Witch trials

This novel set in a small village in Scotland, Kilgoyne, featuring the protagonist, Majorie Crowe, whom the villagers think is between 60 and 70 years of age,

“They think me to divorced or a lifelong spinster, that I used to be a librarian, a pharmacist, a teacher or a witch. Some even think I might be autistic or have had a stroke; others think I’m simply rude” (p2)

She cuts an odd character in the village, with her daily walks which happen like clockwork, twice a day, every day, at 11.30am and 6.30pm, taking exactly the same route, regardless of weather, “never deviating from my chosen route” (p1). The route takes her right through a pub, which she takes rather than circle the pub. At first Majorie Crowe seems eccentric, but of course as the novel unfolds, it turns out that she has reasons for her oddities, such as the fact she is following ley lines, believed to be lines of power, and even her walking ‘widdershins’, that’s anticlockwise, has a reason – it is supposed to protect the village from evil spirits.

One day, on one of her usual walks, she sees a youth of the village, one Charlie McKee, hanged. She is too shaken to report this death, and later others find out and are horrified with her non-reporting. Also, someone else claims to have seen Charlie alive and well an hour after Majorie saw him hanged – which makes the reader and Majorie herself wonder, how reliable is what she saw or thought she saw? When a second youth, Jason Doak, goes missing, the village start a literal witch hunt, victimising Majorie as responsible for the village’s ills.

When Sergeant Deacon and DC Sharma some to interview Majorie, she tells them she knows people say she is a witch – and so she is.

“The word isn’t a pejorative. I own that word. I’m proud of who I am, what I am, and those that have gone before me. They can’t insult me by telling me I’m me” (p62)

She tells the police officers she learnt about her craft and past witches from her grandmother, who learnt from her grandmother, and so on back many generations, right to 1726, their ancestor Jean Pennant, strangled and burned alive in front of a watching mob, at the age of 33, leaving behind 2 young children. “She was wirriet and burnt” (p101); wirriet means strangled, and burnt meant burned at the stake. Throughout the novel is sprinkled many short stories/histories of those who were wirriet and burnt throughout the ages, convicted of witchcraft with little or no evidence, persecuted perhaps of malice and fear, much as Majorie is now persecuted, for being different and for having herbal knowledges.

Majorie herself has helped villagers with her potions to cure illnesses, but the tide of feeling turns against her swiftly. She is reviled, her cottage is besieged and later there is attempted arson. She becomes a figure of hate, and is particularly flamed on Twitter. This is of course the modern day equivalent of witch hunting. But of course, as the story unfolds, it is Majorie who holds the answers to the dark events and secrets of Kilgoyne, including some in its past.

Some of the information Majorie relates is particularly interesting. She mentions Shakespeare’s witches and understands that things he wrote of like “Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog., Adder’s Fork and Blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing” sound grotesque and intentionally so, but she explains these are just ancient names for plants.

“Eye of newt is another name for mustard seeds. Toe of frog is a buttercup. Wool of bat is just holly leaves. Tongue of dog is houndstongue, a herbaceous plant. Adders fork is adders tongue, a fern. Bling worm’s sting is knotweed, lizard’s leg is ivy, and Howlet’s wing is garlic” (p62)

Majorie tells the police officers 2,558 people were executed for witchcraft in Scotland and 84% of those were women. Scotland apparently executed 5 times as many people per capita than anywhere else in Europe.

The whodunnit keeps its suspense well, and maintains pace right through to the end. There are a lot of ‘othered’ characters, who are also persecuted or victimised, for vulnerability and for difference. That seems the main focus of the novel, how easily the minority and excluded and different are victimised and then persecuted. In all, a good riveting read, with excellent atmosphere.

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