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Witchcraft
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2000
6 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Geddes and Grosset
131 books5 followersThe Gresham Publishing Company Limited is an independent Scottish book publishing company, based on the south side of Glasgow, Scotland UK.
G&G was established in 1988, and ten years later became part of DC Thomson.
Now, just over 25 years after it was started, G&G is back as part of a new independent Scottish company. In October 2013 we bought Geddes and Grosset (G&G), and Waverley Books from the DC Thomson Group.
Geddes & Grosset
G&G’s story began in 1988 when Ron Grosset left William Collins Sons & Co. to start a publishing business with David Geddes, based in the World Heritage Village of New Lanark, Scotland.
G&G’s first major non-fiction success was gaining an order from Proctor and Gamble for 2.5 million copies of a book - House Plants.
In 1989 G&G created their first dictionaries and focused on the USA where the 'promotional' market was well-established. Two years later G&G won a Scottish business award for export sales. The idea of promotional books is to produce books that are affordable, accessible and within the weekly budget of most people to help with homework, or have a simple reference book in the home or school. They provide essential information but do not have a high street name or brand attached to them. The aim was to produce reference books – English grammar guides, English dictionaries, French-English dictionaries, crossword dictionaries and children’s books – at affordable prices for the mass market.
In 1992 Mike Miller joined the company from publisher Blackie & Son, where he had been Publisher and CEO. Mike Miller became the G&G co-publisher on David Geddes’ retirement.
Blackie had sold its dictionaries and English guides all over the world, and had offices in London, Glasgow and Bombay. Today the Blackie connection remains through a strong association with Mike Miller, formally, The Gresham Publishing Partnership, which led to the Gresham Publishing Company name being re-introduced.
The original Gresham Publishing Company was founded in 1898 by Blackie & Son Ltd , publishers in Glasgow, Scotland. Blackie & Son had started subscription and instalment selling in the late 1870s – works such as Kerner's Natural History of Plants and Davis's Natural History of Animals. The Gresham Publishing Company was formed in order to take over the subscription trade of Blackie & Son Ltd and also to introduce the publication of scientific and technical books. Titles included The New Popular Encyclopaedia (1900) and the Gresham Dictionary and Gresham Encyclopaedia (1910s). The firm was incorporated in 1917 as Gresham Publishing Company Limited and had its head office London with branches in almost every major British city as well as branches in Canada and India. The original company continued trading for fifty years until 1948, and now, sixty-five years on, the Gresham name is once again to the fore as a Glasgow–based publisher.
Today, operating within Gresham, G&G is an established brand for publishing and exports popular, affordable and useful books such as dictionaries, bi-lingual books, English grammar and usage texts, for language learning as well as books on Self-Help, Diet & Health and Mind, Body & Spirit.
G&G celebrated 25 years in autumn 2013 and has published and sold 75 million books since 1988 and has created dictionaries, reference and puzzle material for many publishers such as Readers Digest - Canada & USA, Cassell, Orient Longman and for the mass-market imprints of Random House, Penguin Books and Hodder.
Waverley Books
In 2007 G&G developed a second publishing list called Waverley Books, which focused on Scottish titles.
The list enjoyed success with flagship projects – the graphic novel versions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, adapted by Alan Grant and illustrated by Cam Kennedy.
The creation of Maw Broon’s Cookbook – the fastest selling Scottish book of all time, team sparked a whole licensing programme for DC Thomson around The
G&G was established in 1988, and ten years later became part of DC Thomson.
Now, just over 25 years after it was started, G&G is back as part of a new independent Scottish company. In October 2013 we bought Geddes and Grosset (G&G), and Waverley Books from the DC Thomson Group.
Geddes & Grosset
G&G’s story began in 1988 when Ron Grosset left William Collins Sons & Co. to start a publishing business with David Geddes, based in the World Heritage Village of New Lanark, Scotland.
G&G’s first major non-fiction success was gaining an order from Proctor and Gamble for 2.5 million copies of a book - House Plants.
In 1989 G&G created their first dictionaries and focused on the USA where the 'promotional' market was well-established. Two years later G&G won a Scottish business award for export sales. The idea of promotional books is to produce books that are affordable, accessible and within the weekly budget of most people to help with homework, or have a simple reference book in the home or school. They provide essential information but do not have a high street name or brand attached to them. The aim was to produce reference books – English grammar guides, English dictionaries, French-English dictionaries, crossword dictionaries and children’s books – at affordable prices for the mass market.
In 1992 Mike Miller joined the company from publisher Blackie & Son, where he had been Publisher and CEO. Mike Miller became the G&G co-publisher on David Geddes’ retirement.
Blackie had sold its dictionaries and English guides all over the world, and had offices in London, Glasgow and Bombay. Today the Blackie connection remains through a strong association with Mike Miller, formally, The Gresham Publishing Partnership, which led to the Gresham Publishing Company name being re-introduced.
The original Gresham Publishing Company was founded in 1898 by Blackie & Son Ltd , publishers in Glasgow, Scotland. Blackie & Son had started subscription and instalment selling in the late 1870s – works such as Kerner's Natural History of Plants and Davis's Natural History of Animals. The Gresham Publishing Company was formed in order to take over the subscription trade of Blackie & Son Ltd and also to introduce the publication of scientific and technical books. Titles included The New Popular Encyclopaedia (1900) and the Gresham Dictionary and Gresham Encyclopaedia (1910s). The firm was incorporated in 1917 as Gresham Publishing Company Limited and had its head office London with branches in almost every major British city as well as branches in Canada and India. The original company continued trading for fifty years until 1948, and now, sixty-five years on, the Gresham name is once again to the fore as a Glasgow–based publisher.
Today, operating within Gresham, G&G is an established brand for publishing and exports popular, affordable and useful books such as dictionaries, bi-lingual books, English grammar and usage texts, for language learning as well as books on Self-Help, Diet & Health and Mind, Body & Spirit.
G&G celebrated 25 years in autumn 2013 and has published and sold 75 million books since 1988 and has created dictionaries, reference and puzzle material for many publishers such as Readers Digest - Canada & USA, Cassell, Orient Longman and for the mass-market imprints of Random House, Penguin Books and Hodder.
Waverley Books
In 2007 G&G developed a second publishing list called Waverley Books, which focused on Scottish titles.
The list enjoyed success with flagship projects – the graphic novel versions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, adapted by Alan Grant and illustrated by Cam Kennedy.
The creation of Maw Broon’s Cookbook – the fastest selling Scottish book of all time, team sparked a whole licensing programme for DC Thomson around The
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 5, 2021
I'm reading this atm,I find that it is insightful but very repeaterd and gives the same information over and over again. I feel like they just was trying to fill out as much pages as they could
December 22, 2016
A really odd book that doesn't seem quite sure of its purpose; halfway between an encyclopedia and a history text.
Organised in a peculiar fashion it lists first a brief history of witchcraft before detailing an extremely curated (but with no hint as to how or why) list of accused and self proclaimed witches... Sarah Goode, Alestair Crowley and Gerald Gardiner are in the same section with little distinction between the two. Finally there seems an attempt at a witch-dictionary, with all these disparate parts cross referenced haphazardly. As other readers have noted it is extremely repetitive and borders on the monotonous.
Organised in a peculiar fashion it lists first a brief history of witchcraft before detailing an extremely curated (but with no hint as to how or why) list of accused and self proclaimed witches... Sarah Goode, Alestair Crowley and Gerald Gardiner are in the same section with little distinction between the two. Finally there seems an attempt at a witch-dictionary, with all these disparate parts cross referenced haphazardly. As other readers have noted it is extremely repetitive and borders on the monotonous.
May 2, 2013
I was disappointed in this book. There is a lot of information here, but so much of it is repeated that the book could have been half the size with a stricter editor's pen. It really felt that every entry was written by a different person, with no idea what was coming before or after their bit.That said, I did learn a few things that I hadn't known before - like an egg tree used to protect against witchcraft. Put a dead bush outside the house, trim down the branches and then cap each one with a blown egg. That would make the neighbours talk!
April 21, 2011
I got a lot out of this book. It does not tell you if witchcraft is real or not, nor it does not tell you how to be a witch. It simply gives you the history of the perceptions of witchcraft throughout history. It relates the persecutions, the lives of famous witches, and items and stories related to witches.
A very interesting and well written piece of non-fiction.
A very interesting and well written piece of non-fiction.
January 22, 2013
Nice, basic introduction to the history of witchcraft. Did you know that England was a nanny state even during the witch trials? However, the Witchcraft Act wasn't repealed till 1951.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews