The Haunted and Cursed Dolls in Greyfriars Bothy, Dr Louise Fenton 

Artsfest / Artsfest 2020 / The Haunted and Cursed Dolls in Greyfriars Bothy, Dr Louise Fenton

Inside Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, famous for Greyfriars Bobby, is a bothy. The bothy is owned by City of the Dead Tours and on the outside of the building is a notice that ends with the words "Oh and did we mention about our haunted and cursed doll collection we also have inside here…?" Dr Louise Fenton introduces the collection of dolls that resides within a cabinet in Greyfriars Bothy and tells some of their stories, from dolls that are believed to harm people, are haunted and that set fires to the oldest dating back to the nineteenth century.

This is a fully illustrated talk for Halloween.

Dr Louise Fenton is a writer, illustrator and cultural historian. Following her first degree in Illustration from Wolverhampton Polytechnic Louise has completed an MA in Illustration from the University of Wolverhampton. It was at this time that her interests moved towards the representations of marginalised cultures. She completed a PhD on the Representations of Vodou at the University of Warwick in 2010. Louise is now a senior lecturer in Contextual Studies. Recent research has been focused on the visual and literary representations of otherness including Voodoo, Witchcraft and Zombies.

Her interests lie in representational and cultural discourses around Visual Communication and popular culture with a focus on the US and Caribbean.

Artsfest 2020

Beatrice Warde's VE Day Diary - A reading by Jessica Glaser / Liz Berry and Tom Hicks: In Conversation / In Conversation: Artist Dean Kelland and James Latunji-Cockbill Part 1 / Dr Max Stewart and Glass Artist Allister Malcolm in Conversation / Lisa Blower and Rob Francis in conversation / Louise Fenton - Lethal in Lace: The Story of a Witchcraft Poppet / Finding our Funny Roots: delving into Black Country humour / Books Across the Sea - Talk by Jessica Glaser / Dr Dean Kelland and James Latunji-Cockbill from IKON In conversation Pt2 / The Rise of Mass Fashion in the Black Country, Talk by Dr Jenny Gilbert / VJ Day Diary of Beatrice Warde - Reading By Jessica Glaser / Printing and Print Culture in the Midlands: a Webinar / Black Country Geopoetics, Talk and Workshop with Writer R.M. Francis / The Haunted and Cursed Dolls in Greyfriars Bothy, Dr Louise Fenton / Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles at Seventy, a talk by Dr Phil Nichols / Pen, Print and Communication in the Eighteenth Century: Webinar Book / We are Invisible, We are Visible / HoPIN Launch Event (History of the Printed Image Network) / 'Somehow', Poetry Reading and Talk with Helen Calcutt / Myriad Editions Literary Salon / Liz Berry Chats Dialect and Poetry with R. M. Francis