The persecution of midwives, old women, servants and rarely, males, who were blamed for society's ills in 17th century England. It was said that these witches ate babies, consorted with the Devil, caused cattle epidemics, gave birth to kittens and caused their victims to vomit up needles, snails, live frogs and puppy tails.
Gillian Tindall began her career as a prize-winning novelist. She has continued to publish fiction but has also staked out an impressive territory in idiosyncratic non-fiction that is brilliantly evocative of place.
Her The Fields Beneath: The History of One London Village which first appeared thirty years ago, has rarely been out of print; nor has Celestine: Voices from a French Village, published in the mid 1990s and translated into several languages, for which she was decorated by the French government.
Well known for the quality of her writing and the meticulous nature of her research, Gillian is a master of miniaturist history. She lives with her husband in London.