I should begin with an admission. I’m not a great fan of Hilary Mantel’s Tudor novels. To me, they are tediously long and too self-consciously ‘literary’. One of the most telling remarks made about them recently was that of the eminent Tudor historian, Diarmaid MacCulloch, whose eagerly-awaited biography of Thomas Cromwell will no doubt become […]
Broomsticks and Orgies
‘When did witches start to fly?’ a reader asked me after the Harrogate History Festival. Good question! Until the 16th century, witchcraft was not a crime unless it caused injury or death. The community needed witches who could calm storms or banish pests from crops. Early writers on witchcraft didn’t mention the infamous witches’ sabbat. […]