These papers are the proceedings of the third international Exeter symposium, and promote an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of the medieval mystical tradition in England. This is an area of study which does not fruitfully lend itself to any single academic discipline in isolation; here, theologians, historians, literary crtitics, textual scholars, those engaged in the study of semiotics and those involved in the practice of psychiatric medicine exchange ideas and explore together the differing aspects which engage them in this field of study. CONTRIBUTORS: R. BRADLEY, R. ALLEN, R. COPELAND, M. MOYES, J. HOGG, F. WOHRER, A. BALDWIN, S. DICKMAN, D. WALLACE

In the second half of the nineteenth century, three women from very different social backgrounds were convicted of infanticide and sentenced to death at the Lincoln Assizes. Lucy Ann Buxton, from Metheringham Fen, was a petty criminal whose mother was an opium addict; Emma Wade, from Stamford, was the daughter of a respected policeman; whilst Selina Stanhope, from Langtoft, near Market Deeping, was admitted into the workhouse as a destitute pauper, after being rejected by her family. All three women were eventually reprieved from the hangman’s noose by order of the Home Secretary. Reprieved at Lincoln delves into the sombre stories of these women and the impact of their crimes on their respective communities. Drawing from a range of contemporary sources, the book also examines previously unpublished documents related to the three cases and sheds new light on judicial processes sometimes shrouded in secrecy and silence.

Jane Bell of Laceby, Elizabeth Dodds of Wrangle and Ellen Green of Fishtoft were three Lincolnshire women put on trial between 1845 and 1875 for killing their husbands with large quantities of arsenic, but were judged to be innocent of the crime. This latest book by Malcolm Moyes on nineteenth-century Lincolnshire poison trials is a comprehensive examination of the circumstantial evidence against the women, which was often constructed from unsavoury rumours, village gossip and downright lies. It is also a critical analysis of the varied key factors which probably led to the acquittal of the women, despite all the odds. Whilst all three women were saved from the hangman's noose, the final verdict of the jury may still leave the modern reader with some doubts and question marks concerning the innocence of the women, as it did with a number of contemporary commentators on the cases. Malcolm Moyes is the author of By Force of Circumstances: the Lefley Case Reopened and Attired in Deepest Mourning - Eliza Joyce, Mary Ann Milner and Priscilla Biggadike, both published by Troubador.