Infamous as the last woman tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, Helen Duncan caused more than a few stirs in her time. After terrifying her schoolmates her with dire predictions, Helen grew up to become one of wartime Britain’s foremost physical mediums. She soon became the target of a series of scientific investigations and caught the attention of MI5, which resulted in a court-case Winston Churchill himself described as ‘obsolete tomfoolery.’ So grab your cheesecloth and darken the lights as we delve into the scandalous life of Mrs Duncan!

Gaskill, Malcolm. Hellish Nell: last of Britain’s witches. Fourth Estate, 2001.https://www.amazon.com/Hellish-Nell-Last-Britains-witches/dp/1841151092

Featherstone, Simon. “Spiritualism as popular performance in the 1930s: The dark theatre of Helen Duncan.” New Theatre Quarterly 27.2 (2011): 141-152.

Mantel, Hillary. “Unhappy Medium.” The Guardian 4 May 2001. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/may/03/londonreviewofbooks