"No historian before Marion Gibson has managed to convey so well the lived reality of British witch trials at the local level, rooting them vividly and perceptively both in their physical landscapes and in the identities and experiences of seventeenth-century villagers and townspeople. This is as close to an eye-witness view of them as we are likely to get."
—Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch and Oliver Cromwell

Praise for Witchcraft
National Bestseller
A New Yorker Best Book of 2024

“The trials of the accused people in Witchcraft return to us, in detail, lives about which we might otherwise know nothing.”
—The New Yorker  

“Belong[s] firmly within the contemporary examination of the United States’ ongoing and multifaceted satanic panic.” 
—The Washington Post

“Thought-provoking and timely... Searing.”
—The Times
 
“Inventive and compelling... A work of restitution and historical reparation, an attempt to give voice to those who have been silenced over the centuries.”
—Times Literary Supplement
 
“From demonology to royal ascensions, Gibson demonstrates how identity politics, power plays and cultural differences all crashed together to allow these historic injustices to occur… A well-rounded insight into some of the strangest and cruellest moments in history.”
—Buzz Magazine
 
“Thirteen witch trials are brought vividly to life in Gibson’s wide-ranging book”
—Daily Mail

“Gibson tells the story of the women and men whom those in power tried to silence — sometimes permanently.” 
—BookRiot

“A fascinating and revelatory look at real witch hunts…[Gibson] fashion[s] a book that is at once readable and informative, an energetic and declarative statement on a particular brand of cruelty that is at its most historically hysterical and rotten.” 
—BookReporter