A gripping book that I struggled to put down. Brilliant plot with a host of interesting characters, I will definitely read more by this author.

Well-researched and slow burn, but for me it just didn't pick up. It was well written, but nothing quite hooked me and I ended up feeling like I was dragging through it. There are a number of recent witch-related releases, and for me, this one doesn't live up to the hype or cut through.

Martha has served the Throckmorton family for years, looking after their children, and now the family has moved to a large and comfortable house in a fenland village. However the girls start suffering fits and then one of them accuses a neighbour, Alice Samuel, of bewitching them. What chance does Alice have against the godly and highborn family who accuse her?
Set in Tudor times, this story predates most of the tales of witchfinding in the 17th century but it does not fall into the trap of being a 'tudor' novel. The book is a fictionalised account of a true story in which a local woman was accused of causing death by witchcraft which was a hanging offence. The story is ambiguous in places, particularly with regard to the relationships with the Throckmorton family but is sympathetically written and very sad.

I seem to have read quite a few historical novels about witch trials over the last few years – Jill Dawson’s latest novel, The Bewitching, is another and it tells the story of the Witches of Warboys. I had never read anything about this particular case until now, yet it’s apparently one of the best-known of the 16th century witch trials and is thought to have strongly influenced the Witchcraft Act of 1604. In her author’s note, Jill Dawson states that many of the details described in the novel appeared in a pamphlet published at the time, although she has shortened the time frame and invented some of the characters and incidents.

Most of the novel is narrated by Martha, a servant in the household of the Throckmortons, a wealthy family who live in the village of Warboys in Cambridgeshire. Abandoned at birth by her mother and raised by a nun, Martha has been in the service of the Throckmortons for many years now and has watched her master, Robert Throckmorton, rise in the world to his current position of Squire of Warboys Manor. When, one by one, the squire’s five young daughters begin to suffer from sudden attacks of shaking and twitching, Martha is as distressed as if they were her own children. No one knows what is causing these fits, but one daughter after another accuses a neighbour, Alice Samuel, of bewitching them.

To the reader, it seems obvious from the beginning that Alice is innocent – and Martha also feels uneasy about the girls’ accusations, but knows that as a servant her opinion is unlikely to be wanted or welcomed. Although it’s clear that Alice is not a witch, what is less clear is why five previously healthy children should all suddenly be struck with the same affliction and why they should all choose to blame a woman who has done nothing to harm them. There’s a sense of mystery running throughout the whole novel which I found quite unsettling, because even if nobody has actually been ‘bewitched’, there’s definitely something sinister going on at Warboys Manor.

We don’t see very much of Alice’s point of view until later in the book, when she is forced to stand trial at Huntingdon Assizes in 1593 and her daughter, Nessie, and husband, John, also find themselves accused. By this time three ‘scholars of divinity’ have arrived from Cambridge University armed with a handbook on witch-hunting, the Malleus Maleficarum, and further accusations against the Samuels have been made by the powerful Cromwell family. In this atmosphere of superstition, misogyny and fear, poor Alice doesn’t stand a chance.

I found The Bewitching very slow at first, but it became more absorbing later on – and there were even one or two twists, which hadn’t occurred to me but probably should have done! The time period is beautifully evoked, with the language carefully chosen to suit the era and sometimes taken straight from the historical accounts (Alice wears a ‘black thrumbed cap’ and the girls don’t just ‘have fits’ – they are always described as being ‘in their fits’). It’s an eerie and unusual novel and although it didn’t always succeed in holding my attention, I enjoyed it overall. I’ll have to look for Jill Dawson’s earlier books now; she’s written so many and I don’t know how I’ve never come across any of them before!

Unfortunately, not one of the best witchy books I’ve read in recent months. Witches are the hot new trend in adult fiction and this attempt at the genre is weak. Slow, slightly too long and ultimately, not that shocking when you reach the twist, it felt like this book contained a lot of filler. I ended up skimming the final 20% out of sheer boredom.

Well researched historical books based on true events, especially those that delve into the hysteria of witch accusations and trials are my favourite. However, I did not race through this book as I would normally do as I found it very slow to get going and I did not particularly engage with any of the main characters. I enjoyed the latter part if the book much more as the story developed. I gave this book 2.5 stars rounded up to three.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this e advance review copy.

The Bewitching is a slow but well written book that tells the story of Alice, an older woman in the village, who gets accused of being a witch by the sickly child of a neighbour. What follows is the tale of whispers and close-knit villagers coming together to persecute, if you know anything about the history of this then you will know how it ends.

A fascinating, atmospheric, and gripping historical fiction about The Witches of Warboys trial. It's the fascinating portrait of an era and of the atmosphere around a the trials.
It starts with voices and, as it often happened, the accused is an old woman who dabbles in herbs and healing.
The story is told by Martha, an interesting character that knew all the people involved.
The historical background is well researched and vivid, it's like reading a real diary.
The characters are fleshed out and it's interesting to read about the mix of paranoia and power play.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I love witchy novels, so when I saw this was based loosely on the, unfamiliar to me, true story of the witches of Warboys I had to read it.
It highlights perfectly the fine line between the knowledgeable herbalists and healers of their local vicinities, “cunning women” and “witches” who were singled out and tortured by churchmen and witchfinders for little or no reason. This time the die is cast on the hearsay of a group of sisters who suffer fits and blame it on their near neighbour and her imagined imps.
I enjoyed this novel although it’s not my favourite witch trials book.

I love historical novels and one of my favourite periods of hostory is the Tudor/Elizabethan era and I am also fascinated by witches and witch trials so this was right up my street. This was such a compelling and engaging read that I couldnt put down. I loved it.

The Bewitching is a compelling novel about Elizabethan womanhood and witchcraft.

There have been quite a few British historical novels about witches of late, and I was interested to see how The Bewitching would approach the topic. Dawson captures the specific nuances of Elizabethan witchcraft well, and there is historical research woven seamlessly throughout the narrative. While it's possible to predict some of the plot twists, that doesn't undermine the sinister atmosphere and the very tangible sense of tension brewing.

Martha is an engaging narrator: caught somewhere between the Throckmorton family and the servants, she is able to piece together different parts fo the story. Alice is delighfully difficult: unlikeable and sympathetic all at once.

If you know anything about the witches of Warboys, the ending is a given, but Dawson still manages to make this retelling a real page-turner.

The Bewitching is an atmospheric story of witchcraft. Based loosely on the witch-hunt in Warboys, Huntingdon in the 1500s. I read this book with my heart in my mouth, the writing pulled me in and I felt Alice’s fear like it was my own.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have reviewed The Bewitching for book recommendation site LoveReading.co.uk please see the site for the full review. I’ve chosen The Bewitching as a Liz Pick of the Month.

Jill Dawson’s The Bewitching takes her readers back to the sixteenth century, a time of superstition and social inequality when misogyny was rife, with the story of the Warboys witch trial. Robert Throckmorton is installed in the village of Warboys, tasked by Sir Henry Cromwell with reporting seditious activities. John Samuels, the Throckmortons’ nearest neighbour was a leader in the Muchwood Riots, an attempt to reclaim Cromwell’s hunting ground as common land. When his wife calls on the Throckmortons, their youngest child is seized with a fit, pointing her finger at Alice and denouncing her as a witch. As each of his daughters becomes afflicted, Robert seems peculiarly unwilling to take action against the Samuels, seeking out Martha, the children’s nursemaid, for reassurance and kitchen gossip, until eventually he has no choice.

Dawson tells her story from the perspective of Martha, whose position gives her an intimacy with both family and servants, evoking a febrile atmosphere of paranoia and fear. Alice is a healer, a ‘cunning woman’, viewed with suspicion for her knowledge and the power stemming from it. For Sir Henry, a trial is both politically and personally expedient, gleefully supported by Elizabeth Throckmorton’s brother a divinity scholar eager to advance his career. Loosely based on a pamphlet write a few years after the trial took place, Dawson’s novel is an engrossing piece of storytelling, atmospheric and immersive.