Witchland: A Tale of Witch Hunting and War in Seventeenth-Century Britain, by Marion Gibson

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

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 suspicion and moral panic.

Witchland is a captivating story of fanaticism, inequality and the violence that surfaces during times of political upheaval.

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About the Author

Marion Gibson became interested in stories of magic and witchcraft when she read news accounts of witch trials in Elizabethan England. She says,  'I realised that whilst I didn't believe the accused people had been doing actual magic, I had no good explanation of why they would confess. What was going on here? What stories were they telling us about their lives? From this came my lifelong interest in storytelling about witches.' Find out more at https://mariongibson.co.uk/ and find Marion on Instagram and X @witchesetc