The Manningtree Witches: 'the best historical novel... since Wolf Hall'

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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”) 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. 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.

Thanks to his success as a witch-finder, doing “God’s work” in the deeply pious counties of East Anglia, Matthew Hopkins gained tremendous notoriety. Emboldened by a profession long-supported by Church and State, and now charging extortionate fees, Hopkins anointed himself “Witch-finder General”, traveling all over Eastern England claiming to be officially commissioned by Parliament to uncover and prosecute witches. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch,’ historical fiction about Kepler’s mother, is Galchen’s first novel since 2008’s ‘Atmospheric Disturbances.’ Never before had so many innocent women been executed for the crime of witchcraft, a crime that they – or at least, most – did not commit. The entrenched misogeny of the 17th Century, particulalry in Puritan culture, played a lead part in these women’s murders. Here's Professor Alison Rowlands: "That’s something which usually gets missed out of the local story because it’s very hard to think that your community actually invested a lot of effort in trials. I think somehow it’s easier to say, 'Oh it was Hopkins'. He’s an easy villain and you see that in other parts of Europe where it’s nice to blame one villainous person. Actually you can’t have a trial unless there’s somebody willing to make an accusation. So every single person who was tried, somebody from their community has accused them of causing harm through witchcraft."

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For that [women] are commonly impatient, and more superstitious, and being displeased, more malicious, and so more apt to bitter cursing, and far more revengeful, according to their power, than men, and so herein more fit instruments of the Devil. 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. Manningtree is on Holbrook Bay, part of the River Stour in the north of Essex. It is the eastern edge of Dedham Vale. The language it's written in is historically appropriate and downright beautiful, without heavy-handed pretensions.

I often had head lice as a child. Outbreaks circulated around my primary school on a seasonal basis.’ Ref: Michal Wojcik (2013) Matthew Hopkins’ Advanced InterrogationTechniques“, One Last Sketch blog, 2013 [ ↩] How do you think a balance between historical accuracy and creating an evocative fictional world has or can be achieved?

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Here are some questions that you might like to consider or discuss with friends, family and fellow members of the Book Club as you make your way through the book.

Clearly, physical abnormalities were still only tentative evidence of witchcraft at the time, because what Hopkins did next was to set the tone for the persecution and murder of hundreds of women over much of the Western world. Hopkins devised a method of interrogation (“witch-finding”) that was designed to extract confessions of devil-worship from his hapless victims. He termed it “watching”. It was a specific process of coercion for a confession rather than medieval-style torture, which was not admissible as evidence. 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. 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. 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) According to historical records, 92 witnesses testified against these women and 15 others during their trial. This is worth thinking about for a moment. This means that nearly 100 people were prepared to travel and give evidence - a huge investment of their time, money and reputations - to make sure these women hung.Set in England in 1643, The Manningtree Witches is based on the activities of Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witchfinder General. Told through the eyes of Rebecca, one of the women later accused of witchcraft, the story begins with the arrival of Hopkins in the remote Essex village of Manningtree. It is the height of the Civil War and most of the men are away fighting. Hopkins takes over the village tavern, and is soon established as one of the local worthies. When a boy has a fit, and subsequently dies, after an altercation with a local woman, the accusations begin and Hopkins becomes involved. The “witches” are mostly unmarried women or widows, automatic objects of suspicion. They are removed to Colchester jail to wait, powerless, for whatever lies ahead. 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. 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. You can watch an interview with AK Blakemore about the book here on the SavidgeReads YouTube channel . The Ascension By John Constable RA (1776–1837)". Dedham and Ardleigh Parishes . Retrieved 23 July 2023.