James Maddock

Great to see you here. I hope you've had a chance to look around the site and have found something of interest. If you were a visitor to the previous incarnation of In The Stars, you may be wondering what's changed.

Back in the noughties, inthestars.co.uk was solely focussed on tarot, runes and horoscopes. I had fun building it and it gained some traffic, but it was niche, and I subsequently moved onto other things. I shut the site down but kept the domain name, just in case.

Recently, as circumstances changed, I wondered whether I could revive the site with more varied content, including videos. I had the idea of dividing the content into three pillars: The Past, The Present and The Future.

I wanted to make sure visitors to the earlier version of the site could still find relevant subject matter, but I also wanted to explore new topics that were of interest to me. That's why you'll see articles on Nostradamus from the past alongside discussions on Dark Matter and SpaceX in the present, and musings on the possibilities of interstellar travel and the like in the future.

For those interested, here's how I got to this point.

My fascination in Nostradamus started at grammar school, when I won a book token as a prize for my work in Ancient Greek. For some reason I chose Peter Lemesurier's book on the seer's prophecies and it kindled an interest I have not quite managed to put aside since.

At Durham University, I studied Classics, continuing my studies in Latin and Ancient Greek. Ancient history and archaeology were also my chosen subjects. That's why you'll see articles on the Oracle of Delphi, Tiresias and the Sibylline Books amongst others.

Having written countless essays at uni, it probably wasn't surprising that I found employment writing for other people. As well as running my own websites, I've also worked as a copywriter for household-name sites, including Trivago and VoucherCodes.co.uk.

I have even tried my hand at screenplays over the years, with several films waiting to be made! (I wish)

So, that's my background. I write about subjects that I have expertise in and others I know less about. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I do my best to fully research and fact-check everything I publish. When I can't verify something with real confidence, I say so in the piece rather than presenting it as settled. By all means, contact me if you find errors or gaps in the copy! And I'm open to business opportunities you may have.

My manifesto for this site is this: follow the thread, embrace the uncertainty, and if you leave with more questions than you arrived with, that is the intended outcome.

James Maddock