Jennifer Westwood (1940–2008)

Jennifer Westwood, née Fulcher, was born in Norton Subcourse, a small village on the edge of the Norfolk marshes. Her father was a bricklayer and her mother a schoolteacher. She was educated at a primary school and Sir John Leman Grammar School, both in Beccles, Suffolk, eight miles from home. She won a scholarship to Oxford University, where she studied Old and Middle English and Anglo-Saxon.

She married Trevor Westwood, a fellow student, and went to Cambridge University to study Old Norse. She travelled to Iceland and Scandinavia to conduct research for her doctoral degree. In 1968, she and her first husband divorced, and she remarried to Brian Chandler, a management consultant, with whom she had a son.

In 1968, she published her first book, Mediaeval Tales, aimed at children, based on the stories she had researched while at Cambridge. Jennifer went on to write many more books for children and adults. She was a meticulous researcher and also produced a large number of scholarly publications. Other books included
Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain and three in the Gothic Guide series of county guidebooks, Gothick Hertfordshire, Gothick Norfolk, and Gothick Cornwall. In May 1996, Jennifer attended the pilgrimage at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, an ancient town in France; six months later she returned for the October pilgrimage, having written in the interim the book Sacred Journeys: An Illustrated Guide to Pilgrimages Around the World. An active and long-time member of The Folklore Society, Jennifer served as its publications officer, co-editor of the journal Folklore; and editor of FLS Books. In 2008, she was awarded the Coote Lake Medal from the FLS in recognition of her outstanding research and scholarship. She worked on radio programs such as " Landlines" for BBC Radio 4 and Radio Norfolk.