A History With Frey & McGray
I’ve always been a big reader, and at a young age my reading level was very high, and to find a book series I can get lost in is a rare thing, there was another book series I was mad about, but for reasons I won’t go into (mainly because I could rant about how much it annoyed and disappointed me for hours) was spoilt by a film adaptation. I’m a big believer of the visual media, be it film, or tv, stay as true to the source books as possible, and it’s a big worry of mine if the Frey & McGray series ever gets turned into a series, or film, would it get spoiled? Anyway, I digress, let me tell you how I became obsessed with the series.
Our story begins in 2015, I distinctly remember browsing the shelves in the book section of my local Sainsburys, now I'm not normally one to judge a book by it's cover, but I saw the cover of the first Frey & McGray book, 'The Strings Of Murder', and I fell in love. I usually read the blurb, and the first few pages to get a grasp of whether I'll like the book. I read the blurb, and I instantly wanted to know more, so I read the prologue, and again, I wanted to carry on reading, and so I bought it, and I haven't regretted it since. The series has fast become my favourite series, I did have another, but that was spoilt due to a film made of it, which in my eyes has rendered the sequels from the first book useless. The second Frey & McGray book was released a year later, 'A Fever Of The Blood', and reading the synopsis on Amazon, I saw that it was set at Pendle Hill, not far from where I live, and a place I have been countless times. As you may know Pendle is synonymous with the Lancashire Witches, one of which, Alice Nutter, I am (according to my father's cousin) related to by marriage some where along the line. Needless to say, I was ecstatic about it being set so close to home, and I was delighted to have something in common with Frey's maid, Joan, she came from my hometown. Not that there's much to be proud of in my town, but to know someone, even fictionally, who is such a strong character is from my town, was great. The third book was announced, 'A Mask Of Shadows', and when I saw the news on twitter, I said 'I screamed like a banshee', and the author, Oscar, tweeted back saying it was funny I mentioned that. The third book told the tale of prophecies from a banshee, during the time Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Bram Stoker were in Edinburgh with their rendition of Macbeth. Of course, I’ve also bought and then read books 4 & 5 multiple times.
For the first 3/4 books the fandom for the series was very small, and I wasn’t sure it even existed, and slowly I’ve started to notice more and more people loving the books, which is amazing, which is partly why I decided to start this blog. I have so many headcanons, and thoughts and theories on the books, and characters, which I can’t wait to share with you all! But for now, enjoy some photos I took when I visited Edinburgh for a separate reason, and had to, of course, squeeze in some Frey & McGray sightseeing!
