Story of Witches
The witch – malevolent, magical, multi-faceted - has walked among us for centuries.
Demonic and deviant or liberated and revered, in this enchantingly illustrated book, Willow Winsham explores the many guises of the witch across folklore, history and superstition.
From Hekate to Baba Yaga, from shape-shifting hares to Macbeth, the book starts with a rich dive into the ideas of the witch in myth, legend and fairytale. Next follows an exploration of popular belief and superstition during the witch trials across Europe and the United States, one of the most tumultuous and bloody of our collective history. The last section brings us to more recent times, exploring how how the image and identity of the witch has been reclaimed and reinvented, the significance of the Wheel of the Year, the advent of Wicca and modern Witchcraft and beyond.
Finally and most crucially, we are left with the vital question: what have we learned from the past and what is the best way to approach our – often terrible – shared history of the witch?
Willow Winsham is a historian of witchcraft, specialising in English witchcraft cases. She is author of Accused: British Witches Throughout History and England’s Witchcraft Trials. She is co-founder of #FolkloreThursday, a popular website and X account that brings fascinating tales and traditions from all corners of the globe to its followers every Thursday. She is based in Derbyshire.