Puritanical Upheaval & Petty Grievances Spell Witch-hunt

Sharp-witted Rebecca West’s unmarried status is cause for ostracism and rumour. Along with other women living at the fringes of her community, she falls prey to wild accusations.

Set amid the religious and political upheaval of the English Civil War and based on the witch hunts of real life Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, the novel gives a voice to the 300 or so women sent to their deaths for witchcraft during a three-year scourge.

And what a voice it is. Rebecca is entertaining company, at once ludic and keenly observant, and with a wonderful turn of phrase. We feel her powerlessness as the terror takes hold.

Blakemore has a staggeringly rich lexicon. This said and portmanteau words aside, some words are either so unusual as not to appear in the Oxford English Dictionary 3rd ed. (2010) (‘battologize’ meaning to repeat endlessly); are stretched to new meaning or different word class, eg. ‘patulate’ (verb) from adjective ‘patulous’; or are anachronistic, ‘flensing’ for instance, first appeared in the nineteenth century.

The use of these glorious oddities adds to the ‘upside down’ atmosphere of the period and does not detract from the evocative prose. Whether they would be in the vocabulary of a girl living in poverty during the Civil War is open to conjecture..

An assured and original debut.

My thanks to NetGalley and Granta for the ARC.

My thanks to the publishers for an advanced review copy of this pungent and engrossing story of the women of Manningtree who were persecuted, tortured and murdered during the English civil war for being nothing more than poor and outspoken. It is part of an appalling atrocity too little remembered but vividly told in this book, largely by Rebecca West, the clever and clear eyed daughter of one of the women. She survived..

The women are presented as the real people they undoubtedly were with sharp and ready wits but a solidarity and essential kindliness as well. The character and possible motivations of the diseased and sadistic General Witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins, are also well presented but, happily, he is not the focus of the book.

The cruelty of the literal witch-hunt perpetrated in the 1640s would seem a far off and primitive response to social dislocation in a patriarchal society, were we not in turbulent times ourselves. Now, this vicious misogynist reprisal for the proceeds of war and social change does not seem so remote to us and Blakemore has done a great job reminding us how perilous our own future may be.

If I have criticisms, it is that the vocabulary used is sometimes unnecessarily obscure and that the narrative style does not vary between what Rebecca herself saw and reports and those things described which she could not have experienced. It is a tough read but well worth the effort. Highly recommended.

A witching wonder to enthrall your heart. The story plunges the reader into the menace of the witch trials where suspicions and betrayal were rife.
A story that gripped me with great world building and writing that flowed but did require concentration at times.
The perfect book for a fireside read on dark wintry nights and definitely a positive new talent.
Thank you Granta books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review