WITCHLAND

No historian before Marion Gibson has managed to convey so well the lived reality of British witch trials at the local level This is as close to an eye witness view of them as we are likely to get Ronald Hutton author of The Witch If the witchfinders came to your town who would you have believed and what would you have done In the 1640s Britain was swept up in a brutal witch hunt The economic uncertainty and religious extremism fuelled by the English Civil War created a climate of fear Neighbours turned on each other Women and the poor were especially vulnerable scapegoated by the powerful looking for someone to blame In the resulting hysteria which would just a few decades later provide a handbook for the Salem trials hundreds of innocent people were killed Moving from village to village in Scotland and England Professor Marion Gibson reveals how accusations grew out of everyday tensions poverty grief and resentment and how entire communities took part in persecuting the vulnerable Drawing on newly uncovered historical records this gripping account restores the voices of those accused of witchcraft Vivid and intimate Witchland shows that these were ordinary people with extraordinary stories largely forgotten by history caught up in susp