The Lancashire Witches

by William Harrison Ainsworth

Ainsworth's last masterpiece, The Lancashire Witches proved a best-seller in its day and influenced many contemporary authors. The Lancashire Witches begins in the 16th century, in Lancashire, England. When a Cistercian monk, Borlace Alvetham, is falsely accused of witchcraft and condemned to death by his rival, Brother Paslew, he sells his soul to Satan and escapes. Years later, granted the powers of a warlock, he returns in the guise of Nicholas Demdike to witness Paslew's execution for treason. Dying, Paslew curses Demdike's offspring -- who become the titular 'Lancashire Witches.' The rest of the book set in the 17th century. Mother Demdike, a powerful witch, and her clan face rival witches, raise innocent young Alizon Devi as their own, and try to corrupt Alizon despite her innocent ways. Ultimately, the book becomes a struggle between Heaven and Hell, with Alizon's fate hanging in the balance. Ainsworth's last masterpiece, The Lancashire Witches proved a best-seller in its day and influenced many contemporary authors.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Classics, Gothic, Fiction, Horror, Witches, Fantasy

582 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1854

About the author

William Harrison Ainsworth was educated at Manchester Grammar School and later articled to a solicitor, deserting this profession for literature.

Among his best known novels are The Tower of London (1840), Old St. Paul's (1841), Windsor Castle (1843) and The Lancashire Witches (1848).

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a Lancashire Lass, and have been brought up with tales of the Lancashire Witches and the famous Witch trials of 1612. I've lost count of the number of times that I walked up Pendle Hill in my youth. The most memorable occasions being on Halloween and also on Good Friday. However, the only Witches that I have seen on Pendle have been on Halloween. A time when people dress up in all sorts of scary costumes and walk up Pendle after dark.

I recently downloaded the Kindle version, so thought I'd write a review. The first time that I read W H Ainsworth's book was when I was 15, then I re read it again in the mid 1980s. Not an easy book for some to read because of all the Lancashire dialect, and a lot of people even abandon reading it.

A great novel, and perhaps WHA's most famous. For anyone that does not know anything about the Lancashire Witches, there are other easier texts to read before tackling this one. This is because WHA puts his own slant on the story, deviates from the true facts, the dialect and also a 19th century novel.

See Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster for an excellent account of the Witch trials.

Even though many books have been written over the years about the Lancashire Witches, this in my mind's eye is a must read.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

One day, your grandkids will be startled to discover that things like witches, vampires, and werewolves used to be figures of horror rather than sexy romance. Before they accuse you of having a fit of alzheimers, you can show this this book.

The witches in Ainsworth's The Lancashire Witches are exactly what you might picture a spooky witch to be: old crones that ride around on broomsticks, perform blood sacrifices to Satan, and put hexes on people.

Besides that bit of awesomeness, the book is very fast paced considering its age and has enough Satanic shenanigans to keep most horror fans entertained.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coming from Pendle Country, the Lancashire Witches are deeply ingrained in my psyche and I have read one or two factual books about them and, of course, the classic Mist Over Pendle, which explains the mystic happenings in a very matter of fact way; people die from heart attacks or poison, not witchcraft. Not so with this fabulous book! You want witches flying through the sky on broomsticks? You got it! You want witch's familiars, cats from hell? You got it! It's like Harry Potter for grown-ups and easy to see why W. H. Ainsworth was more popular than Charles Dickens in his day!

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My goodness it took me a month to read this! But then it was a very long 19th century book that I mostly read a few pages off before I fell asleep at night. I was a bit wearing starting this after the last Scott I read being so disappointing but this was not at all. This was a wonderful Gothic story with witches (both good and bad), ghostly monks, and power hungry nobles. Unlike the Scott, so much happened, there was a prequel establishing the witches family, and then their troubles in the time of King James I. It was a wonderful Gothic novel, with lots of agency for the women (even the good ones). I enjoyed it so much I returned to the oxfam where I found it and bought the other three novels by Ainsworth. Unfortunately, most of the witches are killed at the end of the 2nd part and the third part deals mostly with the King's visit, which isn't nearly as interesting, but thankfully the ending makes up for that. Definitely one I'd recommend to people who like supernatural, Gothic, Victorian fiction.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lancashire Witches is my first Ainsworth novel and what is touted as one of his better efforts. It's an absorbing historical romance whose plot is propelled by fantasy -- unless, of course, you believe that witches of the 16th century truly communed with the devil and were capable of casting malicious spells. And that's what makes the novel hard to put down, because by the time we're deep into its middle chapters we are believers, and fearful ones at that.

Ainsworth's prose is often dense, occasionally poetic, and generally fairly typical of Victorian era writing, but it successfully pulls you into the world of his characters and their time period. One's vocabulary as regards 16th century words is definitely challenged -- a nice bonus if, like me, you enjoy learning new 'old' words. Many of his characters speak in the Lancashire dialect of the day (one supposes Ainsworth's presentation is close to reality), but if you've read and understood Scott's Scots, then you shouldn't have much trouble following conversations. In fact, as the novel progresses and the unfamiliar words and manner of speaking become familiar, you'll find yourself reading Lancashire as rapidly as you do English.

Ainsworth definitely places a premium on history, and the smallest details about clothing, food, and daily life are brought to the fore. The modern reader who wishes for nothing more than the plot to rapidly move along to its climax will now and again find his/her interest stunted. But on two occasions I read 100+ pages in a sitting -- long sittings, granted -- and appreciated the author's extended descriptions of the setting and characters as much as anything.

I have not read enough to number Ainsworth among my favorite Victorian writers, but having purchased the Delphi Classics edition of his works, I shall read more of him. Now -- as there's nothing like letting an author speak for himself, here are two spoiler-free passages from the novel to give the uninitiated an idea of Harrison Ainsworth's style:

In an early chapter, seven riveting paragraphs are devoted to describing a terrible eruption of water that becomes a killing force. What follows is the second paragraph.

A sight of horror was it to behold the sudden rise of that swarthy stream, whose waters, tinged by the ruddy glare of the beacon-fire, looked like waves of blood. Nor less fearful was it to hear the first wild despairing cry raised by the victims, or the quickly stifled shrieks and groans that followed, mixed with the deafening roar of the stream, and the crashing fall of the stones, which accompanied its course. Down, down went the poor wretches, now utterly overwhelmed by the torrent, now regaining their feet only to utter a scream, and then be swept off. Here a miserable struggler, whirled onward, would clutch at the banks and try to scramble forth, but the soft turf giving way beneath him, he was hurried off to eternity.

And here, a young woman, seeing the pain that love can cause, reflects on the subject:

"If love is to make one mope like an owl, and sigh like the wind through a half-shut casement; if it is to cause one to lose one’s rosy complexion and gay spirit, and forget how to dance and sing — take no pleasure in hawking and hunting, or any kind of sport — walk about with eyes fixed upon the ground, muttering, and with disordered attire — if it is to make one silent when one should be talkative, grave when one should be gay, heedless when one should listen — if it is to do all this, defend me from the tender passion! I hope I shall never fall in love."

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never see the point in repeating the whole of the story synopsis in my review, so I’ll jump right to telling you what I think of the book. While this was very atmospheric, and I loved the constant nods to the geography of the area, the story was, at times, unnecessarily drawn out. I appreciate the effort the author put into setting the scene though.

Now to the dialogue. I understand that many of the characters were low-born Lancastrians, but the written dialect used when they were conversing was virtually nonsensical, so much so that I found myself skim-reading a lot of it until I got to someone who spoke normally and could explain what was going on. I have nothing against dialects - I speak one myself, and half of my family are Lancastrian. But whatever the author was writing was not Lancastrian, unless the dialect in the 17th century was a mash-up of Brummy and Scottish! I did find it a little off-putting, but overall, I enjoyed the story.

[Lynette · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me several weeks to get past the introduction - in fact, seven years passed before I read the last few pages of it! Which seems the result of witchcraft itself, as seven is one of those witchy numbers.

I'm glad I picked this book up again. I quite enjoyed it! It was like reading a Shakespeare play in book form, and I love Shakespeare. The part with King James really dragged for me, but the rest of the books (after the intro) were really good.

It was a bit odd how twice in the whole book, it goes from third person to first person. And it also had a tendency to go from past to present tense. But overall, I likes this book quite a lot.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read.

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1984. I read this title in the undated but definitely 19th-century "Edition de Luxe" published by G.H. Howell:]. From the frequency with which I see its title, I think this must have been one of Ainsworth's more popular works, and indeed, in terms of a working narrative, it's one of his better ones. The nineteenth-century scholar/historian tone is nearly gone (he pops up sometimes, but he doesn't do a travelogue), and the novel is based on the assumption that witchcraft did exist in fact, and that the elder heroine, Alice Nutter, had sold herself to the devil. As usual with WHA, we are firmly located in place and time; the whole is located in the area of Lancashire near Preston; the opening section is set in the 1536 uprising when Henry VIII dismantled the monasteries, and the rest of the story takes place several generations later in the reign of James VI & I, who was, of course, very interested in witchcraft, and who duly makes his appearance in the last book. No-one lives happily ever after in this rather dismal story. Young Richard is done to death by witchcraft, and Alizon quite properly follows him to the grave. Mistress Nutter, the repentant witch, providentially expires (of grief, of strain?) on her way to the stake. And, of course, the baddies get it - Mother Demdike and Mother Chattox in particular have a spectacular taking-off in a fire on a Lancashire hill. No, the shibboleth is here the saving or losing of souls, and within that rigid framework, the Abbot of Whalley, whose curse sets everything in motion, and who reappears as a ghost, sits uneasily to say the least. The old problem of mixing folk-superstition with theology again. But I did rather enjoy this one.

[lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mum bought me this book last year to remind of home (I'm from Lancashire, it's in my blood to love the Pendle witches, and I even wanna write my own fictional book on the events). I've only just gotten round to reading it because I had an idea: to write my 15,000 word dissertation on witches in Victorian lit. Yeah, I'm thinking of doing that.

This was interesting. Ainsworth's portrayal of the witches was really fascinating. He relied heavily on stereotypes - you know, witches on broomsticks, throwing stuff into a cauldron and chanting, etc. etc. etc. I really didn't mind this to be honest, it was typical but also fun.

I think the witches were the best part of this book, which, I'm assuming, you'd expect to be all 580 pages but no. A lot of this was just waffle, and not the good kind. This definitely could have been cut down, specifically removing all the irrelevant passages. It took me SoooOOOOooOOO long to get through; I wasn't motivated to pick it up because it took a while to get into the story, and when I did, it was just rambling for most of the time.

Now, I don't know whether to rate this 2.5 stars? Oh man, idk.

Anyway, might write my diss on this, we'll see.

[caro_cactus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprise hit! A long-winded romp which bears very little connexion to the reality of the Pendle witch trials and manages to be both endearingly nerdy, crazy plot-twisty, theologically intriguing and...idk. The inside of Willian Ainsworth Harrison's head must have been a really interesting space. Got weirdly attached to Abbot Paslew, Nicholas Assheton, and ALL the animal sidekicks. Also Bess, our butch queen, long may she reign!

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

If religious bigotry was not filling the heads of seventeenth-century British citizens, it would have been fairly obvious that there is no such thing as witches. At best there are people who engage in bizarre ceremonies and herbalism, but actual witches with supernatural powers which they used malignantly against their neighbours? Of course not.

The best proof that there were no evil witches was, paradoxically, the large number of witches that were killed. Over the centuries, between 500 and 1,000 witches were put to death in Britain. Despite the vagueness of this number, it is said that 90% of the victims were women, telling us something about misogyny in that age. (We should note that according to these figures, 50 to 100 men were also put to death.)

What the number tells us is that these women did not possess frightening demonic powers, otherwise it would have been impossible to put them to death. They could have cursed anyone who tried to arrest them, quelled the flames, or flown away to safety, but they did not. They could not, because they were not witches.

William Harrison Ainsworth gets round the problem by causing the witches to lose their power just before they are arrested. How convenient. His witches are indeed put to the flame, although the real Pendle witches were in fact hanged.

Still facts are not really Ainsworth’s strong point. The writer visited the area before penning The Lancashire Witches, and he includes an impressive amount of geographic details. For someone who lives in the area (alas, not close enough to visit Pendle Hill without a car), I felt a frisson at seeing so many familiar place names in one story.

Ainsworth has some knowledge of the fact of the trials too, which he gleaned from the written account of it by clerk to the court, Thomas Potts. (Ainsworth thanks Potts for his invaluable work by turning the poor fellow into the book’s villain.) Many of the names of the witches are here, yet curiously mixed up, with forenames and surnames all askew.

The story too is different from the facts, and is essentially a romanticised view of history that is more fiction than fact. The real Lancashire Witches were 10 women and one man who were arrested for practising witchcraft. All but one were found guilty and hanged.

It seems likely that they described themselves as witches, perhaps as a dangerous way of making a living by selling cures. Unfortunately they lived in the wrong age. The king had written a book condemning witchcraft, setting the tone for a subservient nation. Two rival groups of witches may also have made the mistake of accusing one another.

In the Ainsworth book, the witches prove to be real. They speak to familiars and to Satan, renounce god, and engage in evil practices. This departure makes the book into a work of Gothic horror, but this comes at the expense of any serious message. That is one of the reasons why Ainsworth, though more popular than Dickens in his day, is now forgotten.

Think what opportunities the story offers. We see bigoted officials collecting evidence of supposed curses put on local villagers. We hear that an accusation essentially dooms a woman to death. Ainsworth shows the horror of hostile villagers turning on a possible witch, and putting her to the test, when only a short time before the same villagers were participating in a celebration and seemed friendly.

As one person remarks, why are most of the witches poor, and not wealthy women? Don’t they have the power to make themselves wealthy? One of the more poignant details of the original trials is that a young girl gave evidence against her own mother, brother and sister. Think of the potential for exposing the evils of superstitious bigotry.

However Ainsworth fudging this by showing real witches being evil. As a result the persecution and mistreatment of women in the village is at least partly justified since the locals are dealing with a real problem, and some of the curses that they complain about are real ones.

This would be like writing a book about the anti-Communist activities in the post-war era in which you condemned the authorities for persecuting people with left-wing sympathies while simultaneously suggesting that there was a very powerful Communist organisation that was carrying out acts of violent sedition across the country. It would be a lie and a misrepresentation of the facts, and it would undermine any serious social commentary.

None of this is to say that The Lancashire Witches is not an enjoyable book. Ainsworth is not a great writer. He is humourless. Characterisation is conventional. Dialogue is declamatory. He adopts a repetitive style. Each chapter begins with long descriptive paragraphs, and gradually moves to shorter paragraphs of action and dialogue.

Nonetheless he has an interesting story at his disposal, and he is able to make it exciting. It is just a pity that he did not tell the real story of the Pendle Witches. That would have been less thrilling, but more interesting.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a big William Harrison Ainsworth fan (even if I do find it difficult to get his surnames in the right order) and I was always going to read The Lancashire Witches at some point. Not just because it’s the only book of his still in print (a massive injustice) but also because a friend at university claimed he was a descendent of the lead witch herself, Old Mother Demdyke. I wonder what he’d say to her representation in the book and the ‘history’ of his family.

There’s often a tension in Ainsworth’s books. He’s clearly enamoured with the criminal, the marginalised and the different yet he’s working in a literary climate that demands those people have their ‘comeuppance’. This was a particular problem for him after a man committed a big, notorious murder and claimed it was partly due to the influence of books like Ainsworth’s. Written some time after, this book is constantly being pulled by the obvious appeal of the witches, their gleeful destruction of anything ‘civilised’ and the need to make a commercial piece of fiction. As such, the witches in this are real witches; cauldrons, broomsticks, cackling and all, with definitive links to the devil and malicious intent - they are the baddies of the book. However, the lawyers, god-fearing men and representatives of modernity are all fools and malicious themselves. In many ways it’s a novel where no-one can come out on top, as most of the main parties represent some form of intolerance and malevolence.

The book is split into four sections, each one lasting 48 hours. The first takes place before the witches, during the reign of Henry VIII. It’s the most overtly gothic of the sections, involving naughty monks and their secrets. The loved Abbot Paslew of Whalley Abbey is at the forefront of ‘The Pilgrimage of Grace’, an armed attempt to fight the formation of the Church of England. He has some skeletons in his closet, more accurately in the The Monk-esque dungeon in the Abbey - except he doesn’t, the monk he’s cheated has made a pact with the devil, escaped and is now after revenge. He’s willing to make peace with the Abbot and secure his escape, if only the Abbot baptises his young daughter. Instead of baptising her, he curses her and the Demdyke clan of witches begins. It’s full of that great Ainsworth stuff, striking images and exciting action, lots of escapes, near misses, magic and heartbreak. There’s even a man who accidentally impales his friend on his halberd.

The second section is set about 100 years later, in the reign of King James I and takes place around the May Day celebrations. We meet the three Asshetons, Ralph, Richard and Nicholas. Richard is our perfect hero and the designated young lover of the piece but Ainsworth is clearly more taken by Nicholas, who is a typical country squire; rambunctious, overly fond of hunting and drinking but loyal and with a good heart. Richard falls in love with the May Queen, the beautiful and innocent Alizon Device. How she is both morally good and beautiful is anybody’s guess, she’s sister to the nasty Jennet, daughter of the dodgy Elizabeth and grand daughter of the evil witch, Mother Demdyke. Of course her parentage is far more complicated and she’s actually the daughter of Alice Nutter, who may be more beautiful but is as implicated in witchy goings on as the others. This is slower than part one, with the definite feeling that things are being set-up and implied - that is until the last chapters at a witches sabbath.

The third part is a journey into the heart of darkness. A lawyer called Potts has been called for to settle a boundary dispute between Alice Nutter and Roger Nowell but as they get closer to the area, it’s clear that things are not right. More and more stories of witchcraft and terror are unfolded and Potts decides to hunt the witches, spurred on by the kudos he hopes to get from King James. As they grow nearer Pendle Hill and Mother Demdyke’s stronghold in Malkin Tower, things get madder and madder. This is the point where Ainsworth lets rip with full Ainsworthyness, storms and witches and abductions and the Devil in disguise and doubles, potions, broomsticks, elaborate torture chambers, a snarling statue and rocks and rivers that change positions - the works. The witches all have to bring a convert to the Devil every year or their powers wane, there’s a power struggle and all the key players have little time to pay their dues. The way the familiars of the witches turn on them when their time’s up is genuinely ferocious and hurtful, especially considering how condescending they are when the witch is in good stead with her master. It ends in fire, blood and madness. This is the best section.

The fourth section is probably the weakest. Our chief supernatural villains are gone, there are a few remnants who cause mischief but the chief danger is now from the lawyer, especially because King James I is visiting. He may style himself ‘The British Solomon’ but he’s seems very fallible. Most of this section is taken up with descriptions of the King’s travelling court, his entertainments and descriptions of hunting all sorts of animals including otters and deer. Our tragic lovers end out their tragic love and everything is tied up. The most interesting element in this last pat is Alice Nutter, who was a key witch but has since sought to redeem her soul. There’s tension whether this is even possible and her end is a lot of heart.

While I didn’t love this book as much as Rookwood, Jack Shepherd or even Auriol, it was still a corker. There were big chunks where Ainsworth got to do what he was best at, striking visuals and breakneck action but the second and third parts did slow down a little too much at times. Ainsworth writes as if the novel is a visual medium, he’d have done so well at film and when he’s doing those visual things, he’s great. Unfortunately, novels also need dialogue. At best, his dialogue is stiff, at worst he’s trying to write in a Lancashire accent. If the title was written in his phonetic dialogue, this book would be called T’ Lonkyshaire Watches. There were times when he’d just put in weird vowels. It wasn’t even consistent, sometimes ‘come’ would be ‘cym’ and sometimes ‘cum’. Luckily, not all the characters talk like this but enough do and there’s far too much of; “T’missmannert, car’ll boide naw questionnin, odd rottle him,” for my taste. However, there is a bit that describes King James as ejaculating and everyone ejaculating with him… that’s funny.

The other thing he does well is research, and its use. I was amazed that even character of Old Mother Mouldyfoot have origins in history, as does the progenitor of the curse, Abbot Paslew. He also knows when to change from his research, making Alizon Device a tug-of-war character between the good and bad sides, inventing a feud between Mothers Chattox and Demdyke. Some of these inventions have passed into (lazy) history, along with his claims about Dick Turpin and Black Bess in Rookwood. Another element that has been taken for historical truth is the story of King James knighting a piece of beef as Sir-Loin, a ‘fact’ my Dad once told me as true. (But then he told me that monkeys rode the greyhounds at a dog race). The King James stuff isn’t as well digested on the whole and that section as a number of dull lists, featuring many famous names who don’t impact the story.

Another piece of research was the diary of Nicholas Assheton, a real person. I said at the beginning that there’s a real tension between making the witches evil and hating the real villains of history, the people that hanged them, resulting in very few of the characters being ones to root for. Nick Assheton is though. He has his faults, he has a fear and hatred for the Devil and his witches but he also doesn’t trust the lawyers. He straddles the line between realistic faults (and indeed unrealistic, he dances with the ghost of a naughty nun) but with a just hatred for persecution.

I don’t think any modern take on the Pendle Witches could ever represent the witches as actual evil beings with magic powers any more. We’re just too aware of how any witch trial was a terrible exercise of power against the powerless but in giving his witches actual powers, William Harrison Ainsworth does even things up a little, even if it’s just fictionally.

[Redbird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on history, the "romance" in the subtitle is a bittersweet love quite unlike any modern day steamy novel (thankfully). The main theme is good v. evil, church v. witches, honest v. duplicitous. The audiobook read by Andy Minter is quite wonderful listening. I must admit that it was hard to understand the speech pattern of some of the characters - kind of a lazy Irish brogue - and I found the text online. Listening and reading along helped me understand the words initially; later I was able to understand just by listening.
The author includes some morals and generalizations to his audience that seem to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but often made me smile.
Great listening!

[Nienke Hazenoot]

I liked this novel.
I liked the way Ainsworth used writings about actual events and stll gave the characters and the storylines his own particular twist. Sometimes the dialogue was hard to read. I had to get used to it at first, but after I got the hang of it, it added to he authenticity of the whole.
The characters are well developed, although a reader shouldn't expect a historically correct representation of them, since, like I said, Ainsworth added his own twist to most of them.
The descriptions of the landscape and events show Ainsworth's Lancashire background and the amount of work he put in his research.

[Brenda Britton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting concept of Lancashire witches that delves into fantasy and even horror. It needs some translation at first unless you are familiar with Lancashire dialect but the dialect doesn't continue throughout the book. The book shows a good side to Alice Nutter and Alizon Device that is not shown in other books and there are plenty of evil spirits and familiars around Malkin Tower.

[Michelle]

This is really hard to get through because it is written in dialect.

[Oscar de Muriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! (and by the end I was fluent in Lancashire dialect!)

[Sasha]

1849. JG really dug it.

[Bertje58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Evil witches, doomed lovers, colorful hunting scenes, avenging ghosts: what more do you want?

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quote:"The squire obeyed, and was instantly carried off his legs, and whisked through the air at a prodigious rate.
He felt giddy and confused, but did not dare to leave go, lest he should be dashed in pieces, while Nance's wild laughter rang in his ears.
Over the bleached and perpendicular crag—startling the eagle from his eyry—over the yawning gully with the torrent roaring beneath him—over the sharp ridges of the hill—over Townley park—over Burnley steeple—over the wide valley beyond, he went—until at last, bewildered, out of breath, and like one in a dream, he alighted on a brown, bare, heathy expanse, and within a hundred yards of a tall, circular stone structure, which he knew to be Malkin Tower."
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[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overly-pious characters in the story are obnoxious. But then, the witches ARE actually evil. So with whom are we to side?

Certainly not King James, who comes across as a cheerful, blustering oaf. It seems he is celebrated less for his competence as a ruler and more for his folksy movie star appeal. I guess politics and/or fame haven't changed much in the last few centuries.

Neither has religion. Honestly, I wouldn't be that surprised if the Christian Right manages to get the entire nation whipped up into another witch-hunting frenzy. Once I would have thought that ridiculous--people are more enlightened these days, right?--but the popularity of TikTok moms advising people against letting "hell" into their homes via Hocus Pocus 2 does put me on edge. There are a lot of wackos out there.

Screw it. I'm on the witches' side.

[Carrie Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

As suggested by the title, the actual events surrounding the real characters, in this book, are absolute rubbish. But, for research purposes and considering it's a novel which has been in continuous print for over 150 years, it did provide family structure and location details which will be interesting to check for veracity.

Not a book to be read without some decent headache relief, unless you don't mind description to the nth degree and days which seem to last for years. Also to be avoided if you're fond of full stops and sentences lasting less than the average James Joyce epic...

But if you like a soppy, olde worlde romance which bears no relation to sound reasoning, then have at it!

[Brannigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this thinking it was a historical nonfiction book about the trial. So I was surprised to find out it is a historical fiction based on the trial written in 1884.

It’s alright. The descriptions are long and flowery. The accents from the characters are written oddly. With both of these issues the story very slow reading. I’ve never been a patient reader so I kept getting side tracked in my thoughts and losing my place and yeah.

[Misty Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harrison Ainsworth is often dismissed these days as being old-fashioned and irrelevant but, in my view, he is a worthy 'competitor' to Charles Dickens and his books still deserve a wider audience. His historical works are perhaps over-romanticised but are of their time and he has a good grasp of period. The Lancashire Witches is atmospheric and captures the times and locality well

[Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting look at how witchcraft was treated way back then. Very different from the Harry Potter treatment. The only thing to be aware of is that Ainsworth makes many of the characters talk in dialect, which can be difficult.

[Ketutar Jensen]

Want to read because it was mentioned in I Capture the Castle

[Mo Schofield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating at times but mainly a difficult read. Due to age, style and colloquialisms. I’m glad I’d read ‘Mist Over Pendle’ as it gave me better clues as to the characters and re life plot. Otherwise I think it would have been too easy to give up!

[Sam Hirst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a very enjoyable read. Only the lightest of passing connections to the actual story of those tried as the Pendle witches. Ainsworth doesn't stint on the supernatural manifestations and you never quite know what's awaiting you on the turn of the next page.

[Chris Bullock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious