Songfacts®:

• The artist, poet and engraver William Blake married Catherine Boucher on August 18, 1782 in St. Mary's Church, Battersea, London. Catherine took an active role in the production of her husband's engravings and illuminated books; she made the printing impressions, hand colored the pictures and bound the books. Their marriage remained a close and devoted one until his death.
  
  Though William Blake's vast output of visionary art and poetry is revered now, they did not sell well in his day. In fact, in Blake's era they were regarded as convincing evidence of insanity.
  
  Frank Turner recorded "I Believed You William Blake" for No Man's Land, his 2019 concept album about various women from history. During this folk-rocker, he pays tribute to the loyal support Catherine gave to her husband throughout their marriage.
  
  I held him when he faltered
  When earth and faith did shake
  And on my grave the words will say
  "I believed you, William Blake"
  
  Catherine believed in her husband's genius when the rest of society thought him mad.
• Turner explained to The Sun why he wanted to pay tribute to Catherine Blake: "Catherine kept him together, in many instances kept him clothed in public. When he died (in 1827), no one cared and his work was in a complete mess. Catherine catalogued and arranged it. If she hadn't, we would know very little about William Blake."
• Blake was a nonconformist mystic with controversial religious views. He believed that Christianity was established at Glastonbury, in southwestern England, by Christ's follower Joseph of Arimethea. His poem "Jerusalem" was inspired by the old legend that Jesus, while still a young man, accompanied Joseph of Arimathea to Glastonbury. Catherine was one of the few people who supported his theology.
  
  With poetry and engravings
  He presented Paradise
  He revealed to them a Jerusalem
  They would not recognize
  
  Turner said: "I have this image of her standing by his graveside and saying, 'I hope you're right, because, if you're not, I have wasted my life.'"