Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials
By Marion Gibson

These stories of witchcraft,and true and vividly told, demonstrate the potent reality of belief in evil and how in any era or place fear can be weaponised and marginal people, mostly women, labelled as wicked and dangerous.and Together they compriseand not just a history of witchcraft but a cautionary tale'Malcolm Gaskill, author ofand The Ruin of All Witchesand 'Thought-provoking and timely... Searing'Jessie Childs,and The Timesand Inand Witchcraft,and and Professor Marion Gibson uses thirteen significant trials to tell theand global historyand of witchcraft and witch-hunts. As well as exploring the origins of witch-hunts through some of theand most famous trialsand from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, it takes us in new and surprising directions.Three women were prosecuted under a version of the 1735 Witchcraft Act as recently as 2018.and Professor Gibson also tellsand the stories of the witches' - mostly women like Helena Scheuberin, Anny Sampson and Joan Wright,and whose stories have too often been overshadowed by those of the powerful men, such as King James I and Witchfinder General' Matthew Hopkins, who hounded them.Once a tool invented by demonologists to hurt and silence their enemies, witch trials have been twisted and transformed over the course of history and the lines between witch and witch-hunter blurred.and For the fortunate, a witch-hunt is just a metaphor, but, as this book makes clear, witches are truly still on trial.and and