Witches of St Osyth

Marion Gibson is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Fascinated by witches' stories for nearly thirty years, she is the author of Reading Witchcraft (1999), Early Modern Witches (2000), Witchcraft and Society (2003), Witchcraft Myths in American Culture (2007), Imagining the Pagan Past (2013), Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft (2017) and Witchcraft: The Basics (2018). In addition she serves as General Editor of the Cambridge University Press series Elements in Magic.

• Introduction: Welcome to St Osyth; 1. St Osyth: Grace, Ursley, Annis and Ales; 2. The Darcy Lands: Elizabeth, Ales, Margerie and Joan; 3. Little Clacton: Cisley and Henry; 4. The Sokens: Ales, Margaret, Elizabeth and Joan; 5. Little Oakley and Beaumont cum Moze: Annis; 6. An untrue and unjust record; Conclusion: Once more with feeling.

'This terrific book is that of a historian at the top of her game, bringing all her knowledge, research skills, and writing ability to the task. In so doing, Marion Gibson has made an important addition to our knowledge of Elizabethan witchcraft. But the text is also written for a more general audience and is engagingly written with that audience in mind too. Thus, the book has all the virtues of a 'crossover' study that will appeal both to the academic specialist and the more general reader. It demonstrates that good history writing can be erudite as well as entertaining.' Philip Almond, University of Queensland