-
Access our Top 20
Books of 2024!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
A Novel
by Mary Sharratt
Book Reviewed by:Daughters of the Witching Hill brings history to life in a vivid and wrenching account of a family sustained by love as they try to survive the hysteria of a witch-hunt.
Bess Southerns, an impoverished widow living in Pendle Forest, is haunted by visions and gains a reputation as a cunning woman. Drawing on the Catholic folk magic of her youth, Bess heals the sick and foretells the future. As she ages, she instructs her granddaughter, Alizon, in her craft, as well as her best friend, who ultimately turns to dark magic.
When a peddler suffers a stroke after exchanging harsh words with Alizon, a local magistrate, eager to make his name as a witch finder, plays neighbors and family members against one another until suspicion and paranoia reach frenzied heights.
Sharratt interweaves well-researched historical details of the 1612 Pendle witch-hunt with a beautifully imagined story of strong women, family, and betrayal. Daughters of the Witching Hill is a powerful novel of intrigue and revelation.
Daughters of the Witching Hill:
A Novel of the Pendle Witches
She was a very old woman, about the age of Foure-score yeares, and had been a Witch for fiftie yeares. Shee dwelt in the Forrest of Pendle, a vast place, fitte for her profession: What shee committed in her time, no man knows. . . . Shee was a generall agent for the Devill in all these partes: no man escaped her, or her Furies.
Thomas Potts, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the County of Lancaster, 1613
1
1610
See us gathered here, three women stood at Richard Baldwin’s gate. I bide with my daughter, Liza of the squint-eye, and with my granddaughter, Alizon, just fifteen and dazzling as the noontide sun, so bright that she lights up the murk of my dim sight. Demdike, folk call me, after the dammed stream near my dwelling place where the farmers wash their sheep before shearing. When I was younger and stronger, I used to help with the sheepwash. Wasn’t afraid of the fiercest rams....
As a reader, I learned about the use of religion as a means of control over the people ... at times, it reminded me of the current times, when we are becoming less tolerant of others who are not exactly like us. I encourage all to read this enchanting story as it will have a lasting effect on you showing how the world has changed and then really not changed over the last several hundred years. I recommend Daughters of the Witching Hill for book clubs as there is much to discuss and will definitely be recommending this to my friends, co-workers and our library's patrons who ask for "a good read"...continued
Full Review
(717 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
Mary Sharratt explains how she became a "Daughter of the Witching Hill"
In bleak midwinter 2002, I moved to rural Lancashire, in northern England, an incongruous place for an American expat. The first months were so oppressively dark, I felt I was trapped inside some claustrophobic gothic novel. But then came spring in a tide of bluebells and hawthorn. The wild Pennine landscape cast its spell on me.
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked Daughters of the Witching Hill, try these:
by Emilia Hart
Published 2024
Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.
by Minette Walters
Published 2023
A sweeping historical adventure set during one of the most turbulent periods of British history--featuring a heroine you'll never forget...
.png)
Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
