WebWitch is a British ex-pat living in America. An initiate of the Blue Star Wiccan Tradition and a co-founder of an Asatru Kindred, she's been hanging around with the Pagans and Druids and Shamans (oh, my!) for a very, very long time.

WebWitch is old enough to know better, but frequently doesn't.

Music:

Almost anything as long as it's good. WebWitch has conceived a great fondness for Ambient and Trance Dance music along with all the folk, punk, Vintage jazz, classical, rock and roll, 1920s to 1970s country and western, pop, and goth.

No, WebWitch is not a connoisseur, but she knows what she likes (don't you hate that?).

Books:

The more the merrier. History to sci-fi to religion to fantasy to comedy to gothic horror to ripping yarns to Victorian supernatural tales and "scientific romance" (the precursor to modern sci-fi) to religion to history to exposing the evil machinations of The Man (dude). Anne Rice's early work to William Blake to Terry Pratchett to H Rider Haggard to Neil Gaiman to Anne Perry to Jane Austen to Ursula K le Guin to Michael Moore to Elizabeth Peters... you get the picture. Happily, there are some fab collections of classic books, novels, and poetry available online, such as the Online Literature Library, the complete adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Literary Gothic Page, many of the works of HP Lovecraft, and the amazing Blackmask Online (which provides online texts not only of works of fiction, but many textbooks, too). The proprietrice of the exceedingly impressive Violet Books provides an an invaluable service to the collector of antiquarian supernatural literature, not only by selling it, but also by collecting and republishing these works and presenting online her many essays on the authors.

Radio:

WebWitch considers commercial radio to be the work of Forces Of Unutterable Evil, but is hooked on the BBC's Radio 4, BBC 7, and World Service. There is simply nothing like a good radio documentary or radio play or news programme. Really. Curl up on the sofa with a nice cup of tea, close your eyes, and listen. Bliss.

News:

Sadly, it is increasingly difficult to get a decent grip on world affairs via the US media. By good fortune, however, there are many good sources of news on the internet. WebWitch daily checks the BBC online news, the Independent, the Guardian, truthout.org (a collection of notable news in English), and the Christian Science Monitor. Mother Jones and openDemocracy can both be relied upon to provide journalism and opinions from across the political and cultural spectra, Foreign Policy magazine provides intelligent political analysis as well as an excellent list of links, and The Onion is always dead on target. Being a participant in the Information Age means checking sources, and so WebWitch checks every petition, appeal, outrage, and inspirational tale that arrives in her inbox against the information provided by the nice people at Snopes. Operation Truth is a website set up by US armed forces personnel who are serving or have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to tell about their experiences and concerns.

Films:

Anything with a good script and characters a person can be bothered with. 'Braveheart', for example, was not that kind of film. WebWitch doesn't ask for historical accuracy (she loved 'Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue' with the brilliant Richard Todd, for pity's sake!), just a script that doesn't sound clunkier than her car, and characters one could distinguish from the cardboard cutouts used to advertise the film - sadly, even Mel Gibson in a kilt couldn't save it.

'Pitch Black' on the other hand, has a marvellous script - for all its reliance on cliches - and characters you can end up really rooting for. Oh, and moral ambiguity is always good. As a poet friend of said of 'Pitch Black': "That is possibly the best script I have ever seen - not one word is out of place." The fact that Vin Diesel is in it, and that WebWitch's admirable and highly esteemed husband thinks that said Mr Diesel is incredibly cool, is only an added bonus.

WebWitch loves old British films, period dramas (and comedies), musicals, westerns, sci-fi, you name it... and considers Sir Ian McKellen to be be a God.

Food:

And lots of it! WebWitch and her much adored spouse are vegan, and love cooking and eating a wide variety of foods, from plain old spuds and veggies to Indian, Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, Italian, Greek, and Middle Eastern cuisines. If it's an edible, organically grown, non-animal product and isn't nailed down, it may get nibbled on.