witchcraft
Mass hysteria in Massachusetts: the 17th-century witch crisis in America
One September day in 1649, in the frontier town of Springfield, Massachusetts, Anthony Dorchester returned from church to the house…
The objects that sound witchiest on paper just look sad: Spellbound reviewed
Just in front of me, visiting Spellbound at the Ashmolean last week, was a very rational boy of about seven…
Caught between fascism and witchcraft: All Among the Barley, by Melissa Harrison, reviewed
All Among the Barley, Melissa Harrison’s third ‘nature novel’, centres on Wych Farm in the autumn of 1933, where the…
The roots of witchcraft
Until the mid-1960s many historians believed witchcraft was a pre-Christian pagan fertility ritual, witches worshipping the Horned God, whose consort…
Sinister summer reading for children
Martin Stewart’s Riverkeep (Penguin, £7.99) has a list of books and writers on the cover: Moby-Dick, The Wizard of Oz,…
A journey through magic across three millennia
With the briefest of introductions to each chapter, it is up to the reader to decide how they want to…
Shakespeare's London: where all the world really was a stage
Sam Leith on the year 1606, when plague and panic were rife — and all the world really was a stage
Grimms’ fairy tales: the hardcore version
Child murder, domestic slavery, abusive families, cannibalism and intergenerational hatred — what could be better for the festive fireside than…
Witch-hunting capitalism in Africa
It’s become trendy to blame capitalism for witchcraft in Africa
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