Halloween London 2017 - My Halloween story in images

My Halloween Story in images

My first port of call today is the 'witchy' bookshop today in Bloomsbury because it is halloween.

I asked the lady with the mane of black hair, devil horns peeking out, if she stocks wild lettuce for which I am in search as an alternative to the analgesic prescribed today by my doctor, formerly prescribed as an anti-depressant but now used for pain relief.
The bookseller said she does not sell herbs except for white sage indicating a few tethered bundles in a glass case. I thought perhaps she had a herb department in the basement just the books, except the white sage.
'What would I do with it?' I asked.
She replied, 'Waft it around . It is for purification.' I desisted, but left the shop with a flyer headed 'Heathen Ethics and Values' . After all, it is Halloween.

Dressing up for Halloween with Sacha and Rosabel -

Ghoul spotting on the way to a Halloween party at Kings Cross -

Crossing Bloomsbury Square -
who am I?
a devil-nun on the run from an Abbey, a sinister reworking of of Julie Andrews as Maria?
or the ghost of the Grey Lady?

At the Halloween Party at Granary Square, London -

Back at home -

Here is the story of The Grey Lady - buried alive in the Theatre of York.

During the middle ages, there lived a nun, part of a very strict order of nuns who ran the former Hospital of St Leonard. The fabric of the Georgian York Theatre Royal incorporates parts of the old hospital.

The story starts when the nun fell in love with a young nobleman, her feelings apparently requited. Unfortunately the lovers were discovered, some versions of this story say that they were found by monks and suggest that the monks were stirred with envy: the punishment for breaking her vow of chastity, to be thrown into a windowless room, immediately bricked up to form the girl's living tomb where soon she perished!

A room behind the dress circle at The Theatre Royal, St Leonard's Place, is said to be the setting of these most macabre events, that room imbued, to this day, with a cold and eerie feeling. The nun herself appears in grey on occasion. She is always peaceful and friendly and apparently heralds great success for the theatre's current production.
During my girlhood in the city of York, I heard this story many times, the first retelling delivered by a dashing student I fondly recast as the young nobleman, and I wonder this story (and character), has embedded itself into my psyche and if, through dressing up as the grey-lady, I have finally exorcised her from my life. Or maybe not.