Blessin Adams, Thou Savage Woman

Former police officer and historian, Blessin Adams, will introduce us to her bold, page-turning new history of traitorous wives, greedy mistresses, cunning female poisoners and spiteful witches. Sharing the stories of women whose violent crimes shattered the narrow confines of their gender – and whose notoriety revealed a society that was at once repulsed by and attracted to murderous female rebellion.

Tuesday 17th June, 7.00pm

Venue:  Essex Record Office, Wharf Road, Chelmsford, CM2 6YT

Tickets: £12 / £10 concessions (Students, Under 27s and Unwaged)

Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Thou Savage Woman: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain by Blessin Adams

Traitorous Wives. Greedy Mistresses. Cunning Female Poisoners. Spiteful Witches.

Early Modern Britain was awash with pamphlets, ballads, woodcuts broad-casting bloodthirsty tales of traitorous wives, greedy mistresses, cunning female poisoning lacing the supper with deadly substances; of child killers and spiteful witches, stories of women wholly and unnaturally wicked. These were printed or sung, tacked the walls of alehouses, sold in the streets for pennies and read voraciously to thrill all. But why? When the vast majority of murders then (and now) are committed by men.

In this bold, page-turning new history, former police officer and historian Blessin Adams tells stories of women whose violent crimes shattered the narrow confines of their gender – and whose notoriety revealed a society that was at once repulsed by and attracted to murderous female rebellion.

Based on detailed research in court archives, each chapter explores murders that thrilled and terrified the British public; the crimes that caused the most concern and provoked the most debate. Women in this period killed rarely, and when they did it was usually within the context of extreme provocation or domestic violence.

Thou Savage Woman reminds us that women in the past had voices, that they sought to control their bodies and their environments and that they also had the capacity for committing acts of unspeakable violence.

Order a copy of Thou Savage Woman by Blessin Adams from the Essex Book Festival online bookshop at bookshop.org

Blessin Adams

Photo of Blessin Adams credit Lee Dixon

Blessin Adams traded police work investigating today’s crime in the Norfolk Constabulary for academia, tracing the lives and deaths of people in Early Modern England. Blessin received her doctorate following research in early modern English law and literature at the University of East Anglia. As a fan of true crime, she is fascinated by historical stories of murder and justice. Her first book Great and Horrible News published in 2023. She lives in Norfolk with her husband and two dogs and is a beekeeper in her spare time.