Seeing grannies through new eyes

I was reviewing a gruesome account of witch-hunting in Britain, and stopped suddenly in mid-sentence. A gasp and a sudden break of concentration came not just from reading the terrible drama in the 1600s horror story, but from

between the lines. 

The account told of a really ghastly spot of political conspiring in the 16th century which had more than 300 grandmothers hanged on the highly doubtful claim that they were witches.

Shock, surprise

But there was more to shock or at least to surprise than just the horror of the executions.

It was discovering something new about adult love – love-making, at least.

I always assumed that the real reason that men and women got together had much more to do with procreation than mere pleasure, no matter how the cinema glamorises our keenness to fall in love with innocent beauty.

We poor males today, and seemingly back in the 16th Century, have been rather fixated – deluded, maybe – into believing that the only gals to get closer to are of breeding age.

Much too keen

What a shock to discover that I might have been much too keen on the wrong section of society. Older women should have been getting my attention.

Thinking back on my days in Fleet Street before I went to sea, not one Page 3 beauty, as well as I can recall, would have had a chance were she over about 19.

What a mistake. No wonder the demand for print newspapers is fading fast. Back in the mid-1600s, when men were men and some politicians witch-hunters, the devilish demand was for grannies. Continues on the blogs for my ocean-travel adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com