Grave Robbers in Nineteenth Century Edinburgh, and PJ Johnson’s novel, Isla Rising.

 This discussion with Poet and Novelist, PJ Johnson, explores ideas of life and death, and the mysterious place between the two, as imagined in her novel, Isla Rising.

In Nineteenth Century Edinburgh (Scotland) the festival of Samhain was celebrated as a liminal time between the death of summer and the birth of winter, when the threshold of the other world was felt to be nearest to this world -   at a time outside of ordinary time.

PJ Johnson's novel is set in Edinburgh, 1833, Samhain, when the spirits were thought to walk amongst the living. Around this period in history, too, the most desperate of the poor might be driven to overcome their fear of the spirit world and turn to grave-robbing. Their customers were medical men eager to study the human body in the hope of finding cures for its ills. The episode ends with the author reading an excerpt from her novel in a chapter that deals with just this subject. 

Isla Rising can be purchased from the following sites:

Lane Bookshop Claremont

Planet Books Information

Isla Rising Website