The novelist Jill Dawson spent her twenties dabbling in spells and spirituality, but it was through studying the tarot that she ultimately discovered deeper, more meaningful truths. Read the interview here (PDF) Continue reading…
NEWS
The Bewitching – Guardian review – pacey witch trial tale
This powerful novel foregrounds the violent misogyny behind 16th-century accusations of witchcraft in Huntingdonshire. In recent years, female writers have found their imaginations energised by the figure of the witch. Standouts include AK Blakemore’s The Manningtree Witches, which won the 2021 Desmond Elliott prize, and Elle McNicoll’s children’s novel, A Kind of Spark. Evie Wyld’s The Bass… Continue reading…
The Bewitching – Sunday Times review
Jill Dawson’s The Bewitching, with its compelling story and imaginative reconstruction of past beliefs, is set in lateElizabethan Huntingdonshire. A truculent old woman, Alice Samuel, arouses suspicions that she is responsible for sudden seizures experienced by the daughters of the local squire, Robert Throckmorton. The Throckmorton household itself, seen through the eyes of the narrator… Continue reading…
The Bewitching FT review
A vivid retelling…From the first farcical accusation to the novel’s tragic denouement, the plot unfolds with the unrelenting pace of a psychological thriller. For the reader, Alice’s innocence is never in question, but the novel ably portrays the web of misogyny, fear and religious convictions that made her guilt seem credible at the time. A… Continue reading…
The Critic reviews The Bewitching
If it’s voice as a narrative tool that you’re after, there aren’t many better contemporary practitioners than Jill Dawson. Over nine previous novels, although distinct and varied in subject, certain preferences have emerged in several of them: an historical setting; a protagonist drawn from reality; and a distinctive narrative voice that flavours the story while… Continue reading…
Suzy Feay reviews The Bewitching in The Spectator
‘Witch-hunt’ has become a handy metaphor for online persecutions, especially of women, though these days it is reputations that go up in flames rather than bodies. The mob mentality behind the phenomenon may not have changed as much as the medium or the mindset. In retelling a celebrated case from Elizabethan England, Jill Dawson enters… Continue reading…
Ian Parker reviews The Bewitching
The Bewitching takes us back to 16th century Cambridgeshire, exploring the true story of the Witches of Warboys. Largely told from the perspective of one of the servants in the home of the local squire, Martha – deaf in one ear, yet more observant than anyone around her – watches on with increasing confusion, sympathy… Continue reading…
The Bewitching launch party
The launch party for The Bewitching took place on a balmy July evening at Carmelite House. Jill Dawson welcomed many of her friends and colleagues to the event. Click on a thumbnail to enlarge photos. ORDER FROM AMAZON HERE ORDER FROM TOPPINGS HERE ORDER FROM FOYLES HERE ORDER FROM WATERSTONES HERE ORDER FROM BOOKSHOP.ORG.UK HERE… Continue reading…
Jill Dawson conjures up a striking image of life in Elizabethan East Anglia
Jill Dawson’s novels are often set in the Fens, often based on true stories and often written with a clear feminist purpose. And yet, they’re also astonishingly varied. Her last book, The Language of Birds, for example, turned the nanny murdered by Lord Lucan in 1974 from a historical footnote into a warm and vivid human being (from the Fens). Now,… Continue reading…
The Bewitching – Mail on Sunday Review
‘The Bewitching – Based on an actual witchcraft trial in an English village in the 16th century, this finely crafted novel explores the contagiousness of malicious rumours. Poor, stroppy, beer-tippling Alice, demonised for being outspoken, is a timeless female archetype, rendered with great skill by Dawson. There is a grim inevitability about her fate, as… Continue reading…