A Visit From Viscountess Boudicca
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Viscountess Boudicca
Ten years ago today, on August 3rd 2016, Viscountess Boudicca was decanted from her council flat in Bethnal Green to Uttoxeter. Last week, she paid a rare visit to London, her first in seven years, en route to visit her mother in Braintree. We met at the Bishopsgate Institute and it provided the opportunity for Viscountess to give me an account of her Uttoxeter years. Regrettably, she has encountered a similar level of grief there on account of her difference – harassment from neighbours exacerbated by lack of sympathy or any support from the authorities – just as in Bethnal Green. Yet throughout it all she retains an heroic level of moral courage and resilience, thanks in no small part to her colourful private life involving Guy Fawkes, Henry VIII and Erik Hosebonde.
“The trouble with Uttoxeter is that I gave notice to quit a month after I arrived, September 2016, and the woman from the council said, ‘I knew that we made a terrible mistake. We had another of ‘your kind’ and we had problems with them.’ So I said, ‘Why the hell did you force me up here?’ but then she said, ‘Tower Hamlets won’t reverse the decision.’
The problem was that all my neighbours, they came round about seven o’clock one night with a petition. They said, ‘We want you to go.’ The reason that they gave was that ‘You’re a raving pouf! We don’t like your type. You’ve come into our town and taken our place’. They were bigoted country bumpkins. So I said, ‘You can send me back to London if you’ll pay for it. I’m not going to be intimidated by you.’ Then I got all the hate notes and, if I go into a shop, they make sure I am the last to be served.
One bloke who lived opposite didn’t have any money, he was waiting for Universal Credit. He said, ‘I’m starving, my friends won’t help me.’ I said, ‘I thought you country people stick together.’ But they said, ‘Why should we help him?’ So I thought, goodness, everything about this place gets on my wick.
I cooked him dinner for a month until one day as he arrived, when they was all outside, I asked him, ‘How’s it going?’ and he said, ‘Mind your own business, you pouf or I’ll kill you.’ Then they all laughed, they thought it was highly funny. So I said, ‘I didn’t see you lot helping him.’ This is how it’s been going on. It has never been a home and it never can be because of what they do.
But I have my ghosts who come and see me. As you know, when we went to the Tower of London in 2016, I met Guy Fawkes and he said, ‘I’ve missed you, where have you been?’ Previously in the January of 2014, I had visited Hampton Court. I felt I needed to go there because Henry VIII’s face appeared to me in the bathroom mirror. He normally appears as a skeleton with a hood wrapped round him but I saw him in the flesh. After that he visited regularly and made me sign paperwork to confirm that our vows had been renewed.
Henry is the kind of person who will do something and think later, it’s hit first and regret it after, but we get on extremely well. He has his moods and starts like everyone else, and when the neighbours are playing up he has made himself known. When I had my Tarot cards read, I discovered that I was Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour. I gave birth to Edward VI but our happiness was short-lived because I died sixteen days afterwards. He thinks of me now like an old pair of slippers, comfortable.
Two days after I arrived in Uttoxeter, he appeared. Guy Fawkes was the resident ghost and he was already there, but Henry decided he would come too. The problem was that including my three husbands, Henry, Guy and Erik (My first husband), I have eight in total. At first, they hated the sight of each other but I spend time with them all and when I die they will come with me. It’s like I am a passport to another world. Henry is stuck between the two worlds at the moment because the women whose heads he chopped off put a curse on him.
In the year 873, I married Erik Hosebonde in a pagan wedding in February. I grew up with him in Sweden. After we married, we used to come to England on raids to Norfolk. We did reconnaissance in 874. The longship would drop us off and we would spend a week surveying the area and making sure there were no rocks along the coastline. They would come at night to raid the Anglo-Saxon stronghold, looting and burning so the souls of those they killed would not return. My first life ended on the 6th May 878.
Since I left London, I have learnt to mistrust people because of their behaviour but, because I have my ghosts, I feel that I am on the outside of life and occasionally I have these out of the body experiences. I lie on the floor and I see my body drift away and it usually goes off to Hampton Court with Henry. The neighbours in Uttoxeter are either throwing stones or telling me to go and die. There’s so much hatred towards me. If it wasn’t for the ghosts I would have ended it. They give me strength. Henry, Guy and Erik are all hot-headed, and they’ll say, ‘Stick two fingers up to them.’
I have had so many horrendous times but I treat people as I would like to be treated because I believe that if I treat people fairly, and not prejudge them, then they might do the same to me.”
Viscountess Boudicca with Henry VIII and Edward VI at Hampton Court
Viscountess Boudicca and Henry VIII at the supermarket
Henry VIII and Viscountess Boudicca at the television studio recording Henry’s Christmas message
Erik Hosebonde and Viscountess Boudicca in the ninth century
Erik Hosebonde and Viscountess Boudicca arrive by longship in Norfolk by night with Erik’s twin brother in the background
Follow Viscountess Boudicca on Instagram @fawkesboudicca
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Well, that sounds just awful. People can be So Unkind. I always enjoy reading about the Viscountess and her unorthodox life choices. Never boring, that’s for certain. All the best V B.
I saddened by the low , blind and ignorant treatment of Viscountess Boudicca in Utteoxeter. I have not lived in the UK for over twenty years , but recounting the pathetic way VB has been treated confirms one of the reasons I left: the persistence of hate beneath the leafy green surface. VB is welcome at my home in Istanbul anytime.
Thanks to you great gental author fore our meeting last Monday and putting our story on spitalfields life. Fore us there has been many tears and rows and ive hated every minute of thee Uttoxeter years we left London with very heavy hearts it was our life and our home but sadly life took it away from us in 2016 hi to everyone in London
I find any prejudice very sad and I notice now the authorities and many people have developed not only hatred but a code of silence,
it comes also with a cut off letter if probed ,
anyone else know what I mean?
I AM SORRY YOU HAVE SUFFERED SO VISCOUNTESS
I am so glad to hear of the Viscountess. I am sorry the world has not seen her for the glorious person she is, but glad she is still with the world and glad that the ghosts are with her. I continue to follow her on IG, and am grateful to you for reporting this.
I am deeply saddened by hearing of this unfathomable cruelty. I so enjoyed reading about Viscountess Boudicca in Spitalfields Life and really appreciated her unique sense of style and colour, her artwork and her enthusiastic seasonal celebrations. I know I am not alone in enjoying her contribution to the world. Her otherworldly historic connections are fascinating. I wish we could spirit her back to a real home environment where her uniqueness is valued and she has the chance to find true friends and kindred spirits. Stay strong and hopeful and beautifully creative Viscountess!
I am so, so sorry to read this – my heart goes out to the Viscountess. Please give her all my best wishes – she is an absolute Queen. Feeling so horrified and mortified by many of my fellow humans at the moment.
Oh dear, I’m so very sorry to read how you’ve been treated by people of the town Viscountess. I really can’t understand why others can be so venomous, we are all human beings and should treat others with respect whatever else you don’t personally agree with.
Your braveness is admirable, respect to you!
Sending very best wishes, take care.
Dear Boudicca,
I am desperate to find my last life. How do I start or where?
And am so sorry for your experiences with the general public.
I was in a similar position before I could afford Facial Surgery.
So I saved the money from the ESA. It took 6 yrs but worth every single penny.
The General Public are a nuisance but its their loss.
You are the best Boudicca alive and I wish you well. All of my love, Angie x x x
Goodness, words fail me. I sat down excited to see this story, and Its made me hopping mad! How is this even being allowed, Tower Hamlets should still after ten years feel ashamed for making VB uproot and move so far away. I feel terrible after reading this VB is always a story I enjoy
Please pass on my good wishes to Viscountess Boudicca and can you encourage Henry to wreak havoc on the good/ not so good people of Uttoxeter!
My favorites posts on this channel have always been about Vicountess Boudica. I have sorely missed her and have thought of her often. How can you not love someone who is so brave, so kind, and so unbelievably herself? Your neighbors are bigoted, small-minded oafs who have a lot of soul searching to do. My heart breaks that you are now living amongst them with little hope to change your situation.
How can you not adore someone who wears knee socks with class, who embraces holidays like she invented them, and squeezes more that two stoves in a tiny Council apartment? I’m glad your ghosts are there to support you, and know that there are many of us around the world (western Pennsylvania, USA for me) who do the same. God bless you and give you fortitude and grace, my incredible Lady.
Strange and wonderful .. so sad the way folk treat her. I don’t think that would happen in our village in Kent .. but i expect in the large towns it might. Such a shame.
I’m really pleased to hear from Viscountess Boudicca again. Even if the circumstances once again leave me shaking my head — at the English! I’ve travelled through the UK so often, and wherever I went, the people were always so warm and welcoming… (So what on earth is going on??)
I’d like to echo the sentiments of EVERYONE who’s commented. And at the same time, I’d like to say: that hat, dear Boudica, looks fantastic on you, and with your ‘new’ hair, you look to me like a proper pop star! (Seriously!)
Love & Peace
ACHIM
My question is where was London’s LBTQ+ community when this worthy person was railed out of London? Where are they now?
Viscountess, my deepest sympathies and greatest good wishes to you.
At age 80, it still angers the hell out of me that people are so unkind to anyone who veers from what some consider normal or acceptable. This is so unfair, and my heart goes out to Viscountess Boudicca. We are all God’s children, including dear VB. Thus, “the Lord God made them all.” Who are we to judge? 🙁
I am so dismayed to read this update. I go past Uttoxeter regularly and always think of VB when I’m on that stretch of the A50, and wonder how things are going. I can’t understand how this state of affairs has been allowed to come about. Best wishes to you, Viscountess. I hope some refuge of kindness and understanding will emerge for you.
Could she maybe get a council swap to Margate? Perhaps make a day trip, have a paddle and see how it feels?
I agree with everyone’s thoughts it is so sad that you have been in such a dreadful place, we live in a sad world. Your pictures are fascinating, keep making them and so glad that your ghosts keep you company.
Dearest Viscountess: sorry to hear of the ghastly people who fail to see your unique style…and you are truly an amazing artist…will someone reading this please arrange a show? Your art is, frankly, better and more original than most at the moment. Keep it up!
I have missed the Viscountess so much. And while I love seeing her face again and hearing her accounts of her past lives — my heart aches that she is still suffering. I simply will never understand people’s cruelty to others. God bless, Viscountess Boudicca, and I will raise a glass to you for better times ahead. Oh, and do please keep making your pictures. With love and understanding, from a retired ex-pat living in Germany.
Agree with what everyone here has said.
If we could only all each do a little. Help to find a transfer might be productive. Someone able to attempt dealing with the likes of the vile woman-from-the-council. Fighting for systems of support which have become threadbare and predatory another, and more crucial to everyone than is understood. It is shameful how marginal people are being abandoned and worse while almost everyone turns away, wether or not they say ‘oh dear’.
Broadly, there is currently something very wrong with England and the English.
I hope that the kindness and peace Boudicca needs and deserves may find her, along with those who will stand alongside and actively help.
English people do not reach out or endure the minor discomfort and confusion at difference and the pain and wisdom of those with less luck. Not saviourism – a very English vice.
The disconnect deprives those who foolishly believe themselves smarter and more sensible of learning how the hidden parts of the facade of civilization function, and ultimately that takes us deeper and for longer into the poisonous tides some of the marginal tried to warn about.
Good to see that Boudicca still has enormous style, making the eyes purr with a harmonious interplay of sorbet colours and pattern all enhanced by a splendid hat providing an invigorating shot of orange and bold stripes.
The recent Art work is fab too.
Bless you noble Boudicca
WARRIOR QUEEN.
I was so sorry to read the unkindness experience by the Vicountess.
Humans can be kind. We must work harder at it.