Tales from the back of the Apothecary’s Cabinet

A look into the dark recesses of The Very Curious Herbal!

Many herbal stories shed light on benevolent remedies, but what lurks at the back of the Apothecary’s cabinet?

Join herbal storyteller Amanda Edmiston (Botanica fabula) as we travel back in time and dust off the dark green bottles in this piece, inspired by the work done towards the end of the Scottish witch trials by the first woman to publish a herbal: Elizabeth Blackwell.

It leads participants through a tangled world of fairy tales, folklore, magic, social history and herbal remedies using storytelling techniques to explore tastes, look at traditional remedies and share stories… do you dare join us?

Speaker Bio:

Amanda Edmiston ‘A dyed in the wool storyteller’, former student of herbal medicine: Amanda Edmiston (Botanica Fabula), comes from a long line of storytellers, plant people, writers and artists. 

Over the past twelve years her herbal storytelling has taken her on an incredible journey, she has woven words for Chelsea Physic Garden in London, taken Scottish folklore and regional plant use and legends to the National Museum of Rural Life and the Ashmolean museum in Oxford, created new fairy tales to share the experiences of staff and patients at a The Crichton, a former mental hospital and shared historical secrets concealed within stories at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow. She has also collected stories and memories of plant use from across rural Scotland with her Kist in Thyme projects.

Amanda’s first book “A Time Traveller’s Herbal” is being published by David and Charles in time for Hallowe’en 2023

For more about Amanda and her work see her website: www.botanicafabula.co.uk

Or follow her stories on social media Facebook Twitter and Instagram

Curated and Hosted by

Dr. Amy Hale is an Atlanta-based anthropologist and folklorist writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall in various combinations. Her biography of Ithell Colquhoun, Genius of the Fern Loved Gully, is available from Strange Attractor Press, and she is also the editor of the forthcoming collection Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses from Palgrave Macmillan. Other writings can be found at her Medium site https://medium.com/@amyhale93 and her website http://www.amyhale.me.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day