Suzi Feay

Hysterical outbursts: Bewitched, by Jill Dawson, reviewed

What possessed the young Throckmorton girls in 1589 to accuse an old woman of witchcraft in the village of Warboys?

Dawson’s novel colours in the crude woodcuts of the time with passionate emotions. Credit: Alamy 
issue 09 July 2022

‘Witch-hunt’ has become a handy metaphor for online persecutions, especially of women, though these days it is reputations that go up in flames rather than bodies. The mob mentality behind the phenomenon may not have changed as much as the medium or the mindset. In retelling a celebrated case from Elizabethan England, Jill Dawson enters thoroughly into her characters’ religious world view, while giving a meaningful glance at the issues of today.

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