95 ratings | 12 reviews | avg rating:4.28

Annelisa Christensen’s Followers (60)

Annelisa’s Bookshelves

to-read (66)
currently-reading (8)
read (104)
did-not-finish (0)
emotive (1)
good-humour (1)
good-opening-chapter (1)
moving (1)
ocd-memoir (1)
poems-and-rhymes (5)
See all bookshelves »

Annelisa’s Friends (643)

T.F. Lince

15 books | 1,493 friends

Jamaluddin Jamali

406 books | 461 friends

Chris Cloake

330 books | 976 friends

Gaynor Torrance

242 books | 748 friends

Kevin Ansbro

409 books | 1,223 friends

James Gabagat

7 books | 499 friends

Assaph Mehr

779 books | 2,322 friends

K.T. Rose

538 books | 3,586 friends

More friends…

Annelisa Christensen

Goodreads Author

Born

The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.scriptalchemy.com

Twitter

alpha_annelisa

Genre

Historical Fiction

Member Since

November 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/annelisa_christensen

edit data

Born to a Danish mother and French father (who I discovered to be French, English and Scottish when I did our family tree), I've always considered myself European, though my heart remains in England. Every time I fly back from a holiday, my breath catches when I see the miles and miles of patchwork quilt of green fields and forests. It isn't until we land, I remember the green comes from so much rain. Still, I love it.

I first remember sitting as an eight-year-old writer at our dining room table on a rainy Sunday. My dad's old reel-to-reel tapes played crackly post war songs and classical music, the perfect background to my writing mood. I had recently read Heidi, and was obsessed with goats - drawing them, writing about them and giggled as Born to a Danish mother and French father (who I discovered to be French, English and Scottish when I did our family tree), I've always considered myself European, though my heart remains in England. Every time I fly back from a holiday, my breath catches when I see the miles and miles of patchwork quilt of green fields and forests. It isn't until we land, I remember the green comes from so much rain. Still, I love it.

I first remember sitting as an eight-year-old writer at our dining room table on a rainy Sunday. My dad's old reel-to-reel tapes played crackly post war songs and classical music, the perfect background to my writing mood. I had recently read Heidi, and was obsessed with goats - drawing them, writing about them and giggled as I had Clarabelle, a mischievous, escaped goat butt a middle aged woman pegging out the washing through a sheet.

Since then, I've written hundreds of stories, or parts of stories, never finished them until I did the NaNoWriMo thing. A month of writing every day, of putting aside everything else to finish a book. I knew exactly what story I wanted to tell. It was based on a recurring dream I'd had over the years and needed to get out of my head. It was the first of my magical realism series The University of Lights . Since then, I wrote, or part-wrote, another six novels in the series, holding onto them, because I want the backstory to be the same in all of them. They are as yet unpublished. Writing that first one, though, was an eye-opener: Not only could I finish a book, but I remembered how I loved writing and wanted to do more of it.

So, then, a few years ago, I was indulging a passion of mine - old books. I became caught with the idea of buying a piece of a 300 year old book of trial transcripts I had spotted on Ebay. I couldn't afford the whole of one. If I had known how much it would change my life, I would have paid so much more. But, at that time, I only wanted to hold pages of such an old book. I won the auction.

The pages arrived in special acid-free cellophane, inside a card-backed envelope, which I opened as fast as I could, and with as much respect for its frailty as it deserved. With awe, I pulled it from the cellophane and tentatively held the edges. The pages had survived over 330 years. I dreaded I would be the one to tear or destroy them. I read the first page. It was the trial of Elizabeth Cellier, a seventeenth century Catholic midwife - charged with libel by king and country - who was denying having written and published the book.

It wasn't long before, still mindful of the delicate nature of the paper, I was turning pages one after the other, dying to know what would happen next. I was hooked. This woman was amazing. I loved how she spoke out against the court, and refused to be bushwhacked into admitting she wrote the book, determined to prove her innocence. She was bold, seemingly fearless. And she seemed to be ably defending herself against the charges, perhaps with knowledge of the law.

Once I was caught in Cellier's world, I found she was the subject of other research, but in three different fields of interest: as having involved herself in the Popish Plot of 1678-81, as the author of a book/pamphlets and as a midwife and the proposer of the first midwife college in Britain. My book, The Popish Midwife is the culmination of years of research and writing. It is an exciting story. I had to write it.

While researching The Popish Midwife, I discovered a group of women of the seventeenth century, who seemed to have stood out as forerunners of modern women. They had strength and wisdom that beg me to write about them too. So, I continue to write the se ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Annelisa Christensen questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Annelisa Christensen’s books

Average rating: 3.64 · 588 ratings · 92 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Popish Midwife: A novel based on the incredible true story of Elizabeth Cellier 3.58 avg rating — 416 ratings — published 2016 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ghost Midwife (Seventeenth Century Midwives #2) 3.70 avg rating — 82 ratings — published 2018 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Midnight Midwife: A novel of 17th century family life 3.96 avg rating — 68 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Seventeenth Century Midwives Box Set 1: Books 1-3: The Popish Midwife, The Ghost Midwife, The Midnight Midwife 3.56 avg rating — 18 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Navigator: Some poems I wrote driving nowhere 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eve: Some poems I wrote after a break-up it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pink River: Some poems I wrote when my friend was dying it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Midnight Midwife: A novel about a mother and her children (Large Print) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Annelisa Christensen…

5 posts
Annelisa Christensen's Blog

Return of the Rhyme

What on Earth can my two books, The Popish Midwife
image: The Popish Midwife

and my latest book A-Z Monsters (not) For Bed
image: A-Z Monsters (not) For Bed

have in common? Looking at the two covers and the content, I would quite understandably expect your reaction to be, 'Absolutely nothing!' and, presented with these two books, I'd probably give exactly the same reaction. In fact, two more different-seeming books there could not possibly be! One, Read more of this blog post »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on August 26, 2017 08:16 • Tags: a-message-from-tory-land, a-z-monsters-not-for-bed, broadsheets, coffee-houses, humor, rhyme, rhyming, satire, satire-upon-the-jesuits, story-rhymes, taverns, the-popish-midwife, verse

View all 5 posts »

Annelisa is Currently Reading

Annelisa Christensen is currently reading

The Midnight Midwife: A novel of 17th century family life (Seventeenth Century Midwives)

by Annelisa Christensen (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Apr 11, 2019 04:12PM

Annelisa Christensen is currently reading

GYPSIES: I married a Romany! Honest, raw and extremely funny!

by Nell R. Loveridge

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jul 28, 2019 01:03PM

Annelisa Christensen is currently reading

Writing tips from Authors (Writers and Authors)

by Patti Roberts (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

May 10, 2019 02:15AM

Quotes by Annelisa Christensen (?)

“The poor are simply punished for having no means to line the pocket of the gaoler.”
― Annelisa Christensen, The Popish Midwife: A novel based on the incredible true story of Elizabeth Cellier

0 likes

“I have found that a woman who wishes a man to hear what she says can best do so by first telling him his feathers are as fine as a peacock’s, his craftiness could outwit a fox, and his wisdom surpasses that of an owl.”
― Annelisa Christensen, The Popish Midwife: A novel based on the incredible true story of Elizabeth Cellier

0 likes

“without truth, every lie would become real and would then become the new truth we must live by, and that would not be a world we would wish to live in.”
― Annelisa Christensen, The Popish Midwife: A novel based on the incredible true story of Elizabeth Cellier

0 likes

See all Annelisa Christensen's quotes »

Annelisa’s Quotes

“I was an unwilling passenger leaving the Big Country. I would miss the mountains and the waterfalls,the treks on broad horses' backs to hidden villages in secret valleys.”
― Suzy Davies, Johari's Window

tags: literary-fiction, memoir, romance

7 likes

“You need one book for all the lives you could have dreamed of, and lived, but never had”
― Suzy Davies

tags: books-reading, life

8 likes

“If a lion invites you to dinner, turn down the offer, no matter how hungry you are.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

tags: lion-quotes, wisdom-quotations, wisdom-quotes, wise-quotations, wise-quotes, wise-sayings-quotes, wise-words-quotes

6 likes

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
― Angela Schwindt

tags: children, family, life

341 likes

Annelisa’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-2) post a comment »

date

newest »

message 2: by Annelisa

Mar 25, 2017 12:35AM

Veronica wrote: "Thanks for being my friend. I see you like Pratchett and Asimov too. You might try Ian Gibson's Stuff of Legends, which is hilarious.
---Veronica Dale, [book:Night Cruiser: Short S..."

Hi Veronica
And so, so sorry it's taken me so long to see your message here - I really didn't know this page existed. I'm going to check out 'Stuff of Legends' just now :-) Thank you

reply | flag

message 1: by Veronica

Apr 03, 2016 01:13PM

Thanks for being my friend. I see you like Pratchett and Asimov too. You might try Ian Gibson's Stuff of Legends, which is hilarious.
---Veronica Dale, Night Cruiser: Short Stories about Creepy, Amusing or Spiritual Encounters with the Shadow, and Blood Seed

reply | flag