Event Type: Local / Community

Takes Place: 13th May 2026

Time: 18:30

Venue: Bristol Central Library

Description: Here lies Fanny Lynes, whose whispers from beyond the grave spark a London scandal. Here swings Mary Bateman – seamstress, prophetess, murderer. Here stands Mary Willcocks. Or is it Anne Burgess? Or perhaps Princess Caraboo from the distant island of Javasu? A ghost. A witch. A princess. Three transgressive women, fighting for their lives in the shadows of the Enlightenment. Questioning culpability and complicity, Madeleine Pelling's engrossing history of this great age of the hoax reveals a veiled world of moral panic, tall tales and true crime, and holds a mirror to our own turbulent relationship with the truth. About the Author Dr Madeleine Pelling is a cultural historian and broadcaster. Her debut, Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Profile, 2024), was named a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, BBC History, and History Today. Her second, Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment (Profile, 2026), explores the eighteenth century’s obsession with fraud and performative truth.

How to book: https://bristol.events.mylibrary.digital/event?id=334218

Price: £5

Email: refandinfo@bristol.gov.uk

Lecturer: Dr Madeleine Pelling

Region: South-West England