{"product_id":"midden-witch","title":"Midden Witch","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe thrilling story of the healers, artists and prodigies once persecuted as witches – from the three-time T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted poet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePOETRY BOOK SOCIETY CHOICE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn her thrilling fourth collection, \u003ci\u003eMidden Witch\u003c\/i\u003e, Fiona Benson enters the world of familiars, fables and hedge-magic and focuses on the persistent superstition – the fear and false knowledge – that was witchcraft.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTelling tales of imagined transformations and spell-casting, these poems present a litany of artists, dreamers and outcasts and a study of their ostracisation. The poet looks at how gifted, sometimes troubled, individuals – generally healers, artists, prodigies and almost always women – became scapegoats, victims of societal paranoia and persecution, and were hounded for centuries, often to a gratuitously violent public execution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMidden Witch\u003c\/i\u003e, these women speak back to us with dark humour, insight and real herbal knowledge. Reckoning with middle age, marginalisation, perimenopause and a steady, unstoppable vanishing, this troubled codex of remedies, spells and stories speaks to human fear in the face of the unknown, and a drive to protect our loved ones that transcends all rational thought. At play in the language of archival accounts of witchcraft, this is a dark, eclectic spell-book that witnesses the end-days of magic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Benson is one of the finest English poets writing today’ Blake Morrison\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘No one writes the way Fiona Benson does. No one is as raging, as fearless’ Daisy Johnson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA new collection of Benson’s wise and vivid work is a real occasion... exciting...fully inhabited and multi-faceted’ \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54249986195800,"sku":"9781787335240","price":18.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781787335240.jpg?v=1770729318","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/midden-witch","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}