From Lady Ghosts to Leading Voices: International Women’s Day Celebration

This is a bit of an unusual post as it’s not about a local haunting, but I really wanted to share this one with you all! I’ve been a fan of Weird in the Wade for a good while now, and it’s been great to get to know Nat over the last year – she’s been so enthusiastic and supportive about my project from the start! I was honoured when she invited me on to the show for this special International Women’s Day episode – and even more so to find myself part of a line-up of extraordinary women: Bethan Briggs-Miller, Deborah Hyde and Evelyn Hollow! (So cool!)

You can listen to the episode now on BBC Sounds, and I’ll also include the Spotify link at the end of this.

Nat invited us to reflect on how women are represented in paranormal media, to share insights from our own work, and to highlight figures from the field of parapsychology and folklore who deserve greater recognition. Between us, we came up with quite a list, but I talked about the wonderful Emma Holohan of Ghost Catcher Isles, and our brilliant local folklore expert here in Milton Keynes, Dr Terrie Howey-Moore.

I also spoke about what I’ve noticed from reading the stories people share through Into The Fog – how important it is that there are safe, non-judgemental spaces for unusual experiences to be voiced. We’ve seen that often, people aren’t declaring “this definitely happened”; they’re asking, does this seem strange to you too? and increasingly, people are talking together about things that have happened to them. That shift towards open, supportive dialogue is quietly changing the way haunting stories are shared, and how they’re understood.

Of course, we also talked about favourite ghostly women, and I shared the story of the White Lady said to haunt the medieval Guildhall in Leicester. She’s most often associated with the old library, where staff report the King James Bible being left closed at night and repeatedly found open in the morning at the same passage in Deuteronomy, the one condemning witchcraft and divination. I thought that was such a specific, unsettling detail – not just a drifting figure in white, but a presence that seems to have a message for the people who see her.

For someone who spends a lot of time thinking about how stories are shaped, shared and remembered, this felt like a very special conversation to be part of. Listening back, I was reminded just why these histories matter so much, and I’m so grateful to have been part of it 😀

If you enjoy listening to this, you can read Nat’s show notes with links to everything we talked about here, and do check out Nat’s Patreon for fascinating bonus content and the chance to support her work directly.

Thank-you so much to Nat for inviting me to be part of the show, and to you for reading!