[On the discredited prophecies of Mother Shipton]

As always you have to fight your way past author's eager to cast doubt on whether she even existed, but then she's English. 'Scholarship' plays the provenance card to nothing like the same degree elsewhere in folklore. Nostradamus is too famous and publisher-friendly to suffer lasting critical damage while those from designated victim-cultures are simply considered untouchable. One only hopes the the judeo-oirish criminal syndicate that runs Hollywood never alight on these stories. Placing the old girl in County Cork and casting LIam Neeson or Gerard Butler in drag wouldn't really do her justice, though they would certainly be ugly enough.