The Manningtree Witches: 'the best historical novel... since Wolf Hall'

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Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch,’ historical fiction about Kepler’s mother, is Galchen’s first novel since 2008’s ‘Atmospheric Disturbances.’ Never before had so many innocent women been executed for the crime of witchcraft, a crime that they – or at least, most – did not commit. The entrenched misogeny of the 17th Century, particulalry in Puritan culture, played a lead part in these women’s murders. As Imogen Simon argues strongly in her documentary, these eight women of Manningtree were victims of misogyny as much as religious fervor. The highlighting of misogyny is correct and is often overlooked in discussions of witch-trials. Eastern England of the 1640s was a Puritan stronghold, a society in which women were considered culturally inferior to men. It was a culture in which women could be accused so readily of being witches. The language it's written in is historically appropriate and downright beautiful, without heavy-handed pretensions.

In March 1644, Hopkins learned from his soon-to-be assistant, John Sterne, that there was rumour of witchery in Manningtree and took it upon himself to investigate. The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore is narrated by Sofia Zervudachi. It is 1643 and to be frank, not the greatest time period for women. England is currently in the midst of a Civil War and then there is the rise of the Puritans. Rebecca West lives in Manningtree. She is poor and unmarried. Her mother, Beldam West is a widow and is quite feared in the community. However, fear is everywhere these days. Rebecca West has eyes for the clerk, John Edes. He teaches her about the bible, and how to read and write. She can’t help but have a little hope that one day he may turn his eyes on her. But then a man named, Matthew Hopkins comes to town. He makes it his business to know what is going on in town and if there is anything suspicious happening. Suddenly, a child succumbs to raging fits. He mentions the devil and familiars. Accusations are made and one wrong turn can send a woman to the gallows. Hopkins’ witch-hunting methods were outlined in his 1647 book The Discovery of Witches. Over the following year, the trials and executions for witchcraft began in Massachusetts, with particular note of the ‘hunting’ of Margaret Jones. As described in the 1649 journal of Governor John Winthrop, the man who condemned her, the evidence assembled against Margaret Jones was gathered by the use of Hopkins’ techniques of “searching” and “watching”. A Fitting Finale?The novel dramatises brilliantly how the civil war created social tensions, breeding suspicions among previously amicable neighbours. It also tells how political tensions combined with famine to create a strain on community bonds. The elderly widow who relies on her neighbours for survival becomes an unwanted burden, and is transformed by their guilt into a perceived threat. Diverse fears coalesce around the character of Matthew Hopkins. Recently arrived in Manningtree, Hopkins is burying his own sense of weakness and failure beneath a desire to play God and to punish unruly women. He believes himself to be the servant of God, but it is he who brings evil to Manningtree.

Rural England, 1643. Rebecca West lives with her mother in a rundown house, in the miserable hamlet of Manningtree. They manage to scrape a living as seamstresses but times are tough. Most of the men are away fighting wars and food is often scarce. It seems like the only prospect of hope or happiness for Rebecca lies in her crush on the town clerk John Edes, who teaches her Scripture once a week. Tongues are set wagging in the village upon the arrival of Matthew Hopkins, a wealthy and mysterious individual. A short time after, a local boy becomes ill with unusual symptoms, leading Hopkins and some other men to conclude that he has been possessed by the devil. Suspicion falls upon Rebecca's mother, and along with some other women she is arrested and charged with witchcraft. Mother Clarke is old and going blind from cataracts. She has lost a leg and her hands shake with palsy. While Rebecca sees Mother Clarke as a “withered and slatternly old woman,” her neighbors perceive her as “cunning,” capable of making small charms. Rebecca assumes it’s the widow’s “web-in-the-eye” that draws folks. “Beyond the uncanny way it makes her look — like a fairy came along and scrubbed the meats clean of spots — people get terribly superstitious about such things as cataracts, and choose to believe that God would not be so cruel as to rob an old woman of her earthly gaze without equipping her with a spectral one, to say sorry.” The only reason of my rating is because my expectations were different going into the book. My need for paranormal elements and a bit of witchcraft weren’t satisfied. However, putting my expectations aside, this book beautifully represents the reality of witch hunting and the struggles so many women had to endure during these times.One other recent witch novel, Rivka Galchen’s “ Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch,” wrestles with some of these same questions, turning on the intellectual battle between early scientist Johannes Kepler and those who had arrested his mother. Galchen sought to give a voice to a woman whose true nature can only be gleaned in occasional spaces in the court records.

The time it took me to read this book is no reflection on how much I liked it, it’s just that other books got in the way. The author does examine what might have caused the actions of Hopkins as well as those that encouraged or at least did not hinder him.I loved the concept, the characters were so detailed and put together and the history of the novel felt well researched. The afterword was really eye opening. HOWEVER, this was really difficult to read for me, I wanted to love it but just couldn’t get going most days with it. The poetic language was too distracting and made for a slow pace in the narrative that often felt disjointed. A.K. Blakemore's 2021 novel, The Manningtree Witches, is set in the town. [13] The novel won the Desmond Elliott Prize 2021, being described by the judges as "a stunning achievement." [14] Notable people [ edit ] Here's Professor Alison Rowlands: "That’s something which usually gets missed out of the local story because it’s very hard to think that your community actually invested a lot of effort in trials. I think somehow it’s easier to say, 'Oh it was Hopkins'. He’s an easy villain and you see that in other parts of Europe where it’s nice to blame one villainous person. Actually you can’t have a trial unless there’s somebody willing to make an accusation. So every single person who was tried, somebody from their community has accused them of causing harm through witchcraft." The big difference between the societal norms of 17th-century England and the notoriety of “Witch-finder General” Matthew Hopkins is the sheer scale of the horrors he enacted. Hopkins and his cohorts were responsible for the deaths of more “witches” within a two-year period than had been killed in the previous 100 years. Between 1644 and 1646, Hopkins is believed to have secured the convictions of around 300 women, leading directly to their execution. To put this in context, approximately 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials, and 20 were executed. But if a witch can be in two places at once, as you say, then I cannot prove my innocence by those same means. Nor, it seems to me, by any other. I can say again and again, a thousand times, sir, that I am not a witch, and have no traffic with the Devil nor his spirits, and it will account for nothing. But if I say once that I am, then it will account for everything.”

AK Blakemore has won the Desmond Elliott prize for best debut, with her historical novel about the English witch trials of the 17th century, The Manningtree Witches, praised by judges as a “stunning achievement”. Seventeenth-century England was a world turned upside down. Arguments over religion erupted in violence. Calvinists wanted a stripped-down Christianity wholly determined by literal readings of the Bible. The Church of England had adopted Protestant doctrines but still incorporated Catholic rites. Calvinists believed in the equality of believers but not women, whom they saw as responsible for original sin. a b c d Peers, Deborah (February 2009). "Once upon a time in... Manningtree". Essex Life. Archant Life. p.52. To my mind, Le Guin’s dazzling Earthsea Quartet ought to hold the place in our cultural esteem that Harry Potter and the etc does. We meet Tenar in the second book of the series, The Tombs of Atuan, when she is taken to serve as a child priestess to the mysterious Nameless Ones. But it is in Tehanu – older, wiser, and desperate to protect Therru, a child who has fallen under her guardianship – that she comes into her own. As a semi-literate middle-aged woman, Tenar is far from the typical fantasy heroine. But her fearlessness and grit as she works to build a life for the child she loves is as thrilling as any of Sparrowhawk’s dragon battles. Most daringly, on Le Guin’s part, Tenar’s perspective serves to interrogate the sexual politics of the earlier Quartet , and the fantasy genre in general.How would you describe the other key characters of the community? What are their relationships to each other, and how do these help to drive the story? It isn't a clear cut, good guys/bad guys novel. Some characters are more sympathetic than others, but none of them are the sort of self-assured caricatures that often populate with trial fiction. Even the characters we hate because of their certainty have occasional doubts. Manningtree has traditionally claimed to be the smallest town in England, but its 2007 population of 700 people in 20 hectares [3] and the 2011 census population for the civil parish of 900 are much higher than the 351 population of Fordwich, Kent. [4] However, it is believed to be the smallest town by area. [5] The Manningtree Witches is a book set in England in 1643, where witch hunters were quite popular and many women were killed after being accused of witchcraft. This book is actually inspired by true events that happened in history. The focus was more on the historical aspect and bringing life to the characters, rather than the supernatural elements. The theory was that the innocent would sink, but the guilty would float. This could be used as ‘proof’ of crimes. ‘Swimming’ may also have had religious connotations. Those who had renounced God and were in league with the devil would be rejected by the purity of the water and so would float.