Mist Over Pendle

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Both Demdike and Chattox were by then blind and in their eighties, and both provided Nowell with damaging confessions. The more interesting case is the well-to-do Alice Nutter, who wields knowledge with more skill and whose actions have interesting motive: the advancement of herself and her family. The characters are well drawn and, though perhaps a little unsubtle for modern readers, this does not detract from the strong story-telling.

The official publication of the proceedings by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, and the number of witches hanged together – nine at Lancaster and one at York – make the trials unusual for England at that time.

This is a new edition of Robert Neill’s classic 1951 tale of the notorious 1611 Pendle witch trials. The situation has been described by one historian as ″ a trial in which one family destroyed the other and then turned suicidally on itself, with children betraying siblings and parents. I am really looking forward to sharing my landscapes and moodscapes and connecting with people again through my work.

James was, however, sceptical of the evidence presented in witch trials, even to the extent of personally exposing discrepancies in the testimonies presented against some accused witches. We have a young puritan girl, Margery, sent to her cousin Roger Nowell because her family doesn’t know what to do with her (she is distinctly un-puritan) and nobody can provide her with a dowry to marry her off.What they discover brings them face to face with the horrifying possibility that a coven of witches is assembling, preparing to unleash a campaign of evil and destruction.

The role that both close family ties and toxic relationships played in the trials comes into play again when one considers that the star witness during the trial was Jennet, who testified against almost her whole family. A great deal of fun to read, but overlong and far too preoccupied with taffeta and kirtles (not to mention crinkling brows), with some rather stereotypical (spitting, cursing and eye rolling) witches.The prosecutor was local magistrate Roger Nowell, who had been responsible for collecting the various statements and confessions from the accused.