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Witchland: A Tale of Witch Hunting and War in Seventeenth-Century Britain
If the witchfinders came to your town, who would you have believed – and what would you have done?
Set during the chaos of the British civil wars, Witchland reveals how economic uncertainty, hunger and religious extremism created the ideal conditions for mass witch-hunting in Britain. Across the country, fear spread rapidly, and neighbours turned on one another in panic. Women and the poor were especially vulnerable, scapegoated by the powerful looking for someone to blame, and hundreds of witch trials across the country soon followed. The hysteria provided a handbook for similar trials to occur around the world, most famously just a few decades later in Salem.
Moving from village to village, Witchland shows how accusations grew out of everyday tensions – poverty, grief, and resentment – and how entire communities became involved in the persecution of the innocent. Drawing on newly uncovered historical records, this gripping historical account restores the voices of those accused of witchcraft. These were ordinary people, largely forgotten by history, along with their families and neighbours caught up in suspicion and moral panic.
Both a powerful history and a warning from the past, Witchland is the captivating story of witchcraft, inequality and the violence that surfaces during times of political and economic upheaval.
Set during the chaos of the British civil wars, Witchland reveals how economic uncertainty, hunger and religious extremism created the ideal conditions for mass witch-hunting in Britain. Across the country, fear spread rapidly, and neighbours turned on one another in panic. Women and the poor were especially vulnerable, scapegoated by the powerful looking for someone to blame, and hundreds of witch trials across the country soon followed. The hysteria provided a handbook for similar trials to occur around the world, most famously just a few decades later in Salem.
Moving from village to village, Witchland shows how accusations grew out of everyday tensions – poverty, grief, and resentment – and how entire communities became involved in the persecution of the innocent. Drawing on newly uncovered historical records, this gripping historical account restores the voices of those accused of witchcraft. These were ordinary people, largely forgotten by history, along with their families and neighbours caught up in suspicion and moral panic.
Both a powerful history and a warning from the past, Witchland is the captivating story of witchcraft, inequality and the violence that surfaces during times of political and economic upheaval.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 30, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 13, 2026
Marion Gibson's Witchland is an engaging successor to her previous book, covering very similar ground. I possibly enjoyed it more because it featured 2 places I am familiar with (Newcastle and Framlingham)!
If you read a lot of non-fiction Gibson's occasionally overly emphatic style might take some getting used to: there's a lot of 'astonishingly' and 'tragically' and 'horribly', which sometimes grates: it feels like she doesn't trust the reader to recognise that bad things are bad. But her conversational style also makes for an easy read - I finished this in a handful of sittings.
If you read a lot of non-fiction Gibson's occasionally overly emphatic style might take some getting used to: there's a lot of 'astonishingly' and 'tragically' and 'horribly', which sometimes grates: it feels like she doesn't trust the reader to recognise that bad things are bad. But her conversational style also makes for an easy read - I finished this in a handful of sittings.
August 24, 2026
An impressive companion to Witchcraft. Whereas Witchcraft explores thirteen individual trials, Witchland focuses closely on witch-hunting in/around 1640s Britain. Highly detailed yet v accessible, with the added intrigue of Gibson uncovering a witch accused under her own name. I loved this ! 🩷
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The 1640s were a tumultuous time in Britain. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1642-1651) pitted England’s Royalists against the Parliamentarians, while also involving the Scots Covenanters and Irish Confederates. It ended with the beheading of King Charles I, the exile of Charles II, and the rise of Oliver Cromwell. And with war came great hardship, including food shortages, supply chain issues, the breakdown of church and government functions, and people accusing their neighbors of witchcraft.
Marion Gibson, professor at Exeter University and renowned author on the history of witchcraft and magic, traveled from the Scottish Lowlands to Essex, Suffolk, East Anglia, the Midlands, and northern England, following the witchcraft accusations and the trials during that tumultuous decade. Her travels provide Witchland readers with a sense of past and present, which old buildings and industries survived, how social and economic dynamics changed, how people lived in the 17th century and today. Gibson visited the shops and markets, the churches and graveyards. She walked the paths where convicted witches went from the prison to the gallows.
In Witchland, Gibson explains how the court functioned normally and how the wars changed that, from having less qualified men on the bench to towns hiring the self-styled Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne. (In part, the witch hunts slowed because towns realized the witchfinders were motivated by greed, not actual skills.)
The author explains the cruel methods of getting confessions, from sleep deprivation and constant movement (known as watching and walking) to using torture devices like thumb screws and leg crushers. One accused witch, Margaret Thomsone, stood on a stool intermittently for 26 days and nights. Not surprisingly, the mental and physical exhaustion caused some to confess to having imps, signing demonic pacts, or having sex with Satan. After confessing to being a witch, Margaret Wyard actually thanked her torturers. Vicar John Lowes confessed of his pride and boasted that his devilish powers caused him to sink a ship, causing 14 women to become widows. Before he was “turned off” the ladder, however, the vicar recited the Christian burial service to absolve himself.
From the remnants of records that exist, Gibson describes some of the accused, the charges, the confessions, the trials, and the verdicts, if known. In several towns, she discovered parish registers with a list of those “executed for witchcraft” who were buried in the churchyard.
Gibson says it is important to memorialize the witch hunts in Britain, not just to remember the victims but to recognize the causes—from economic uncertainties, corruption, and divisiveness to misogyny, culture wars, and politics—are lessons for us today.
Highly recommend.
Thanks to Scribner for the ARC.
Marion Gibson, professor at Exeter University and renowned author on the history of witchcraft and magic, traveled from the Scottish Lowlands to Essex, Suffolk, East Anglia, the Midlands, and northern England, following the witchcraft accusations and the trials during that tumultuous decade. Her travels provide Witchland readers with a sense of past and present, which old buildings and industries survived, how social and economic dynamics changed, how people lived in the 17th century and today. Gibson visited the shops and markets, the churches and graveyards. She walked the paths where convicted witches went from the prison to the gallows.
In Witchland, Gibson explains how the court functioned normally and how the wars changed that, from having less qualified men on the bench to towns hiring the self-styled Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne. (In part, the witch hunts slowed because towns realized the witchfinders were motivated by greed, not actual skills.)
The author explains the cruel methods of getting confessions, from sleep deprivation and constant movement (known as watching and walking) to using torture devices like thumb screws and leg crushers. One accused witch, Margaret Thomsone, stood on a stool intermittently for 26 days and nights. Not surprisingly, the mental and physical exhaustion caused some to confess to having imps, signing demonic pacts, or having sex with Satan. After confessing to being a witch, Margaret Wyard actually thanked her torturers. Vicar John Lowes confessed of his pride and boasted that his devilish powers caused him to sink a ship, causing 14 women to become widows. Before he was “turned off” the ladder, however, the vicar recited the Christian burial service to absolve himself.
From the remnants of records that exist, Gibson describes some of the accused, the charges, the confessions, the trials, and the verdicts, if known. In several towns, she discovered parish registers with a list of those “executed for witchcraft” who were buried in the churchyard.
Gibson says it is important to memorialize the witch hunts in Britain, not just to remember the victims but to recognize the causes—from economic uncertainties, corruption, and divisiveness to misogyny, culture wars, and politics—are lessons for us today.
Highly recommend.
Thanks to Scribner for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Disclaimer: I received an ARC via Netgalley.
I was not a fan of Gibson’s Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials, mostly because while I agreed with her politics, some of it felt like a bit of a stretch, though I understood the point. I enjoyed this book far more.
Gibson looks at the witchcraft trials from the viewpoint of the victims. She focuses almost entirely on the women, detailing the diverse causes that lead the women to being arrested and charged. She also details as much as she came what came after, including those times when the women escaped, and why they were able to escape.
In many ways, it Is a good read along with Diane Purkiss’ book about the English Civil War.
What I particularly was the focus on the why and the who, not on the men who charged the women. It is a far better focus and gives the victims their due.
It would be fair to say that at times the tone is a little dry, but it does reward the reader. It also points the way to some of what Gibson covered in the Witchcraft – how people, for lack of a better term, manifest trials, cause them to be. She does from the beginning with her first case.
Not all the people accused were killed, and Gibson does include cases where the people survived the accusation, though as she readies notes finding the reason why or what happened after is not always easy. The book presents a more fleshed out picture of the trials as well as the possible motivations behind them.
I was not a fan of Gibson’s Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials, mostly because while I agreed with her politics, some of it felt like a bit of a stretch, though I understood the point. I enjoyed this book far more.
Gibson looks at the witchcraft trials from the viewpoint of the victims. She focuses almost entirely on the women, detailing the diverse causes that lead the women to being arrested and charged. She also details as much as she came what came after, including those times when the women escaped, and why they were able to escape.
In many ways, it Is a good read along with Diane Purkiss’ book about the English Civil War.
What I particularly was the focus on the why and the who, not on the men who charged the women. It is a far better focus and gives the victims their due.
It would be fair to say that at times the tone is a little dry, but it does reward the reader. It also points the way to some of what Gibson covered in the Witchcraft – how people, for lack of a better term, manifest trials, cause them to be. She does from the beginning with her first case.
Not all the people accused were killed, and Gibson does include cases where the people survived the accusation, though as she readies notes finding the reason why or what happened after is not always easy. The book presents a more fleshed out picture of the trials as well as the possible motivations behind them.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for the eARC!
I really enjoyed (not sure if that’s the right word considering all the executions and whatnot but it will have to do) the author’s last book, so when I saw this was coming out, I was eager to get a chance to read it. I can say that I find the book quite interesting and easy to read. I also have a weird (or is it though?) fascination with the history of witch trials, so I’m always down to read a new book about the topic.
Although the book is heavy on historical details, it isn’t hard to follow and the writing is engaging. I learned plenty of new things about the witch trials in England. I also liked that the author focused on the victims more than the perpetrators. Most of us know the name Matthew Hopkins, but so few of us know the people who he helped kill. Also, not relevant and I hate to give him any more attention, but he wasn’t even thirty when he died and that threw me for a loop. Imagine roaming the country looking for witches, getting paid for said hunts, leading possibly hundreds (if not more) people to their death and being The Absolute Worst all before 30. Yikes.
Overall, an interesting, engaging book that was both fascinating and heart-breaking. I’d recommend this one for anyone interested in the history of witch trials, the way superstitious beliefs can spread, and what the life of those killed was like before their executions.
I really enjoyed (not sure if that’s the right word considering all the executions and whatnot but it will have to do) the author’s last book, so when I saw this was coming out, I was eager to get a chance to read it. I can say that I find the book quite interesting and easy to read. I also have a weird (or is it though?) fascination with the history of witch trials, so I’m always down to read a new book about the topic.
Although the book is heavy on historical details, it isn’t hard to follow and the writing is engaging. I learned plenty of new things about the witch trials in England. I also liked that the author focused on the victims more than the perpetrators. Most of us know the name Matthew Hopkins, but so few of us know the people who he helped kill. Also, not relevant and I hate to give him any more attention, but he wasn’t even thirty when he died and that threw me for a loop. Imagine roaming the country looking for witches, getting paid for said hunts, leading possibly hundreds (if not more) people to their death and being The Absolute Worst all before 30. Yikes.
Overall, an interesting, engaging book that was both fascinating and heart-breaking. I’d recommend this one for anyone interested in the history of witch trials, the way superstitious beliefs can spread, and what the life of those killed was like before their executions.
August 3, 2026
3.75/5
This was such a great non-fiction book about a little talked about subject. When you think of witch trials, you think of Salem - but that's not the only witch trials. And the British witch trials were much more intense and wide-spread. They did what we think they did in Salem.
I learned a lot in this book. And I especially appreciated how it related to today's world. I thought including that conversation was a really nice touch. Basically, people are afraid of change and like to blame women.
I could find some parts to be a bit meandering and repetitive, but the repetitiveness made sense. So that didn't bother me as much as the meandering.
Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
This was such a great non-fiction book about a little talked about subject. When you think of witch trials, you think of Salem - but that's not the only witch trials. And the British witch trials were much more intense and wide-spread. They did what we think they did in Salem.
I learned a lot in this book. And I especially appreciated how it related to today's world. I thought including that conversation was a really nice touch. Basically, people are afraid of change and like to blame women.
I could find some parts to be a bit meandering and repetitive, but the repetitiveness made sense. So that didn't bother me as much as the meandering.
Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
August 19, 2026
I loved this book so much! Like all of Gibson's work she found a way to make the past accessible, emotional and feel so connected to what is happening in the present. Each chapter and each 'witch' explored was done with so much respect, amazing use of evidence and gentle but fair assessment. I still think Witchcraft A history in 13 trials is my favorite ever book written about witches in history but this book Witchland has joined the ranks of one of my most favorite texts on the past and i recommend it to all!!
August 1, 2026
Interesting.
August 8, 2026
Informative and well researched
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews