskill goes on to describe Helen's days after her banishment from her family because of pregnancy in 1914, illustrating the events that led up to her first encounter with Henry Duncan, their marriage, their tormented relationship, which was mainly due to illnesses, and finally her development as a medium to its fullest potential.In part two, Helen Vilified, the author vividly depicts Helen's growth in reputation, gives insight to her private séances she started to hold in the early 1930s and profoundly illustrates her engagement with several research organization in London, which not only helped the Duncans to attain financial stability but also followed the aim in accusing Helen's performances as fraudulent and deceiving. Especially Harry Price, the founder of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research (NLPR), who did some research work with Helen and eyed her activity more sceptical as anybody else, is skilfully depicted by Gaskill as the main reason for Helen's final physical and mental breakdown. Apart from Helen's ups and downs as a living medium and detailed descriptions of various occurrences during her private as well as public sittings, part two also concentrates on the importance of the war for Helen's and other mediums' increasing status in society at that time. The main focus of this part of the book is however given to the events that led up to her final imprisonment in 1944 and the trial itself, which was held at the Old Bailey in London and ended with Helen's imprisonment for nine months.In part three, Helen Vindicated, the question of phenomena versus fraud is risen by the author and he tries to investigate this seemingly irresolvable problem by citing opinions of several scientists and other mediums. Gaskill also lists some prominent people who allegedly were spiritualists or even mediums themselves, such as Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe or Benjamin Franklin. At the end of part three he finally returns to Helen Duncan's fate, demonstrates a mixture of reactions that followed her imprisonment and in the end refers to her last few years as a medium after her release that were marked by a tremendous decline in the overal interest in Spiritualism.Hellish Nell is a highly recommendable book for one whose interest lies not only in the personality of Helen Duncan as such but is also interested in rather exhaustive information about the spirit of the age and background information on witch hunt Gaskill gives.However, there are sections of the book that are hard to follow since Gaskill tends to jump back and forth in his descriptions, mixing the illustration of Helen Duncan's life with historical details that in some occasion could easily be left out for the convenience of the reader. Consequently, the book might leave one in a state of utter confusion because the author seems to have failed to concentrate only on the essential facts, namely the fate of Hellish Nell. If some of the detailed information and explanations were left out the book would be easier to comprehend not only for a scholarly but also for a ordinary readership.

Hellish Nell - Last of Britain's witches by the historian Malcolm Gaskill is concerned with the story of Victoria Helen Duncan who was tried at London's Central Criminal Court under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 in 1944.This book contains several pictures, a prologue, three parts - each subdivided into three sec-tions - and an epilogue. It deals with Helen's early life, her career as a medium and the inci-dent that almost destroyed it.Helen McFarlane - with her nickname Hellish Nell for her tomboyish behaviour - was born in Scotland, to be more precise in a small Perthshire town called Callander. Helen was told by her mother that she would be burnt as a witch if she refused to be silent.Furthermore, Nell was banished from home because of her illegitimate child. Helen finally found work in Dundee and married Henry Duncan, who had been invalided out of the army. The Duncan family consisted of six children, and they had to live under bad conditions, until Helen developed her gift of passing messages from deceased people to their relatives - she became a successful spiritualist medium. Mrs. Duncan could contact the spirits of dead people and manifest them. Clothed in ectoplasm, luminous matter generated inside the medium's body, these spirits would be reunited with their friends and family before returning to the other side.Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned that Mrs. Duncan raised the attention of sceptics, as well. One day Helen had given a seance in the naval base of Portsmouth. The spirit of a dead sailor had materialised for his mother, upon his cap-band the name HMS Barham, a warship sta-tioned in the eastern Mediterranean. His mother contacted the naval authorities; they knew that HMS Barham had been sunk, but the government was hiding this fact from the public and would not state this for three months. It seemed to be nearly impossible for Mrs Duncan to know that the crew of the Barham was dead, so she appeared to have psychic powers. There-fore Helen Duncan was arrested - the police raided this seance. Towards the end of March Duncan was found guilty and prosecuted at London's Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, for conspiracy to break the Witchcraft Act of 1735. Helen had to spend nine months in Hol-loway Prison.After Duncan's sentence, she seemed to be rather exhausted, but she continued to hold se-ances. In December 1956 Helen Duncan fell ill and diet at the age of 59 at home in Edin-burgh.This book by Malcolm Gaskill is very detailed and depicts all the friends and enemies of spiritualism, for instance Harry Houdini is mentioned, moreover Helen's case came to the attention of Winston Churchill.Today it is said that Helen Duncan still makes contact in her work as a spirit-guide to another generation of mediums.

I picked up this 2001 biography of the Spiritualist medium Helen Duncan because it was referenced heavily in the 20thC chapters of Francis Young's recently published 'Magic in Merlin's Realm'. The subtitle, 'Last of Britain's Witches', is a deliberate misnomer, because Duncan was not a witch and certainly not the last of them (other, self-proclaimed witches, like Robert Cochrane - whom Gaskill chooses not to refer to - emerged later). Duncan's infamy derived from her being one of the last people to be convicted under the Witchcraft Act 1735, in 1944.'Hellish Nell' - Duncan's childhood nickname - is not only a biography, but also a history of Spiritualism and its relationship with the various psychic research groups (either supportive or hostile) and the law (invariably hostile) from the late 19thC to the 1950s. It's a sad story, because Duncan's life was a hard one, and because - although the narrative is largely unforgiving of fraudulent mediumship - she was made an example of in 1944 in a harsh and vindictive manner by not just the legal system, but also by the Admiralty and MI5 (supported by debunking groups like the Magic Circle and psychic investigators like Harry Price), who used a piece of arcane law because they knew there was insufficient evidence to convict her of fraud. The motivation for her arrest and conviction was not straightforward: certainly the protection of the public against unscrupulous grifters was one, as was a concern for both national morale and national security in the lead up to D-Day. It's hard to escape the conclusion, however, that she was made an example of and that the use of the Witchcraft Act was an unjust method used to repress this aspect of Spiritualist practice. Partly as a result of the outcry that followed Duncan's imprisonment, the post-war Labour Government repealed the Act in 1951, ironically just as Spiritualism itself began to decline in popularity.Gaskill's book is a fascinating biography and social, legal and political history.

As I already have an interest in the world of spiritualism (don't judge!!) I bought this book on a recommendation and I'm sorry I listened. It's extremely boring, so much so I've given up lass then half way through and started using it to raise my bedside lamp a bit higher. I am contemplating using it as a door wedge or even storing it incase of an apocalypse, in which case it could be used as fuel for a fire.I really feel that counting grains of rice would be more interesting and thought provoking.Note to Amazon, please could you change your ratings to include minus scores. I would have definitely given this -10 ⭐️

I found this book a little on the boring side,& not the easiest of reads.

not so much on Nell as other people

In lovely condition thankful