Widdershins: Witch fiction books for adults

by Helen Steadman

Overview

Did all women have something of the witch about them?

Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world.

From his father's beatings to his uncle's raging sermons, John Sharpe is beset by bad fortune. Fighting through personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witchfinder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft.

Inspired by real witch trials, Widdershins tells the story of the women who were persecuted and the men who condemned them.

Based on the little-known Newcastle witch trials, where fifteen women and one man were hanged for witchcraft on a single day in August 1650.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160887678
Publisher:	Bell Jar Books
Publication date:	04/01/2022
Series:	The Newcastle Witch Trials Trilogy , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	937 KB

About the Author

Helen Steadman mainly writes historical fiction set in the north east of England. She recently completed her fifth book, Solstice, the final part of the Newcastle Witch Trials trilogy. The series was inspired by a little-known witch hunt where fifteen women and one man were hanged in 1650, resulting in one of the largest mass executions of witches on a single day in England.

Helen enjoys carrying out in-depth research, and to help her get under the skins of the cunning women in her witches trilogy, she trained in herbal medicine. Prior to writing The Running Wolf, which tells the tale of the Shotley Bridge swordmakers who defected from Germany in 1687, she trained in blacksmithing and made her own sword.

After voyaging around the Farne Islands, Helen is completing a novel about the life of Grace Darling, the heroic daughter of a nineteenth-century Northumbrian lighthouse keeper. She is also still grappling with the goddess of love in a Greek myth retelling about Aphrodite.

Editorial Reviews

A dark and wonderful novel, rich in historical details, herbal lore, traditions and superstitions. Steadman's clear-eyed storytelling and colourful period voice give life to a vibrant cast of characters drawn against the backdrop of tragic historical events. A compelling and memorable tale!

A Secret History of Witches - Louisa Morgan

Infused as it is with aromas of rosemary, fennel and lavender, even the healers' herbs do not mask the reek of the injustice that sits at the heart of Widdershins. Powerful and shocking.

The Many (Longlisted for the Booker Prize) - Wyl Menmuir

A compelling tale of two young people whose destinies are intertwined, a witch-hunter and a witch. But is she really a witch? This meticulously researched account of a bigoted man's inhumanity to women in the seventeenth century will make the modern reader grateful to have been born in an enlightened age.

The Witch of Eye - Mari Griffith

A compelling and nuanced account of the clash of cultures that claimed so many lives. Steadman's carefully interwoven narrative conjures a world of herbal lore, folk practice and belief and convincingly portrays the psychological and ideological forces that form a perpetrator, and the social structures that sustain him.

The Elephant and the Polish Question - Helen Lynch

Impeccably written, full of herbal lore and the clash of ignorance and prejudice against common sense, as well as the abounding beauty of nature, it made for a great read. There are plenty of books, both fact and fiction, available about the witch-trial era, but not only did I not know about such trials in Newcastle, I have not read a novel that so painstakingly and vividly evokes both the fear and joy of living at that time.

Historical Novel Society - Sally Zigmond