The Revels set nr Pendle Hill – Stacey Thomas

Submitted: 10th July 2023

The stage is set and the witch-hunt is about to begin…

A playright, Nicholas Pearce, is apprenticed to Judge William Percival, an infamous former witch-hunter who is under pressure to resume his old profession. The England they live in is ine torn apart by civil war and rumours of witchcraft are rife. Nicholas is hiding a secret – he can hear the dead speak. He wants to help the accused women byusing his secret talent. But if this gets out, he will be accused of witcraft himself….

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Boarding Pass Information: Nr Pendle Hill

Author guide: Stacey Thomas

Genre: historical inspired by fact

Food and drink to accompany: witches brew

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This has to be one of the most exquistely written books I have read for some time. The language, the sentences, the words chosen – it’s like reading a tapestry with those wonderfully coloured threads mixing to form the most fascinating of plots.

Set in 1645, I felt this book transported me there immediately. Such was the feel of the book, I found myself sitting beside a lute player in a castle, whilst a motley crew of witchunters prepared to go out and hunt down women. The calm before the storm….

I was very interested to find that the POV of this is a male character – the brother of the infamous Witch hunter of the time. At the time, the country was completely wrapped up and taken over by the fear of witchcraft. This fear had infiltrated the highest levels of government and the royal household. King James I for example, felt that witches were plotting to assasinate him in a plot with the devil. With a leader as mad as this, you can understand why the whole country was soon involved in a witch hunt of any woman suspected of wrongdoing. Most women accused died as a result of the treatment she got.

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It’s horrendous to think about. More so, when you think that this happened a lot and many, many women were killed on the lies of one man. Thank goodness therefore for Nicolas who has empathy for these women and has a special talent and belief in why he should be the one to help them. It’s a dangerous world for a man if you believe the witches…

The setting of this book – Pendle Hill and in an England on the brink of civil war was just perfectly evoked. Superstition, war, rumours and mistrust were rife anway and then came the charges of witchcraft.

This book really is something special – a new angle and fresh look at the story of witchcraft with a writer with a pen that can craft atmospheric, immersive worlds with the style of a poet.