Book Review: Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt
Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt. © 2010 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780547069678. Hardback. Historical Fiction. 333 pages. $24.00 US. Source: copy from publisher.
Synopsis
Bess Southerns, an impoverished widow, lives with her children in a crumbling old tower in Pendle Forest. Drawing on Catholic ritual, medicinal herbs, and guidance from her spirit-friend Tibb, Bess heals the sick and foretells the future in exchange for food and drink. As she ages, she instructs her best friend, Anne, and her granddaughter, Alizon, in her craft. Anne ultimately turns to dark magic, while Alizon struggles to accept the power she has inherited and dreams of a simpler life. But when a peddler suffers a stroke after exchanging harsh words with Alizon, a local magistrate tricks her into accusing her family and neighbors of witchcraft. Suspicion and paranoia reach frenzied heights as friends and loved ones turn on one another and the novel draws to an inevitable conclusion.
Review
Though other books have tackled a fictitious account of Lancashire Witchcraft Trials of 1612, Mary Sharratt is the first author among them to give Mother Demdike and her granddaughter, Alizon Device, their own say. Daughters of the Witching Hill is told in two voices. The first section being narrated by Bess Southerns and the second by Alizon. Through this we see how both women viewed their world and their gift of cunning craft. Of course, some liberties were taken with the novel but this is what makes it historical fiction and not a boring textbook (the changes are clearly addressed in Afterword for those interested). Read more
Synopsis: Set in early medieval Ireland, where Druids and Christians mingle and the old ways still survive, there is an ancient forest impenetrable to outsiders with a mind of its own. Living in the heart of this forest is a cold, widowed ruler and his people. Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Colum, Lord of Sevenwaters. She grows up happy, well-loved and protected by her six elder brothers, despite the distance of their father and the death of their mother. Running wild and undisciplined, the children are raised by the forest and in many ways oblivious to the encroaching events of the human world. But change comes to Sevenwaters–and nothing can ever be the same again. War with the Saxons and Britons threatens, and the peace of Sevenwaters is shattered when a Briton is captured by Colum and his warriors. Sorcha and her favourite brother Finbar disobey their father and secretly help the young Briton escape, but this act triggers Lord Colum to find a new wife who is not what she seems. Sorcha is the only one who can tell that their new step-mother is a manipulative sorceress with everyone under her spell. 
The Druid King is a historical fictional book on the life of the Gaulish general/leader Vercingetorix. It talks about his early life and his crusade against the Roman invasion of Gaul.
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