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Le streghe di Manningtree
Inghilterra, 1643. Il Parlamento combatte contro il re, la guerra civile infuria, il fervore puritano attanaglia il Paese e il terrore della dannazione brucia dietro ogni ombra. A Manningtree, una cittadina della contea dell’Essex privata dei suoi uomini fin dall’inizio della guerra, le donne sono abbandonate a se stesse; soprattutto alcune di loro, che vivono ai margini della comunità: le anziane, le povere, le non sposate, quelle dalla lingua affilata. In una casupola sulle colline abita la giovane Rebecca West, figlia della vedova Beldam West, «donnaccia, compagna di bevute, madre»; tra un espediente e l’altro Rebecca trascina faticosamente i suoi giorni, oscurati dallo spettro incombente della miseria e ravvivati soltanto dall’infatuazione per lo scrivano John Edes. Finché, a scombussolare una quotidianità scandita da malelingue e battibecchi, in città non arriva un uomo: Matthew Hopkins, il nuovo locandiere, che si mostra fin dal principio molto curioso. Il suo sguardo indagatore si concentra sulle donne più umili e disgraziate, alle quali comincia a porre strane domande. E quando un bambino viene colto da una misteriosa febbre e inizia a farneticare di congreghe e patti, le domande assumono un tono sempre più incalzante…
Le streghe di Manningtree è la storia di una piccola comunità lacerata dalla lenta esplosione del sospetto, in cui il potere degli uomini è sempre più illimitato e la sicurezza delle donne sempre più minata.
Le streghe di Manningtree è la storia di una piccola comunità lacerata dalla lenta esplosione del sospetto, in cui il potere degli uomini è sempre più illimitato e la sicurezza delle donne sempre più minata.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 4, 2021
1153 people are currently reading
39599 people want to read
About the author
A.K. Blakemore
8 books339 followersA.K. Blakemore is the author of two collections of poetry: Humbert Summer and Fondue. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo. Her poetry and prose writing have been widely published and anthologized, appearing in The London Review of Books, Poetry, The Poetry Review, and The White Review, among other publications. Her debut novel, The Manningtree Witches won the Desmond Elliot Prize 2021. She lives in London, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,819 reviews
March 21, 2021
A superbly written novel set in the 1640s when the Civil War has just begun and when witch hunts continue. The novel based on real events, focuses on a group of women who through their independence are feared and despised in a small community. When a witchfinder, the famous Matthew Hopkins, appears, they are persecuted, accused of witchcraft and taken to Colchester for a trial.
The novel is superbly written, atmospheric and with the feel of dread and helplessness. The language is not easy to follow but it definitely adds to the authenticity of the period. The characters feel natural and not modern as is often the case with historical fiction. Descriptions of Essex are poetic and it does not surprise as the author is a poet and this is her debut novel. And a remarkable debut!
One more remark. This novel deserves a much, much better cover. The one prepared by the Publisher does not catch a reader's eye. On the other hand, it proves that judging a book by its cover may be a mistake.
*A big thank-you to A.K. Blakemore, Granta Publications, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
The novel is superbly written, atmospheric and with the feel of dread and helplessness. The language is not easy to follow but it definitely adds to the authenticity of the period. The characters feel natural and not modern as is often the case with historical fiction. Descriptions of Essex are poetic and it does not surprise as the author is a poet and this is her debut novel. And a remarkable debut!
One more remark. This novel deserves a much, much better cover. The one prepared by the Publisher does not catch a reader's eye. On the other hand, it proves that judging a book by its cover may be a mistake.
*A big thank-you to A.K. Blakemore, Granta Publications, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
May 1, 2021
"There is one long, narrow road that runs alongside the riverbank, from the little port of Manningtree...to old St. Mary's Church in Mistley...". People living a marginal existence occupy "a few dozen houses...in various states of disrepair...all moldy thatch and tide-marked...away from the river...rolling hills and fields where the true wealth of Essex [lives]...cows...full of milk...herds mill about neat little manor houses of the yeomen and petty gentry...". The year was 1643. Manningtree had been depleted of men since the English Civil War began. "For most in Manningtree the loss of a healthy steer or a good milker ranks among the greater calamities. The loss of a child, especially a girl child is a more miner misfortune."
"...rumors once begun are wont to take on a life of their own." "They are inquisitors...the men walk about town together with a sense of purpose-a purpose everyone knows. Hopkins leads, tall and Bible black...next the portly Mister Stearne...They begin to call Hopkins "Witchfinder." According to Rebecca West, "There is something about [Matthew Hopkins] slant and insubstantial...Black boots, black gloves, black cloak, black ringlets and then a white face floating lost in the midst of this funereal confection...I think he looks like nothing has ever brought him joy...".
Under cover of Puritan cleanliness, obedience and modesty, Matthew Hopkins is paid handsomely to discover covens, pacts and unmask witchcraft, focusing on women living on the margins of the small Manningtree community. "Corruption flourishes in this town; unseen and unchallenged...There have been mutterings...of the kind that give rise to accusations. A search ensues for the cause of Thomas Briggs's bewitchment. "Is not your mother the Beldam West? She spoke a malediction upon Master Briggs as the child played by the quay...mother and daughter...all alone...When women think alone, they think evil...It is commonly thought that a tendency to the heresy of witchcraft is passed from mother to daughter...perhaps...a shared debility of the soul...".
According the Rebecca West, "My mother and I are like two trees that have grown entangled in the denseness of the wood and find their roots interlocked ripping each other's branches in the wind." Beldam West (Anne West) was accused and tried for sending familiars to trouble Sir Thomas Bowes, his embellished and expanding story really the result of his drunken reverie. "That a very honest man of Manningtree, whom he knew would not speak untruth, affirmed unto him." Rebecca West was soon arrested for consorting with her mother, Beldam West.
"The Manningtree Witches" by A. K. Blakemore, written in beautifully crafted literary prose, describes the Witch Craze of the English Civil War and is interspersed with excerpts from the Essex Witch Trials of 1645. Rebecca West's coming-of-age included accusations of witchcraft, imprisonment, teenage angst, stirrings of romance and the reading and understanding of the gospel. Her character development, as well as the detailed descriptions of other women and girls accused of bewitchment, was masterfully penned. This debut work of literary fiction from poet A. K. Blakemore is a read I highly recommend.
Thank you Catapult and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Beata for your recommendation!
"...rumors once begun are wont to take on a life of their own." "They are inquisitors...the men walk about town together with a sense of purpose-a purpose everyone knows. Hopkins leads, tall and Bible black...next the portly Mister Stearne...They begin to call Hopkins "Witchfinder." According to Rebecca West, "There is something about [Matthew Hopkins] slant and insubstantial...Black boots, black gloves, black cloak, black ringlets and then a white face floating lost in the midst of this funereal confection...I think he looks like nothing has ever brought him joy...".
Under cover of Puritan cleanliness, obedience and modesty, Matthew Hopkins is paid handsomely to discover covens, pacts and unmask witchcraft, focusing on women living on the margins of the small Manningtree community. "Corruption flourishes in this town; unseen and unchallenged...There have been mutterings...of the kind that give rise to accusations. A search ensues for the cause of Thomas Briggs's bewitchment. "Is not your mother the Beldam West? She spoke a malediction upon Master Briggs as the child played by the quay...mother and daughter...all alone...When women think alone, they think evil...It is commonly thought that a tendency to the heresy of witchcraft is passed from mother to daughter...perhaps...a shared debility of the soul...".
According the Rebecca West, "My mother and I are like two trees that have grown entangled in the denseness of the wood and find their roots interlocked ripping each other's branches in the wind." Beldam West (Anne West) was accused and tried for sending familiars to trouble Sir Thomas Bowes, his embellished and expanding story really the result of his drunken reverie. "That a very honest man of Manningtree, whom he knew would not speak untruth, affirmed unto him." Rebecca West was soon arrested for consorting with her mother, Beldam West.
"The Manningtree Witches" by A. K. Blakemore, written in beautifully crafted literary prose, describes the Witch Craze of the English Civil War and is interspersed with excerpts from the Essex Witch Trials of 1645. Rebecca West's coming-of-age included accusations of witchcraft, imprisonment, teenage angst, stirrings of romance and the reading and understanding of the gospel. Her character development, as well as the detailed descriptions of other women and girls accused of bewitchment, was masterfully penned. This debut work of literary fiction from poet A. K. Blakemore is a read I highly recommend.
Thank you Catapult and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Beata for your recommendation!
February 21, 2024
Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award having already been winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize (its inclusion on the longlist drawing me to this book)
This book was recently included on a very impressive longlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize for Debut fiction which prompted me to read it.
This is a fictionalised account of a dark period in English history – the actions of the so-called “Witchfinder General” Matthew Hopkins, who for a brief period in an East Anglia convulsed by the Civil War, effectively revised the idea of witchcraft trials, widely quoted as being responsible in just 2-3 years for as many executions from witchcraft as seen in England in the previous 150 years.
The book is set in the eponymous Essex town where his crusade began and is effectively narrated by one of his accused – Rebecca West, a young girl, arrested for witchcraft with her widowed mother (who was believed by Hopkins to be at the centre of the witches activity with another elderly eccentric – Elizabeth Clark). Sometimes directly in the first person, sometimes with Rebecca imagining or recounting scenes she hears about but does not participate in, and sometimes in more of a third party narrator style.
The outline of the story that follows is in some ways terribly familiar – not least to anyone who, like me, studied Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” for A-Level: arguments, allegations, hysterical reactions, accusations, arrests, confessions – forced or tactically volunteered, recantations, trials, and executions. And of course it was Hopkins actions and treatises which partly inspired the Salem trials.
The book is clearly the subject of detailed and (as far as I can) very accurately rendered research and yet this this is not one of those historical fiction books where either dialogue is used for historical exposition or the narrator’s voice hijacked to cram in some research. And the historical fact is blended with imagination and with gentle (and far from over-laboured) allusions to contemporary relevance – allusions the author allows the reader to form for themselves.
The author conveys brilliantly the tensions, petty jealousies, long-held resentments and class/gender biases of the town which of course form the soil in which the accusations and insinuations of witchcraft can be planted and allowed to flourish.
The author does examine what might have caused the actions of Hopkins as well as those that encouraged or at least did not hinder him.
Partly this is the background of the times: the natural order of divine rule of Kings being overturned by Parliament; a fierce iconoclastic reaction (inspired by both patriotism and direct access to the scriptures) against the perceived perversions of Popery; villages and towns largely devoid of fighting-fit men, both removing their protection from their womenfolk and surely making those of an age left behind feeling a need to prove their prowess and power. I was reminded in some of Hopkins (and his associates) views – in their simultaneous hatred of and obsession with women of the present day Incel movement.
And all of this is shot through with fear of the present and future, and with a religiously fanatically view which is long on judgment and short on mercy (it was for me very telling that Hopkins almost obsessive biblical quotations seem to omit the gospels almost entirely, and pretty well the New Testament) and a fanatical belief in providence which struggles to explain the vicissitudes of normal existence as not being of diabolic design.
But what the book is really about (as the author says in the Afterword) is the “fears, hopes, desires and insecurities of the women who scratched out their existence on the very edges of society, and who have otherwise gone voiceless, or else been muted by victimhood.”
And the author does a brilliant job, principally by the wonderful character of Rebecca in capturing their voices – their (again her words) “character, humour and pride”.
We see through Rebecca how impossible it is to avoid accusations of witchcraft once placed: how for example she asks can she provide an alibi if she can apparently be in two places at once via transportation, or supposedly carry out her nefarious schemes at a distance via invisible imps; and how she asks can she testify truthfully to save herself when “I can say again and again, a thousand times.. that I am not a witch and have not traffic with the Devil not his spirits, and it will account for nothing. But if I say once that I am, then it counts for everything”
The author is a poet and the language in the book is superbly and lyrically crafted – studded with quite beautiful writing, I have started and ended my review with two examples, but there are many more phrases (“the grass a hard enameled green in the low rays of sunshine, already a crust of young moon visible over the treetops”)
The reading experience is visceral, immersive and multi-sensory: you are really placed in the mind and body of the narrator; and in the smells, sights, touch, sounds of 1640s Essex.
Highly recommended.
My thanks to Granta for an ARC via NetGalley
Winter lays down hard frosts, vitrifying the roads and the rooftops, enforcing seclusion and imposing fasts. Pigs freeze to death in their pens. News slows to a trickle. Letters go astray and are intercepted, the heart’s-blood missives of young lovers and the sober bulletins of generals alike. The rumour is that both armies are quartered away for Christmastide, but no definitive word on this subject arrives. An army is a very large thing to lose; losing two begins to look like carelessness. While marching orders and tactical directives deliquesce on the brumal winds, the pyrotechnics of imminent apocalypse shimmer just as rosily on the ice-bound horizon as they ever did. In Ipswich, a sorceress is seen shrieking down the Orwell on a pole, wielding lightning bolts. …………… In Manningtree itself there have been most strange and inexplicable happenings that could be accounted for only by infernal malice.
This book was recently included on a very impressive longlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize for Debut fiction which prompted me to read it.
This is a fictionalised account of a dark period in English history – the actions of the so-called “Witchfinder General” Matthew Hopkins, who for a brief period in an East Anglia convulsed by the Civil War, effectively revised the idea of witchcraft trials, widely quoted as being responsible in just 2-3 years for as many executions from witchcraft as seen in England in the previous 150 years.
The book is set in the eponymous Essex town where his crusade began and is effectively narrated by one of his accused – Rebecca West, a young girl, arrested for witchcraft with her widowed mother (who was believed by Hopkins to be at the centre of the witches activity with another elderly eccentric – Elizabeth Clark). Sometimes directly in the first person, sometimes with Rebecca imagining or recounting scenes she hears about but does not participate in, and sometimes in more of a third party narrator style.
The outline of the story that follows is in some ways terribly familiar – not least to anyone who, like me, studied Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” for A-Level: arguments, allegations, hysterical reactions, accusations, arrests, confessions – forced or tactically volunteered, recantations, trials, and executions. And of course it was Hopkins actions and treatises which partly inspired the Salem trials.
The book is clearly the subject of detailed and (as far as I can) very accurately rendered research and yet this this is not one of those historical fiction books where either dialogue is used for historical exposition or the narrator’s voice hijacked to cram in some research. And the historical fact is blended with imagination and with gentle (and far from over-laboured) allusions to contemporary relevance – allusions the author allows the reader to form for themselves.
The author conveys brilliantly the tensions, petty jealousies, long-held resentments and class/gender biases of the town which of course form the soil in which the accusations and insinuations of witchcraft can be planted and allowed to flourish.
The author does examine what might have caused the actions of Hopkins as well as those that encouraged or at least did not hinder him.
Partly this is the background of the times: the natural order of divine rule of Kings being overturned by Parliament; a fierce iconoclastic reaction (inspired by both patriotism and direct access to the scriptures) against the perceived perversions of Popery; villages and towns largely devoid of fighting-fit men, both removing their protection from their womenfolk and surely making those of an age left behind feeling a need to prove their prowess and power. I was reminded in some of Hopkins (and his associates) views – in their simultaneous hatred of and obsession with women of the present day Incel movement.
And all of this is shot through with fear of the present and future, and with a religiously fanatically view which is long on judgment and short on mercy (it was for me very telling that Hopkins almost obsessive biblical quotations seem to omit the gospels almost entirely, and pretty well the New Testament) and a fanatical belief in providence which struggles to explain the vicissitudes of normal existence as not being of diabolic design.
But what the book is really about (as the author says in the Afterword) is the “fears, hopes, desires and insecurities of the women who scratched out their existence on the very edges of society, and who have otherwise gone voiceless, or else been muted by victimhood.”
And the author does a brilliant job, principally by the wonderful character of Rebecca in capturing their voices – their (again her words) “character, humour and pride”.
We see through Rebecca how impossible it is to avoid accusations of witchcraft once placed: how for example she asks can she provide an alibi if she can apparently be in two places at once via transportation, or supposedly carry out her nefarious schemes at a distance via invisible imps; and how she asks can she testify truthfully to save herself when “I can say again and again, a thousand times.. that I am not a witch and have not traffic with the Devil not his spirits, and it will account for nothing. But if I say once that I am, then it counts for everything”
The author is a poet and the language in the book is superbly and lyrically crafted – studded with quite beautiful writing, I have started and ended my review with two examples, but there are many more phrases (“the grass a hard enameled green in the low rays of sunshine, already a crust of young moon visible over the treetops”)
The reading experience is visceral, immersive and multi-sensory: you are really placed in the mind and body of the narrator; and in the smells, sights, touch, sounds of 1640s Essex.
True winter refuses to leave, tantrums, threatens to scatter abjection all over the country again. Dark clouds flex and leer above the cursed cities and empty fields with a renewed sense of commitment to pathetic fallacy. Riding high. The world seems his; he thought it would feel better than it does.
Highly recommended.
My thanks to Granta for an ARC via NetGalley
March 22, 2021
I loved the concept, the characters were so detailed and put together and the history of the novel felt well researched. The afterword was really eye opening. HOWEVER, this was really difficult to read for me, I wanted to love it but just couldn’t get going most days with it. The poetic language was too distracting and made for a slow pace in the narrative that often felt disjointed.
Thank you to Tandem Collective, Granta and AK Blakemore for my gifted copy.
Thank you to Tandem Collective, Granta and AK Blakemore for my gifted copy.
May 15, 2021
White women have such boring things to say. I was really excited by this premise and I greatly enjoyed some of the prose (although there were some cringe ass lines, like "He wants to fuck something, the world probably." <-- Waka_Flocka_okay.gif), but this turned out to be incredibly limp and disappointing. The gist of the book is basically “women be accused of witchcraft if theyre too independent... men be wanting control and power. Bitches be the daughters of the witches men couldnt burn” and I am not lying when I say I could have written something more nuanced and interesting at the age of 16. The Twitter post I saw today where a girl named Maddie emailed Judith Butler asking Butler to ask her girlfriend, also named Maddie, to prom on her behalf was better than this.
Oh, and, in the year 2021 I'm not interested in books set in the 17th century that uncritically make mention of colonialism and imperialism. I did hope the America angle would come back at the end and it did, but not in a way that was satisfactory to me. I hope that white feminists will pay better attention to the complexities of such a historical period in the future.
Oh, and, in the year 2021 I'm not interested in books set in the 17th century that uncritically make mention of colonialism and imperialism. I did hope the America angle would come back at the end and it did, but not in a way that was satisfactory to me. I hope that white feminists will pay better attention to the complexities of such a historical period in the future.
October 7, 2023
4.5 stars
“I wish freely to embrace the deliciousness of sin. To sin with abandon is, after all, the only prerogative of the damned.”
“Witch is just their nasty word for anyone who makes things happen, who moves the story along”.
“No-one actually wishes to see a woman hung, her skirts soaking with piss and throat’s blood frothing on sackcloth. It is a horrible thing. Not amusing anymore. Or do they?”
This is a historical novel, based on actual events. It is set in the Essex village of Manningtree during the early 1640s (1643-1647), the time of the Civil War. As a result there are a limited number of men in the village: they are fighting and dying in the Civil War. One man who is there is Matthew Hopkins, remembered by history by his nickname, “Witchfinder General”. The novel focuses on a group of women in and near the village.
The novel also feels remarkably modern. A situation where society is destabilised and women face violence. Those who do not conform are scapegoated and persecuted.
“When women think alone, they think evil”
The characterisation is very good. Hopkins in particular is believable and the place of Puritanism is also central. It reminded me a little of Miller’s The Crucible, which of course was an attack on McCarthyism, but this was written by a woman. Witch hunts have been seen as the end of medieval superstition as the Enlightenment begins, but it has been argued they are actually part of modernisation along with enclosure, the growth of workhouses and so on. There was also a new conception of the role of women which did not fit with the older “wise women” and medieval thought patterns. Again Puritanism was part of this.
Blakemore started as a poet and her prose is very good: her descriptions spot on. Especially in relation to the sight, sounds and smells of everyday life:
“the air is sour with the smack of horse-dung and sweet with the smells of cooking lard and onions.”
Sometimes though the words do carry the author away a little:
“While marching orders and tactical directives deliquesce on the brumal winds, the pyrotechnics of imminent apocalypse shimmer just as rosily on the ice-bound horizon as they ever did.”
Despite the occasional bit of wordiness I think this is one of the better books in this genre. It works as a historical novel and as a piece of gothic. It reiterates the nature of male violence which is showing no signs of going away.
“I wish freely to embrace the deliciousness of sin. To sin with abandon is, after all, the only prerogative of the damned.”
“Witch is just their nasty word for anyone who makes things happen, who moves the story along”.
“No-one actually wishes to see a woman hung, her skirts soaking with piss and throat’s blood frothing on sackcloth. It is a horrible thing. Not amusing anymore. Or do they?”
This is a historical novel, based on actual events. It is set in the Essex village of Manningtree during the early 1640s (1643-1647), the time of the Civil War. As a result there are a limited number of men in the village: they are fighting and dying in the Civil War. One man who is there is Matthew Hopkins, remembered by history by his nickname, “Witchfinder General”. The novel focuses on a group of women in and near the village.
The novel also feels remarkably modern. A situation where society is destabilised and women face violence. Those who do not conform are scapegoated and persecuted.
“When women think alone, they think evil”
The characterisation is very good. Hopkins in particular is believable and the place of Puritanism is also central. It reminded me a little of Miller’s The Crucible, which of course was an attack on McCarthyism, but this was written by a woman. Witch hunts have been seen as the end of medieval superstition as the Enlightenment begins, but it has been argued they are actually part of modernisation along with enclosure, the growth of workhouses and so on. There was also a new conception of the role of women which did not fit with the older “wise women” and medieval thought patterns. Again Puritanism was part of this.
Blakemore started as a poet and her prose is very good: her descriptions spot on. Especially in relation to the sight, sounds and smells of everyday life:
“the air is sour with the smack of horse-dung and sweet with the smells of cooking lard and onions.”
Sometimes though the words do carry the author away a little:
“While marching orders and tactical directives deliquesce on the brumal winds, the pyrotechnics of imminent apocalypse shimmer just as rosily on the ice-bound horizon as they ever did.”
Despite the occasional bit of wordiness I think this is one of the better books in this genre. It works as a historical novel and as a piece of gothic. It reiterates the nature of male violence which is showing no signs of going away.
August 10, 2021
The Manningtree Witches brings to life the history of a small English town set in the mid-seventeen century where there is the sudden upheaval of witch trials. In this small community that is mostly populated by women due to men joining war, Rebecca West finds herself and the women around her accused of being witches. The new man in town, Matthew Hopkins, self-proclaimed witch-hunter, leads the charge against these women. This rendering of the witch trials is charged with betrayal, first love, suspicion, and the desire for freedom at any cost.
A. K. Blakemore has accomplished writing both a lyrical and excellently researched novel that flies off the pages. The inclusion of the primary sources that were sprinkled throughout the novel were a nice addition and helps to remind the reader that this story is based on actual history.
If you love beautifully written historical fiction, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Catapult, and the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my opinions!
A. K. Blakemore has accomplished writing both a lyrical and excellently researched novel that flies off the pages. The inclusion of the primary sources that were sprinkled throughout the novel were a nice addition and helps to remind the reader that this story is based on actual history.
If you love beautifully written historical fiction, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Catapult, and the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my opinions!
September 28, 2025
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I had the amazing opportunity to participate in another instagram readalong – this time reading the Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore with some amazing bookstagrammers. We even had a wonderful Q&A chat with the author once we finished the book. Huge thank you to the team at Tandem as well as the publisher, Granta Books, for sending me a copy of the book to read and review!
Synopsis:
England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow.
In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers – the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes. But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins, a mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, takes over The Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins. When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge.
My Thoughts:
As soon as I laid eyes on the cover and the synopsis, I knew I had to read it. And it didn’t disappoint at all. I just had to shift my expectations a little bit.
The Manningtree Witches is a book set in England in 1643, where witch hunters were quite popular and many women were killed after being accused of witchcraft. This book is actually inspired by true events that happened in history. The focus was more on the historical aspect and bringing life to the characters, rather than the supernatural elements.
We never get a full clarification whether Beldam West, her daughter Rebecca and the other women were actually witches, and we get a glimpse of their lives and their imprisonment. We get a front row seat of their feelings, and how this impacts them as well as the community. It was so interesting to also get a point of view from the perspective of the witch hunter. As the villain that he is, I loved getting to know his opinion on the situation and his reasoning.
“But if a witch can be in two places at once, as you say, then I cannot prove my innocence by those same means. Nor, it seems to me, by any other. I can say again and again, a thousand times, sir, that I am not a witch, and have no traffic with the Devil nor his spirits, and it will account for nothing. But if I say once that I am, then it will account for everything.”
The writing is very lyrical and also captures the old-style English. I had to refer to my dictionary a few times, which has now become a rare occasion. And I really enjoyed learning some new words. I’m looking at you – lucre, extemporise, gaol, interlocutor and bray! You can immediately notice the love the author has for poetry. It took me a while to get into it, but after 80 pages I started loving it.
There were times when I was confused about whose point of view I am currently reading about. This slightly interrupted my concentration, but the story was wonderful in terms of timeline and storytelling.
The only reason of my rating is because my expectations were different going into the book. My need for paranormal elements and a bit of witchcraft weren’t satisfied. However, putting my expectations aside, this book beautifully represents the reality of witch hunting and the struggles so many women had to endure during these times.
If you want to read a book about the witch hunting in history, The Manningtree Witches is a wonderful lyrical take on the events that happened in Manningtree. However, if you want a book that has more “witchy” elements – I would suggest you skip this one.
I had the amazing opportunity to participate in another instagram readalong – this time reading the Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore with some amazing bookstagrammers. We even had a wonderful Q&A chat with the author once we finished the book. Huge thank you to the team at Tandem as well as the publisher, Granta Books, for sending me a copy of the book to read and review!
Synopsis:
England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow.
In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers – the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes. But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins, a mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, takes over The Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins. When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge.
My Thoughts:
As soon as I laid eyes on the cover and the synopsis, I knew I had to read it. And it didn’t disappoint at all. I just had to shift my expectations a little bit.
The Manningtree Witches is a book set in England in 1643, where witch hunters were quite popular and many women were killed after being accused of witchcraft. This book is actually inspired by true events that happened in history. The focus was more on the historical aspect and bringing life to the characters, rather than the supernatural elements.
We never get a full clarification whether Beldam West, her daughter Rebecca and the other women were actually witches, and we get a glimpse of their lives and their imprisonment. We get a front row seat of their feelings, and how this impacts them as well as the community. It was so interesting to also get a point of view from the perspective of the witch hunter. As the villain that he is, I loved getting to know his opinion on the situation and his reasoning.
“But if a witch can be in two places at once, as you say, then I cannot prove my innocence by those same means. Nor, it seems to me, by any other. I can say again and again, a thousand times, sir, that I am not a witch, and have no traffic with the Devil nor his spirits, and it will account for nothing. But if I say once that I am, then it will account for everything.”
The writing is very lyrical and also captures the old-style English. I had to refer to my dictionary a few times, which has now become a rare occasion. And I really enjoyed learning some new words. I’m looking at you – lucre, extemporise, gaol, interlocutor and bray! You can immediately notice the love the author has for poetry. It took me a while to get into it, but after 80 pages I started loving it.
There were times when I was confused about whose point of view I am currently reading about. This slightly interrupted my concentration, but the story was wonderful in terms of timeline and storytelling.
The only reason of my rating is because my expectations were different going into the book. My need for paranormal elements and a bit of witchcraft weren’t satisfied. However, putting my expectations aside, this book beautifully represents the reality of witch hunting and the struggles so many women had to endure during these times.
If you want to read a book about the witch hunting in history, The Manningtree Witches is a wonderful lyrical take on the events that happened in Manningtree. However, if you want a book that has more “witchy” elements – I would suggest you skip this one.
May 26, 2022
I really enjoyed this - a powerful, clever story with a very strong ending.
March 19, 2021
In times of social, economic and religious strife within misogynistic societies women are much more likely to be unfairly persecuted and suffer at the hands of authoritarian men. One historical example where this was made blatantly obvious was in the mid-17th century witch trials in England – especially during the civil war and Puritan era. There's a blood-curdling sensational aura to the witch hunts that occurred as they are endemically associated with hysteria, the occult and horrific means of state-sanctioned punishment. But A.K. Blakemore brings an insightful and refreshing lyrical realism to her fictional depiction of a period in East Anglia and the Home Counties when hundreds of women (and men) were condemned by a charismatic and pious man named Matthew Hopkins who proclaimed himself to be a Witchfinder General. Thankfully this opportunistic charlatan isn't at the centre of the novel and Blakemore focuses instead on the much more interesting perspectives of a group of women who were often persecuted because they were convenient scapegoats or simply didn't conform to the accepted norms of the time living more on the fringes of society.
Read my full review of The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore on LonesomeReader
March 4, 2021
The Manningtree Witches is a richly-imagined, lyrical and beguiling debut historical novel that brilliantly brings to life the residents of a small English town in the grip of the seventeenth-century witch trials and the young woman tasked with saving them all from themselves. Set in 1643, a time when the English Civil War was raging, the county of Essex would become the location of the Manningtree witch trials which claimed between 200-400 lives, and despite being the smallest town in England it became the centre of fear, destruction and death. It lies on the southern bank of the River Stour, some ten miles northeast of Colchester and became infamous for its association with Matthew Hopkins, the evil 17th Century (self-proclaimed) Witchfinder General and the man who claimed to hold the Devil's own list of all the witches in England. The period of religious and political upheaval throughout the turbulent years of the English Civil War, coupled with the prevailing rabidly anti-Catholic feeling endemic throughout the puritan population of East Anglia, provided the back-drop to Hopkins' now infamous rise and it was widely thought that several witches in Manningtree regularly practised the dark arts. Although his puritan upbringing certainly gave him the motivation to battle the Devil and all his works, as an impoverished and rather unsuccessful lawyer, Matthew Hopkins was not slow to see the financial benefits such a career and a reign of terror might bring. 21-year-old Manningtree resident Rebecca West is unmarried and resides with her volatile and indomitable widowed mother, Anne Beldam West. They live in abject poverty but Rebecca works as often as she can while also taking care to study the Bible.
Hopkins’ campaign targeted single women as they were viewed with deep suspicion in a time when you were supposed to be under the control of a husband or father. The terror and fear unattached widowed and independent local women felt was palpable and impacted their lives greatly. The witch-hunting was to follow a depressingly familiar pattern of popular denunciation, examination, interrogation and ultimately, execution. The torturing of witches to obtain their confession involved sleep deprivation, the use of tight restraints to induce cramps and starvation diets. The sentence of death when it came was by hanging. Hopkins also favoured the infamous "swimming" test, binding the suspect's limbs together and lowering them into the village pond. The logic was murderously simply: God's pure water would reject a witch, causing her to float, while the innocence of those who sank and drowned would assure them of a place in heaven. This is at once a horrific and stunningly beautiful historical novel with a scintillating and enthralling plot and a thoroughly twisty narrative. The atmosphere Blakemore creates is chilling and oppressively claustrophobic and it's clear the book has been extensively researched. The characters are based on genuine people and the historical aspects are all authentic with the vivid descriptions transporting you with ease back in time to an impoverished, filthy town. Told in richly-detailed prose from Rebecca's perspective and with a sense of intense foreboding from the very beginning, this is a dark, disturbing read and tells the tale of terror, superstition, envy, religious zealotry, extreme misogyny and the suffering caused due to misplaced fear of the women. Highly recommended.
Hopkins’ campaign targeted single women as they were viewed with deep suspicion in a time when you were supposed to be under the control of a husband or father. The terror and fear unattached widowed and independent local women felt was palpable and impacted their lives greatly. The witch-hunting was to follow a depressingly familiar pattern of popular denunciation, examination, interrogation and ultimately, execution. The torturing of witches to obtain their confession involved sleep deprivation, the use of tight restraints to induce cramps and starvation diets. The sentence of death when it came was by hanging. Hopkins also favoured the infamous "swimming" test, binding the suspect's limbs together and lowering them into the village pond. The logic was murderously simply: God's pure water would reject a witch, causing her to float, while the innocence of those who sank and drowned would assure them of a place in heaven. This is at once a horrific and stunningly beautiful historical novel with a scintillating and enthralling plot and a thoroughly twisty narrative. The atmosphere Blakemore creates is chilling and oppressively claustrophobic and it's clear the book has been extensively researched. The characters are based on genuine people and the historical aspects are all authentic with the vivid descriptions transporting you with ease back in time to an impoverished, filthy town. Told in richly-detailed prose from Rebecca's perspective and with a sense of intense foreboding from the very beginning, this is a dark, disturbing read and tells the tale of terror, superstition, envy, religious zealotry, extreme misogyny and the suffering caused due to misplaced fear of the women. Highly recommended.
March 24, 2022
I’m sorry to say but I was bored throughout the whole book. The writing although lyrical was very uneven and jumpy.
I have to give credit where credit is due, and say that the research into real historical events and their incorporation into the narrative was very well done and thorough. However, there are way too many issues with characterisation, atmosphere and the tone of the narrative.
The characters seem to have changing personalities, in particular Rebecca’s. One time she’s well-read, strong and independent and the next she’s ignorant, foolish and naive. And that was not because of some scheme of hers as we follow her story in first person narration, so we very well know her thoughts and intentions.
Which brings me to the fact that first person narration is a bit of an odd choice for historical fiction. In particular, when the author tries to include manners of speech and vocabulary from the 17th century in dialogues and text. It just disconnects the reader from the story and the characters. A weird mix of first and third person narrative was also used in parts where our MC wasn’t present and that’s just odd overall.
All in all, it was an oddly slow and long read although it is under 300 pages long. It lacked atmosphere and lacked the whole wickedness and horror of witch trials. The characters are mostly uninteresting and so is the fate that awaits them. I think that the narration style let it down as the writing itself is poetic and pretty.
I have to give credit where credit is due, and say that the research into real historical events and their incorporation into the narrative was very well done and thorough. However, there are way too many issues with characterisation, atmosphere and the tone of the narrative.
The characters seem to have changing personalities, in particular Rebecca’s. One time she’s well-read, strong and independent and the next she’s ignorant, foolish and naive. And that was not because of some scheme of hers as we follow her story in first person narration, so we very well know her thoughts and intentions.
Which brings me to the fact that first person narration is a bit of an odd choice for historical fiction. In particular, when the author tries to include manners of speech and vocabulary from the 17th century in dialogues and text. It just disconnects the reader from the story and the characters. A weird mix of first and third person narrative was also used in parts where our MC wasn’t present and that’s just odd overall.
All in all, it was an oddly slow and long read although it is under 300 pages long. It lacked atmosphere and lacked the whole wickedness and horror of witch trials. The characters are mostly uninteresting and so is the fate that awaits them. I think that the narration style let it down as the writing itself is poetic and pretty.
December 13, 2021
Rural England, 1643. Rebecca West lives with her mother in a rundown house, in the miserable hamlet of Manningtree. They manage to scrape a living as seamstresses but times are tough. Most of the men are away fighting wars and food is often scarce. It seems like the only prospect of hope or happiness for Rebecca lies in her crush on the town clerk John Edes, who teaches her Scripture once a week. Tongues are set wagging in the village upon the arrival of Matthew Hopkins, a wealthy and mysterious individual. A short time after, a local boy becomes ill with unusual symptoms, leading Hopkins and some other men to conclude that he has been possessed by the devil. Suspicion falls upon Rebecca's mother, and along with some other women she is arrested and charged with witchcraft.
The plot of this atmospheric novel is based on real events. Back in the 1640s, Matthew Hopkins was known as the Witchfinder General, and he was responsible for the execution of up to three hundred women under the charge of witchcraft. The author does a wonderful job of capturing the mood of country under stress. With war and famine on the minds of so many citizens, it's not surprising that a religious fervour came to the fore, with people more than willing to blame bad fortune on the devil and his female recruits. AK Blakemore conjures a worthy heroine in Rebecca, a tough and thoughtful girl who is easy to root for. I found the chapters that focused on Hopkins less successful - I never fully understood his motivations or where his overbearing sense of morality came from. Still, this is a fine debut, and it brings a fascinating period of English history to life in an evocative way.
The plot of this atmospheric novel is based on real events. Back in the 1640s, Matthew Hopkins was known as the Witchfinder General, and he was responsible for the execution of up to three hundred women under the charge of witchcraft. The author does a wonderful job of capturing the mood of country under stress. With war and famine on the minds of so many citizens, it's not surprising that a religious fervour came to the fore, with people more than willing to blame bad fortune on the devil and his female recruits. AK Blakemore conjures a worthy heroine in Rebecca, a tough and thoughtful girl who is easy to root for. I found the chapters that focused on Hopkins less successful - I never fully understood his motivations or where his overbearing sense of morality came from. Still, this is a fine debut, and it brings a fascinating period of English history to life in an evocative way.
September 10, 2021
This was a very well written and researched novel. The entire premise was very interesting as is the history of this dark time in 17th century England. The abuse of power, the complete helplessness of those accused and the absolute fear among the residents of small communities was very well depicted. I wanted to like it but I was just bored a lot of the time. The narrator for the story did a great job with the accents but I just couldn't get into the story. It is a very slow paced story that has a satisfying ending. I think it was just not a story for me.
September 15, 2021
“Just like a man to suggest the most obvious thing in the world as though it might be revelation to a woman’s cottony mind. When it seems to me all the most obvious things in the world must be done by women, or else they wouldn’t get done.”
THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES
Thank you NetGalley, A.K. Blakemore, and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to read this book, the audiobook will be released September 23rd!
The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore is narrated by Sofia Zervudachi. It is 1643 and to be frank, not the greatest time period for women. England is currently in the midst of a Civil War and then there is the rise of the Puritans. Rebecca West lives in Manningtree. She is poor and unmarried. Her mother, Beldam West is a widow and is quite feared in the community. However, fear is everywhere these days. Rebecca West has eyes for the clerk, John Edes. He teaches her about the bible, and how to read and write. She can’t help but have a little hope that one day he may turn his eyes on her. But then a man named, Matthew Hopkins comes to town. He makes it his business to know what is going on in town and if there is anything suspicious happening. Suddenly, a child succumbs to raging fits. He mentions the devil and familiars. Accusations are made and one wrong turn can send a woman to the gallows.
When you think of the Witch Trials, what comes to mind? That’s right, Salem. But I was shocked how many people don’t realize that there were Witch Trials all throughout Europe. One of the things that I loved most about this book is the research that went into it. In fact, the “villain” is none other than Matthew Hopkins. Matthew Hopkins was a prominent figure during the English Civil War and his title: The Witchfinder General. Just a quick search and you will find that he was the reason for the execution of more than 100 “accused witches” in just two years. Most were women. He wrote the book, The Discovery of Witches and he claimed he started his career in Manningtree. So when he is introduced in this book, I got chills. As you are reading, you can feel the sense of dread whenever he is in the scene.
The women are the stars of this book thought. Rebecca West, Judith, their mothers…they were poor women in a society who hated women in general. With the story being partly from Rebecca West’s point-of-view the author is giving her power and her voice, the voice of women who were often silenced. While the beginning is a little slow, it sure picks up. It did get some Crucible vibes as well and the prose is outstanding. Don’t get me started on the narrator. She was amazing! It felt like she was acting out every word and we only had the audio. I could almost hear her actually crying whenever there were tears involved. This is an excellent book to add to your Witchy lists! I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars!
THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES
Thank you NetGalley, A.K. Blakemore, and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to read this book, the audiobook will be released September 23rd!
The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore is narrated by Sofia Zervudachi. It is 1643 and to be frank, not the greatest time period for women. England is currently in the midst of a Civil War and then there is the rise of the Puritans. Rebecca West lives in Manningtree. She is poor and unmarried. Her mother, Beldam West is a widow and is quite feared in the community. However, fear is everywhere these days. Rebecca West has eyes for the clerk, John Edes. He teaches her about the bible, and how to read and write. She can’t help but have a little hope that one day he may turn his eyes on her. But then a man named, Matthew Hopkins comes to town. He makes it his business to know what is going on in town and if there is anything suspicious happening. Suddenly, a child succumbs to raging fits. He mentions the devil and familiars. Accusations are made and one wrong turn can send a woman to the gallows.
When you think of the Witch Trials, what comes to mind? That’s right, Salem. But I was shocked how many people don’t realize that there were Witch Trials all throughout Europe. One of the things that I loved most about this book is the research that went into it. In fact, the “villain” is none other than Matthew Hopkins. Matthew Hopkins was a prominent figure during the English Civil War and his title: The Witchfinder General. Just a quick search and you will find that he was the reason for the execution of more than 100 “accused witches” in just two years. Most were women. He wrote the book, The Discovery of Witches and he claimed he started his career in Manningtree. So when he is introduced in this book, I got chills. As you are reading, you can feel the sense of dread whenever he is in the scene.
The women are the stars of this book thought. Rebecca West, Judith, their mothers…they were poor women in a society who hated women in general. With the story being partly from Rebecca West’s point-of-view the author is giving her power and her voice, the voice of women who were often silenced. While the beginning is a little slow, it sure picks up. It did get some Crucible vibes as well and the prose is outstanding. Don’t get me started on the narrator. She was amazing! It felt like she was acting out every word and we only had the audio. I could almost hear her actually crying whenever there were tears involved. This is an excellent book to add to your Witchy lists! I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars!
May 29, 2022
This was a book I have been wanting to read since my friends in the Mookse group tipped it for some of last year's prize lists - it also won the Desmond Elliott Prize for first novels. It is not Blakemore's first book, because she was already a published poet.
The book tells the story of the witch trials during the English Civil War through the story of a group of women in Manningtree. Most of the stranger elements are taken from historical records, but Blakemore makes it more personal by making its narrator a young woman Rebecca West, also a real person, whose mother was one of the victims and who was also suspected of witchcraft, but whose ultimate fate was not recorded. Apart from the victims, the other main character is the notorious Matthew Hopkins, self-styled Witchfinder General, who lived in the village.
Blakemore's command of the historical elements is impressive, and her story is engaging and well written. A fine debut.
The book tells the story of the witch trials during the English Civil War through the story of a group of women in Manningtree. Most of the stranger elements are taken from historical records, but Blakemore makes it more personal by making its narrator a young woman Rebecca West, also a real person, whose mother was one of the victims and who was also suspected of witchcraft, but whose ultimate fate was not recorded. Apart from the victims, the other main character is the notorious Matthew Hopkins, self-styled Witchfinder General, who lived in the village.
Blakemore's command of the historical elements is impressive, and her story is engaging and well written. A fine debut.
June 22, 2023
Couldn’t finish this book, abandoned at page 70.
I really wanted to love this but it was just so hard to get into.
The concept was good but the overly poetic language didn’t work for me - It felt like the episode of friends where joey writes monica & chandlers letter of recommendation and uses a thesaurus on every word.
I really wanted to love this but it was just so hard to get into.
The concept was good but the overly poetic language didn’t work for me - It felt like the episode of friends where joey writes monica & chandlers letter of recommendation and uses a thesaurus on every word.
June 12, 2021
I really, really wanted to like this book but I found the way it was written to be really... non-reader friendly? I don’t know, I just didn’t enjoy the way it was written. There were a lot of character names which felt similar to me and I found it confusing who was who sometimes. Some characters didn’t feel particularly developed and the story felt lacking in some places. It felt like a real drag to read, hence why it took me about a month as I couldn’t motivate myself to read it. However — this could totally just be me missing some big part of the story and also just not being able to appreciate the way this author has written. I can recognise that the way it is written is beautiful, but I felt unable to engage with it in the way I would have liked. Would definitely buy for a friend who has a different reading style to me!
July 5, 2021
Set in the 1640, during England's Civil War, A.K. Blakemore's The Manningtree Witches is, without a doubt, the most perceptive, most beautifully written novel exploring witch trials that I've read. While not a huge genre, there definitely is a core body of witch trial novels and Blakemore's novel rises above all of them.
Why?
• It's historically informed, drawing on trial transcripts, legal documents, and other writing from that period. The characters based on historical figures appear to be true to their lives as documented in the historical record.
• The language it's written in is historically appropriate and downright beautiful, without heavy-handed pretensions.
• While modern readers can identify with Rebecca, the central character, she hasn't been turned into a present-day everywoman. Blakemore creates her as a woman of her time.
• It isn't a clear cut, good guys/bad guys novel. Some characters are more sympathetic than others, but none of them are the sort of self-assured caricatures that often populate with trial fiction. Even the characters we hate because of their certainty have occasional doubts.
• The novel allows readers to reflect on their own time, but never lets them forget that their time and the time of the novel are substantially different.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.
Why?
• It's historically informed, drawing on trial transcripts, legal documents, and other writing from that period. The characters based on historical figures appear to be true to their lives as documented in the historical record.
• The language it's written in is historically appropriate and downright beautiful, without heavy-handed pretensions.
• While modern readers can identify with Rebecca, the central character, she hasn't been turned into a present-day everywoman. Blakemore creates her as a woman of her time.
• It isn't a clear cut, good guys/bad guys novel. Some characters are more sympathetic than others, but none of them are the sort of self-assured caricatures that often populate with trial fiction. Even the characters we hate because of their certainty have occasional doubts.
• The novel allows readers to reflect on their own time, but never lets them forget that their time and the time of the novel are substantially different.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.
August 5, 2024
In this dark tale, the Devil’s work is shown.
Yet 'tis men who reap what they have sown.
For Hopkins, with his fervent quest.
Finds in his heart, no peace or rest.
A tale of woe, a tale of pain,
In Manningtree, the witches slain.
Simply glorious.
Yet 'tis men who reap what they have sown.
For Hopkins, with his fervent quest.
Finds in his heart, no peace or rest.
A tale of woe, a tale of pain,
In Manningtree, the witches slain.
Simply glorious.
March 22, 2021
Making a mockery of the ratings system here aren’t I? But books must be judged against like books and whilst this is no ‘To the Lighthouse’, it doesn’t set out to be. It is a retelling of the witch trials in Essex, and if that doesn’t get you excited then join the club, but the prose is mesmerisingly good and the story is compelling, filled with sympathetic, well-rounded characters. It is ultimately about the life and plight of women of any time, a tone which can be hard to convey subtly but which Blakemore does with respect, insight, nuance and beauty.
August 17, 2024
Completely OTT in the fancy words department which detracted from the (predictable) plot and fairly interesting array of characters to the point it just made me feel as though the author was showing off and choosing the most obscure words on purpose.
May I suggest The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown instead - a true masterpiece on the subject of Matthew Hopkins ‘Witchfinder General’.
2 ⭐️ - It was okay.
May I suggest The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown instead - a true masterpiece on the subject of Matthew Hopkins ‘Witchfinder General’.
2 ⭐️ - It was okay.
October 11, 2021
It is 1643 in Essex, England. The civil war is raging between the Puritans and Royalists. The time is rife with superstition and fear. Neighbor turns against neighbor. Scapegoats for life’s tragedies are hunted and persecuted. This is the setting for The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore, a blending of fact with fiction of the Puritan witch trials in which several women were executed for witchcraft in 1645 in the village of Manningtree. The protagonist is Rebecca West, the 19-year-old daughter of Beldam West, the ostensible ring-leader of the witches.
Life was never easy in Manningtree, but it takes a turn for the worse when the mysterious Matthew Hopkins, “the witchfinder,” moves into the village. Hopkins is on a mission to ferret out witches and bring them to trial. He gives full vent to his misogynism under the guise of doing “God’s work,” sniffing here and sniffing there until he finds a suitable target. His laser-sharp focus pinpoints weak, vulnerable, impoverished, elderly widows living on the margins of society who are easy prey. Through Rebecca’s eyes, we see the patriarchal hunting machine in full force as it singles out these women, solicits testimony against them, examines their frail bodies for evidence of satanic activities, uses their poverty as a sign of weakness, demonizes their pets, tortures them to solicit confessions, and twists their words to obtain a conviction and execution. Logic and common sense are in short supply. Rebecca, caught in the web of conspiracy against these women because of her mother, is temporarily incarcerated with them but obtains her release by telling the patriarchal court what it wants to hear.
The novel unfolds primarily through Rebecca’s first-person point of view. But it shifts sporadically to third person to describe scenes and events in which Rebecca is not present. These unnecessary shifts can be jarring and confusing. Rebecca’s diction is detailed and evocative. Replicating the idioms of 17th century England, it is replete with graphic descriptions, pungent odors, and immersive imagery. The diction is generally effective but can occasionally veer toward being too flowery and obscure.
The novel’s strength lies in its realistic character portrayals and in its lyrical description of the sights, sounds, smells, squalor, and poverty of 17th century England. Superstition, fear, Puritan fervor, lies, petty jealousies, and betrayal coalesce to scapegoat destitute women living on the fringes of society. The tension gradually builds up as layer upon layer of “evidence” against the women accumulates until the unthinkable happens.
The portrayal of the misogynistic Matthew Hopkins, clothed head to toe in black, is particularly effective as he sniffs around for vulnerable, elderly women to victimize. He is simultaneously sexually aroused and repulsed by a woman’s flesh. Rebecca’s mother, the fearless Beldam, emerges as the most powerful female. She is a crone in every sense of the word—a woman who refuses to be intimidated by the patriarchy, who will not submit to male domination regardless of the consequence to her personal safety, who exercises agency, and whose voice is not silenced until the patriarchy puts the noose around her neck to silence it.
An atmospheric plunge into a tragic period in English history. Highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
Life was never easy in Manningtree, but it takes a turn for the worse when the mysterious Matthew Hopkins, “the witchfinder,” moves into the village. Hopkins is on a mission to ferret out witches and bring them to trial. He gives full vent to his misogynism under the guise of doing “God’s work,” sniffing here and sniffing there until he finds a suitable target. His laser-sharp focus pinpoints weak, vulnerable, impoverished, elderly widows living on the margins of society who are easy prey. Through Rebecca’s eyes, we see the patriarchal hunting machine in full force as it singles out these women, solicits testimony against them, examines their frail bodies for evidence of satanic activities, uses their poverty as a sign of weakness, demonizes their pets, tortures them to solicit confessions, and twists their words to obtain a conviction and execution. Logic and common sense are in short supply. Rebecca, caught in the web of conspiracy against these women because of her mother, is temporarily incarcerated with them but obtains her release by telling the patriarchal court what it wants to hear.
The novel unfolds primarily through Rebecca’s first-person point of view. But it shifts sporadically to third person to describe scenes and events in which Rebecca is not present. These unnecessary shifts can be jarring and confusing. Rebecca’s diction is detailed and evocative. Replicating the idioms of 17th century England, it is replete with graphic descriptions, pungent odors, and immersive imagery. The diction is generally effective but can occasionally veer toward being too flowery and obscure.
The novel’s strength lies in its realistic character portrayals and in its lyrical description of the sights, sounds, smells, squalor, and poverty of 17th century England. Superstition, fear, Puritan fervor, lies, petty jealousies, and betrayal coalesce to scapegoat destitute women living on the fringes of society. The tension gradually builds up as layer upon layer of “evidence” against the women accumulates until the unthinkable happens.
The portrayal of the misogynistic Matthew Hopkins, clothed head to toe in black, is particularly effective as he sniffs around for vulnerable, elderly women to victimize. He is simultaneously sexually aroused and repulsed by a woman’s flesh. Rebecca’s mother, the fearless Beldam, emerges as the most powerful female. She is a crone in every sense of the word—a woman who refuses to be intimidated by the patriarchy, who will not submit to male domination regardless of the consequence to her personal safety, who exercises agency, and whose voice is not silenced until the patriarchy puts the noose around her neck to silence it.
An atmospheric plunge into a tragic period in English history. Highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
March 31, 2021
4.5 actual stars
There have been several books recently on witch trials( with another one from author Chris Bohjolian soon to be releasesd) and despite the fact that this is material has been covered before I was still anxious to read this, the synopsis of course was intriguing but this one had me really exited to read and I was thrilled when NetGalley approved me for it.
Set in England 1643, young Rebecca West, her mother and some of the town folk's women have come under the suspicion of being witches. Led by the imposing, dressed in black religious zealot Matthew Hopkins who is aptly named the Witchfinder General, Hopkins becomes a celebrity of sorts among small towns for snuffing out and ridding those who are purported to consort with the Devil. While Rebecca and the women defend themselves against the accusations and betrayals of their neighbors Rebecca becomes attracted to a young clerk, handsome John Edes who ultimately betrays her and while she knows that she must fight for her life to survive, she also must fight against the burgeoning sexual stirrings within her.
The atmosphere of the book was dark and chilling with the Witchfinder's relentless interrogations and his seemingly enjoyment of the persecutions he puts into play. Also what stands out for me about this book is that despite Rebecca's young age, her sensibilities of the situation at stake was deeply introspective and mature for one so young. Her awareness of Matthew Hopkins and his hypocritical pursuit of her and the other women accused was almost amusing to her because she knew he struggled with his own dark desires and sins. Her calm demeanor with everything going around her and the lives at stake I think led her to accept her fate but also do what she must do in order to survive. Rebecca's story was more than just a story of persecution but a deeply felt look into her soul and the reasoning of others involved in the witch hunts. Recommended.
Thank you to author A.K Blakemore and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.
There have been several books recently on witch trials( with another one from author Chris Bohjolian soon to be releasesd) and despite the fact that this is material has been covered before I was still anxious to read this, the synopsis of course was intriguing but this one had me really exited to read and I was thrilled when NetGalley approved me for it.
Set in England 1643, young Rebecca West, her mother and some of the town folk's women have come under the suspicion of being witches. Led by the imposing, dressed in black religious zealot Matthew Hopkins who is aptly named the Witchfinder General, Hopkins becomes a celebrity of sorts among small towns for snuffing out and ridding those who are purported to consort with the Devil. While Rebecca and the women defend themselves against the accusations and betrayals of their neighbors Rebecca becomes attracted to a young clerk, handsome John Edes who ultimately betrays her and while she knows that she must fight for her life to survive, she also must fight against the burgeoning sexual stirrings within her.
The atmosphere of the book was dark and chilling with the Witchfinder's relentless interrogations and his seemingly enjoyment of the persecutions he puts into play. Also what stands out for me about this book is that despite Rebecca's young age, her sensibilities of the situation at stake was deeply introspective and mature for one so young. Her awareness of Matthew Hopkins and his hypocritical pursuit of her and the other women accused was almost amusing to her because she knew he struggled with his own dark desires and sins. Her calm demeanor with everything going around her and the lives at stake I think led her to accept her fate but also do what she must do in order to survive. Rebecca's story was more than just a story of persecution but a deeply felt look into her soul and the reasoning of others involved in the witch hunts. Recommended.
Thank you to author A.K Blakemore and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.
June 10, 2022
As has caught me before, I’d completed my review on the Kindle pop-up, then went to post it, and it popped down, never to be seen again. WITCH!
The time it took me to read this book is no reflection on how much I liked it, it’s just that other books got in the way.
The mid 1640s were a dangerous time to be a woman - especially a widowed or otherwise husbandless one, an elderly one, or one with a knowledge of healing. The menfolk are mostly away at war, and the Puritanical purge of imposing Godliness on everyone is under full swing. However, the (to our enlightened age) uneducated population have nothing to blame the misfortunes on, until suspicion falls upon the aforementioned women. Crops failed? Witch! Neighbour miscarried? Witch! Stock died? Witch!
In retrospect, it’d have been pretty easy to cop an accusation, and the book highlights the cases of those who accused, a type of kill-or-be-killed of the time.
Rebecca West, along with her mother, and other women of the village, are accused of witchcraft, and are sent to stand trial. Noted famous or infamous, depending upon which side of the dock you’re standing, witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins takes charge of the cases, and the reader is along for the ride. This book finds the balance between historical facts and situations, and a fictional story of a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Also recommended for a lighter view on the same issue: the BBC sitcom The Witchfinder. Not terribly historically accurate, but a good diversion.
The time it took me to read this book is no reflection on how much I liked it, it’s just that other books got in the way.
The mid 1640s were a dangerous time to be a woman - especially a widowed or otherwise husbandless one, an elderly one, or one with a knowledge of healing. The menfolk are mostly away at war, and the Puritanical purge of imposing Godliness on everyone is under full swing. However, the (to our enlightened age) uneducated population have nothing to blame the misfortunes on, until suspicion falls upon the aforementioned women. Crops failed? Witch! Neighbour miscarried? Witch! Stock died? Witch!
In retrospect, it’d have been pretty easy to cop an accusation, and the book highlights the cases of those who accused, a type of kill-or-be-killed of the time.
Rebecca West, along with her mother, and other women of the village, are accused of witchcraft, and are sent to stand trial. Noted famous or infamous, depending upon which side of the dock you’re standing, witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins takes charge of the cases, and the reader is along for the ride. This book finds the balance between historical facts and situations, and a fictional story of a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Also recommended for a lighter view on the same issue: the BBC sitcom The Witchfinder. Not terribly historically accurate, but a good diversion.
December 3, 2021
Undoubtedly a superbly written book. However, for whatever reason (and it could well just have been the mood I was in at the time) I did find it quite hard work and found myself unexcited to keep picking it up. I'd be really interested to see what Blakemore does next though.
July 8, 2021
The evil that men do…
It is 1643, the time of the English Civil War. In the town of Manningtree in Essex, men are scarce as the young and fit are off fighting. Rebecca West and her widowed mother are among the women who live on the margins of society, looked down on by the respectable matrons of the town for the crimes of being poor and husbandless. But when Matthew Hopkins arrives in town bringing his Puritanical ideas regarding witches, suddenly these women are seen as a threat – the cause of any ill which may befall one of the town’s worthy residents. And when Matthew Hopkins decides to style himself Witchfinder, the women find themselves in danger…
This is a re-imagining of the true story of the Essex witch trials of 1644-7, led by Hopkins and resulting in the deaths of many women, several of them from Manningtree and Mistley where the book is set. Hopkins died young and very little is known of him other than his witchfinding, and the women are mostly known only through the records of the trials, so Blakemore has created her story from little more than bare bones. In the afterword, she suggests that her aim was to give a voice to these voiceless women, and to tell the story of the persecuted rather than the persecutor. I’d say she succeeds very well.
Rebecca tells us the story in her own voice, and it is certainly not the voice of a shrinking victim. She may be powerless but she has strong opinions and a rebellious nature, and a sense of humour that helps her through the darkest times. She recognises the unfairness in society between rich and poor, man and woman, but there’s nothing she can do to change that so her aim is to get through life as best she can regardless. She has the benefit of physical attractiveness, but her low social status means that men are likely to look to her for sex rather than marriage. She doesn’t think of her mother and her friends as witches, but she knows they have a lot of superstitions, use folklore remedies in treating illnesses, and are not beyond cursing their irreproachable neighbours when angered.
England has been a religious mess since Henry VIII, and the “true faith” has changed so many times it feels understandable that Rebecca and her kind have developed a kind of cynicism over the whole subject. Hopkins, however, is a righteous man, sure of his faith, the most important line in his personal Bible being “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”. Or is it that he’s simply a straightforward religious misogynist, interpreting his sexual feelings towards women through the prism of his Biblical belief that all women are a) sinful and b) cursed? Blakemore gives the reader room to believe either version of him, or both.
The story itself is well told, with an excellent mix of light and dark – the light provided by Rebecca’s resilience and humour, and the dark by the events in which she finds herself caught up. I felt that perhaps the winding-up section at the end went on a little too long, somewhat reducing the impact of the trial and its aftermath, but otherwise I felt the pacing was good, holding my interest throughout.
There is, however, one major problem with the book which prevents me giving it the full five stars, and that, I’m afraid, is in the writing. Blakemore clearly has a lot of talent, but my one piece of advice to her would be to throw out the thesaurus and buy a good dictionary. It is much better to use a plain word correctly than a fancy word wrongly: for example, “rubbing one hand on a sordid apron” – yes, in some contexts sordid and dirty can be synonyms, but not this one. Then there are the shrieking anachronisms – “for shits and giggles”, “coin-operated”, “smack me upside the head”, etc. And the plain errors – who instead of whom, and so on. And sometimes the descriptive passages run away with her completely – “The sunbeams bouncing in through the parlour window feel like hot spindles to his eyes, and slice right through the soft, compromised meat of his head” or “While marching orders and tactical directives deliquesce on the brumal winds, the pyrotechnics of imminent apocalypse shimmer just as rosily on the ice-bound horizon as they ever did.” I hasten to add it’s not all like this by any means – for the most part her writing is very good, but she is clearly trying too hard to be “creative”, and there’s enough of it that it was a constant irritation to me, and took away from my ability to get lost in the story. It is ultimately the author’s responsibility to get the writing right, but yet again I have to ask, what did the editor do to earn his/her fee with this one?
The fact that I still enjoyed it despite these problems is an indication of the strengths of the story, the characterisation and Blakemore’s underlying writing talent. Hopefully as she gains experience she will learn to rely on these things and not stretch too far in a bid for an original turn of phrase. I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Granta Publications.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
It is 1643, the time of the English Civil War. In the town of Manningtree in Essex, men are scarce as the young and fit are off fighting. Rebecca West and her widowed mother are among the women who live on the margins of society, looked down on by the respectable matrons of the town for the crimes of being poor and husbandless. But when Matthew Hopkins arrives in town bringing his Puritanical ideas regarding witches, suddenly these women are seen as a threat – the cause of any ill which may befall one of the town’s worthy residents. And when Matthew Hopkins decides to style himself Witchfinder, the women find themselves in danger…
This is a re-imagining of the true story of the Essex witch trials of 1644-7, led by Hopkins and resulting in the deaths of many women, several of them from Manningtree and Mistley where the book is set. Hopkins died young and very little is known of him other than his witchfinding, and the women are mostly known only through the records of the trials, so Blakemore has created her story from little more than bare bones. In the afterword, she suggests that her aim was to give a voice to these voiceless women, and to tell the story of the persecuted rather than the persecutor. I’d say she succeeds very well.
Rebecca tells us the story in her own voice, and it is certainly not the voice of a shrinking victim. She may be powerless but she has strong opinions and a rebellious nature, and a sense of humour that helps her through the darkest times. She recognises the unfairness in society between rich and poor, man and woman, but there’s nothing she can do to change that so her aim is to get through life as best she can regardless. She has the benefit of physical attractiveness, but her low social status means that men are likely to look to her for sex rather than marriage. She doesn’t think of her mother and her friends as witches, but she knows they have a lot of superstitions, use folklore remedies in treating illnesses, and are not beyond cursing their irreproachable neighbours when angered.
England has been a religious mess since Henry VIII, and the “true faith” has changed so many times it feels understandable that Rebecca and her kind have developed a kind of cynicism over the whole subject. Hopkins, however, is a righteous man, sure of his faith, the most important line in his personal Bible being “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”. Or is it that he’s simply a straightforward religious misogynist, interpreting his sexual feelings towards women through the prism of his Biblical belief that all women are a) sinful and b) cursed? Blakemore gives the reader room to believe either version of him, or both.
The story itself is well told, with an excellent mix of light and dark – the light provided by Rebecca’s resilience and humour, and the dark by the events in which she finds herself caught up. I felt that perhaps the winding-up section at the end went on a little too long, somewhat reducing the impact of the trial and its aftermath, but otherwise I felt the pacing was good, holding my interest throughout.
There is, however, one major problem with the book which prevents me giving it the full five stars, and that, I’m afraid, is in the writing. Blakemore clearly has a lot of talent, but my one piece of advice to her would be to throw out the thesaurus and buy a good dictionary. It is much better to use a plain word correctly than a fancy word wrongly: for example, “rubbing one hand on a sordid apron” – yes, in some contexts sordid and dirty can be synonyms, but not this one. Then there are the shrieking anachronisms – “for shits and giggles”, “coin-operated”, “smack me upside the head”, etc. And the plain errors – who instead of whom, and so on. And sometimes the descriptive passages run away with her completely – “The sunbeams bouncing in through the parlour window feel like hot spindles to his eyes, and slice right through the soft, compromised meat of his head” or “While marching orders and tactical directives deliquesce on the brumal winds, the pyrotechnics of imminent apocalypse shimmer just as rosily on the ice-bound horizon as they ever did.” I hasten to add it’s not all like this by any means – for the most part her writing is very good, but she is clearly trying too hard to be “creative”, and there’s enough of it that it was a constant irritation to me, and took away from my ability to get lost in the story. It is ultimately the author’s responsibility to get the writing right, but yet again I have to ask, what did the editor do to earn his/her fee with this one?
The fact that I still enjoyed it despite these problems is an indication of the strengths of the story, the characterisation and Blakemore’s underlying writing talent. Hopefully as she gains experience she will learn to rely on these things and not stretch too far in a bid for an original turn of phrase. I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Granta Publications.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
May 14, 2021
The setting for A. K. Blakemore’s book of fiction, The Manningtree Witches, is England during the First Civil War. The Puritans were waging a war against Catholicism while advocating purity and piety. According to Matthew Hopkins—in his book The Discovery of Witches--it was while in Manningtree during this time that he began his career as a Witchfinder General.
From 1644-1647, Mathew Hopkins is thought to have overseen the execution of between 100-300 women and men for Maleficium: act of witchcraft. With John Stearne and female assistants, allegations set forth by the aggrieved were investigated utilizing witch-pricking (jabbing needles into sores and marks. If there is no pain or blood, they are a witch). Master Hopkins was often compensated for his services, sometimes earning 23 pounds which today amounts to 3,800 pounds ($5,373.57).
Women accounted for the vast majority of people accused of witchcraft. They were the spinsters, old, independent, needy, educated, etc. of the community; the ones that did not fit the paradigm of wife or mother. As such, they were seen as being unfeminine and expendable; a threat to the patriarchy. As Rebecca West says in this book, “Men like to keep women under their power by force” (chapter 26).
Rebecca West is the teenaged daughter of Beldam (an ugly, old woman)—Anne, and the person relating the majority of this story. They—along with widow Clarke (aka The Crone), Helen Clarke, Anne Leech, Margaret Moone, and Elizabeth Goodwin—are accused of being members of a coven of witches. Of these six, four are widows. They are accused of Maleficia such as causing a miscarriage; the death of a woman, a mule, and cattle; and in Bedlam West’s case, causing the wreck of a ship and the death of all aboard.
The frenzy begins when the 25-year-old Mathew Hopkins comes to Manningtree and starts delivering sermons that center on witches and the devil. Many of his lessons lean towards the salacious. For example, when instructing the citizenry about Sathan, he states that he is in, “moist places of the forest…to lame the horse of a gentleman…or find a place to nestle warm between the parted thighs of some country lass, whereon she dreams of marriage to a Turk who uses his tongue down there” (chapter 4).
Rebecca is an interesting young woman who wages an internal struggle between her religion, and her feelings and desires. She is attracted to John Edes, a man teaching her the Puritan catechism, and how to read and write. Rebecca sees this kind man as a way out of her present situation of poverty. There aren’t many men in town (see Bedlam West’s crime). Her turmoil is exemplified during a lesson in John Edes room. Rebecca is contemplating an erotic dream she had the previous night. While sitting close to him, she cannot stop admiring his looks, his hands, his accidental touch. As they are discussing that sin defiles the whole man, that the devil resides in everyone, she ponders, “If he saw me and knew me truly, he would despise me, despise what it is I hold inside me. I wonder if this is what all women eventually come to know—a choice each comes to make between obscuring her true self in exchange for the false regard of a good man, or allowing herself the freedom to be as she truly is as broken, as course, as hopeless as he. Or is it only me?”
(chapter 7)
I enjoyed this book. It is about a subject I’ve read up on, and it brings to fictional life some of the people involved. The only thing that bothered me was the extensive vocabulary. I wound up looking up 47 words, and I consider myself somewhat more literate than Rebecca who uttered/thought them. Yes, some of them could be seen from that time, but others like tumesce, battology, intransigence, and termagant had to be looked up. I have no problem with this myself, but it interrupted my enjoyment of this book.
I’d like to thank NetGalley and Catapult Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.
From 1644-1647, Mathew Hopkins is thought to have overseen the execution of between 100-300 women and men for Maleficium: act of witchcraft. With John Stearne and female assistants, allegations set forth by the aggrieved were investigated utilizing witch-pricking (jabbing needles into sores and marks. If there is no pain or blood, they are a witch). Master Hopkins was often compensated for his services, sometimes earning 23 pounds which today amounts to 3,800 pounds ($5,373.57).
Women accounted for the vast majority of people accused of witchcraft. They were the spinsters, old, independent, needy, educated, etc. of the community; the ones that did not fit the paradigm of wife or mother. As such, they were seen as being unfeminine and expendable; a threat to the patriarchy. As Rebecca West says in this book, “Men like to keep women under their power by force” (chapter 26).
Rebecca West is the teenaged daughter of Beldam (an ugly, old woman)—Anne, and the person relating the majority of this story. They—along with widow Clarke (aka The Crone), Helen Clarke, Anne Leech, Margaret Moone, and Elizabeth Goodwin—are accused of being members of a coven of witches. Of these six, four are widows. They are accused of Maleficia such as causing a miscarriage; the death of a woman, a mule, and cattle; and in Bedlam West’s case, causing the wreck of a ship and the death of all aboard.
The frenzy begins when the 25-year-old Mathew Hopkins comes to Manningtree and starts delivering sermons that center on witches and the devil. Many of his lessons lean towards the salacious. For example, when instructing the citizenry about Sathan, he states that he is in, “moist places of the forest…to lame the horse of a gentleman…or find a place to nestle warm between the parted thighs of some country lass, whereon she dreams of marriage to a Turk who uses his tongue down there” (chapter 4).
Rebecca is an interesting young woman who wages an internal struggle between her religion, and her feelings and desires. She is attracted to John Edes, a man teaching her the Puritan catechism, and how to read and write. Rebecca sees this kind man as a way out of her present situation of poverty. There aren’t many men in town (see Bedlam West’s crime). Her turmoil is exemplified during a lesson in John Edes room. Rebecca is contemplating an erotic dream she had the previous night. While sitting close to him, she cannot stop admiring his looks, his hands, his accidental touch. As they are discussing that sin defiles the whole man, that the devil resides in everyone, she ponders, “If he saw me and knew me truly, he would despise me, despise what it is I hold inside me. I wonder if this is what all women eventually come to know—a choice each comes to make between obscuring her true self in exchange for the false regard of a good man, or allowing herself the freedom to be as she truly is as broken, as course, as hopeless as he. Or is it only me?”
(chapter 7)
I enjoyed this book. It is about a subject I’ve read up on, and it brings to fictional life some of the people involved. The only thing that bothered me was the extensive vocabulary. I wound up looking up 47 words, and I consider myself somewhat more literate than Rebecca who uttered/thought them. Yes, some of them could be seen from that time, but others like tumesce, battology, intransigence, and termagant had to be looked up. I have no problem with this myself, but it interrupted my enjoyment of this book.
I’d like to thank NetGalley and Catapult Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.
September 4, 2021
“We are like two tree’s that have grown entangled in the denseness of the wood. Ripping at each other’s branches in the wind.”
I just finished listening to The Manningtree Witches, a fictional story built around a horrifying truth, and I am still lingering in the atmosphere that A.K. Blakemore has created. I loved it so much that I’ve ordered a hard cover copy to add to my shelves.
Set in the 1640’s, it’s narrated primarily by Rebecca West who lives with her widowed mother, Beldam West. As the Puritanical intensity and battle against paganism rises, so do the accusations of witchcraft and consorting with the devil. Beset by the new inn-keeper, Matthew Hopkins, himself a self-proclaimed witch finder, he leads an attack against the women of Manningtree and beyond. Hopkins and his misogynistic followers soon imprison, victimize and execute many of the women of the county that are labeled as witches – especially those seen as not repentant against the sins they’ve committed.
“If you’re on the right end of the scaffold, do you watch those to the left of you twist? Do you watch them die attentively to better understand what is to happen to you or is it best not to?”
This is a gorgeously written and emotive historical fiction with strong themes of friendship, courage, hopelessness and duplicity in the face of a bleak situation.
Narration: Sofia Zervudachi does an exceptional job – she carried the exceptional prose beautifully. A true delight to listen to.
There is much to be learned from the past in this unsettlingly dark and insightful story; I cannot recommend it highly enough!
My thanks to Dreamscape Media for the gifted ALC!
I just finished listening to The Manningtree Witches, a fictional story built around a horrifying truth, and I am still lingering in the atmosphere that A.K. Blakemore has created. I loved it so much that I’ve ordered a hard cover copy to add to my shelves.
Set in the 1640’s, it’s narrated primarily by Rebecca West who lives with her widowed mother, Beldam West. As the Puritanical intensity and battle against paganism rises, so do the accusations of witchcraft and consorting with the devil. Beset by the new inn-keeper, Matthew Hopkins, himself a self-proclaimed witch finder, he leads an attack against the women of Manningtree and beyond. Hopkins and his misogynistic followers soon imprison, victimize and execute many of the women of the county that are labeled as witches – especially those seen as not repentant against the sins they’ve committed.
“If you’re on the right end of the scaffold, do you watch those to the left of you twist? Do you watch them die attentively to better understand what is to happen to you or is it best not to?”
This is a gorgeously written and emotive historical fiction with strong themes of friendship, courage, hopelessness and duplicity in the face of a bleak situation.
Narration: Sofia Zervudachi does an exceptional job – she carried the exceptional prose beautifully. A true delight to listen to.
There is much to be learned from the past in this unsettlingly dark and insightful story; I cannot recommend it highly enough!
My thanks to Dreamscape Media for the gifted ALC!
August 2, 2022
The Manningtree Witches is just as it sounds; it’s a book telling the story of some witches in Manningtree in the 1600s. To be a little more specific, these ladies have not claimed themselves as witches. Instead, they have been accused by self- proclaimed witch hunter, Matthew Hopkins.
The 1600s also brings a charming, folky style of language that almost feels like a bed-time story narration. The language is bouncy and rhythmical, but in just the right way – I say as somebody who struggles with classics due to their flowery riddles. Let’s look at the opening, for example, ‘A hill wet with brume of morning, one haw berry bush squalid with browning flowers. I have woken up and out on my work dress, which is my only dress’. See, I told you – delicious.
The themes covered in this book are also top notch. We’re obviously talking about a lot of feminist topics due to the Manningtree supposed witches being all female. Ageing, motherhood, dating, virginity, sex, rape. That’s all covered. Then there’s poverty, classism, imprisonment, and lots of reflections on death.
As you’ve probably picked up, this is not a happy book in terms of its plot. But – and I might sound a little mad saying this – it’s one I enjoyed a great deal. Its slow paced and sombre tone make it peaceful and comparable to another of my all- time favourites – I Who Have Never Known Men. As with all slow burners, this book requires patience, but I am officially instructing you to stick with it because The Manningtree Witches is an exceptional read.
The 1600s also brings a charming, folky style of language that almost feels like a bed-time story narration. The language is bouncy and rhythmical, but in just the right way – I say as somebody who struggles with classics due to their flowery riddles. Let’s look at the opening, for example, ‘A hill wet with brume of morning, one haw berry bush squalid with browning flowers. I have woken up and out on my work dress, which is my only dress’. See, I told you – delicious.
The themes covered in this book are also top notch. We’re obviously talking about a lot of feminist topics due to the Manningtree supposed witches being all female. Ageing, motherhood, dating, virginity, sex, rape. That’s all covered. Then there’s poverty, classism, imprisonment, and lots of reflections on death.
As you’ve probably picked up, this is not a happy book in terms of its plot. But – and I might sound a little mad saying this – it’s one I enjoyed a great deal. Its slow paced and sombre tone make it peaceful and comparable to another of my all- time favourites – I Who Have Never Known Men. As with all slow burners, this book requires patience, but I am officially instructing you to stick with it because The Manningtree Witches is an exceptional read.
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