LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Goodness, take note before you start, this novels bites, provokes and doesn’t lose its grip, even though at times I flinched as the words buffeted my thoughts. The Bewitching is based on the events surrounding Alice Samuel when she was accused of witchcraft between 1589-1593 in the village of Warboys in the Cambridgeshire Fens. While fictional, author Jill Dawson has obviously completed meticulous research about the period. In the acknowledgements she mentions the title of a pamphlet published in 1593 that details the trial and that alone is enough to send shivers coursing through you. She weaves and stitches together a story that feels chillingly real. Even though centuries old, the details are as relevant today as ever, where a stray word and vicious mind can do so much harm. Women feature at the centre of this novel, with men on the sharpened edge. I felt as though I was being carried towards an inevitable conclusion, and yet I was still challenged, and still surprised as I was drawn into the inner sanctuary that a mind creates when speared. The ending of Part Four hit with exquisitely painful precision and left me feeling drained before Part Five lulled me into dreams. As devastating as it is powerful, The Bewitching is a fascinating and thought-provoking novel that joins my selections as a Liz Pick of the Month.
Liz Robinson
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The Bewitching Synopsis
A dazzling, shocking novel that speaks to our times, drawing on the 16th-century case of the witches of Warboys.
Alice Samuel might be old and sharp-tongued, but she's no fool. Visiting her new neighbours in her Fenland village, she suspects Squire Throckmorton's household is not as God-fearing as it seems and finds the children troubled. Yet when one of the daughters accuses her of witchcraft, Alice has no inkling of how quickly matters will escalate and fails to grasp the danger she is in.
As evidence mounts against Alice, soon the entire village is swept up in the frenzied persecution of one of their own community.
Exploring a neglected episode of English history to powerful effect, The Bewitching vividly conveys the brutal tribalism that can erupt in a closed society and how victims can be made to believe in their own wickedness.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781473654655 |
| Publication date: |
11th May 2023 |
| Author: |
Jill Dawson |
| Publisher: |
Sceptre an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
326 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Historical Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Jill Dawson Press Reviews
Set in the 16th century, The Bewitching by Jill Dawson promises a powerful and chilling tale of witchcraft and persecution from one of our most skilful and absorbing storytellers. -- Books of 2022 - Daily Mail
A deeply satisfying and highly feminist novel . . . Jill Dawson has a knack for putting you right in the time and place, dousing you in terrified concern and setting you alight. Highly recommended. - Louisa Young
She crafts magic out of darkness and light. Nothing evokes the past as vividly as her deft prose. Dark as The Bewitching is, with its uncanny echoes of our own times, we know we are safe in her superb, story-telling hands. - Philip Hoare
Profoundly involving, vivid and new . . . she brings all a poet's skill for the seductive texture of life to a breathlessly exciting narrative. - Christobel Kent
A magnificent writer. I would read her shopping lists. - Cathy Rentzenbrink
A fascinating and deeply disturbing tale of witchcraft, male power, and the age old fear of women. - Caitlin Davies
This powerful novel seizes the reader from the first page . . . it makes us aware of how gossip still traps us, as victims and as perpetrators . . . With her gift for penetrating into peoples' motives and silences Jill Dawson here succeeds in awakening the reality of long-past events. - Gillian Beer
SELECT PRAISE FOR THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS Captivatingly lyrical - Guardian
In a class of its own - Daily Mail
Gripping - Spectator
Author
About Jill Dawson
Jill Dawson is the author of TRICK OF THE LIGHT, MAGPIE, FRED AND EDIE, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize, and WILD BOY, all published by Sceptre to critical acclaim. WATCH ME DISAPPEAR, her latest novel, will be published by Sceptre in March 2006. She is also an award-winning poet and has edited several anthologies including The Virago Book of Wicked Verse, and, with Margo Daly, Wild Ways. She was the British Council Fellow at Amherst College, Massachusetts, in 1997 and is currently the Royal Literary Fund Fellow in Writing at the University of East Anglia. Born in Durham, she now lives with her family in the Fens.
Photograph © Luke White
Fellow novelist Katharine McMahon on Jill Dawson...
The Great Lover is a novel about a poet, Rupert Brooke, that
pushes past the cliches of tea on the lawn at Grantchester and takes an
utterly fresh look at the poet. The writing is very clear and precise
and makes for a fascinating read. And what's more, I was inspired to
go and read Brooke's poetry too.
More About Jill Dawson
