And then she being pressed to declare whether she had not byn dishonest
of her body & hath not also drawne other women to lewdnes by her
perswasions & by carrying her self lyke a bawde, she absolutly denied
that she was chargeable with eyther of these imputacions … [Mulholland,
R.E.S., new series xxviii (1977), 31]
Mary Frith, popularly known as ‘Mad Mall’, was remanded for further
investigation, but seems to have come to no great harm – certainly not
the public whipping usually reserved for ‘lewdnes’. She is last heard of
almost fifty years later – having reached an astonishing age for that
period – and apparently still going strong.
Michael Scott Rohan (1951 – )
Michael Scott Rohan, born in Edinburgh in 1951, writes both fantasy and
science fiction. Whilst studying law at Oxford, Rohan joined the SF
group and met the president, Allan J Scott, who started him writing for
the group’s semi-professional magazine SFinx alongside names such as
Robert Holdstock and Ian Watson. His first novel, Run to the Stars,
was published in 1983 and he collaborated with Allan J Scott on The
Hammer and the Cross, a non-fiction account of how Christianity arrived
in Viking lands. Rohan is best known for his acclaimed The Winter of
the World sequence, an epic fantasy set in and ice-bound world.