West, a true historical figure, was among those prosecuted in Essex. Blakemore explores the consequences of that chaos for a group of village women through the viewpoint of a narrator named Rebecca West. In her new novel, “The Manningtree Witches,” A.K. The 1649 beheading of Charles I cut the figurative head off patriarchal society. When civil war broke out in 1642, the ensuing chaos was disastrous: displaced people, outbreaks of bubonic plague, typhus and other deadly diseases, famine as a byproduct of war. Calvinists believed in the equality of believers but not women, whom they saw as responsible for original sin. The Church of England had adopted Protestant doctrines but still incorporated Catholic rites. Calvinists wanted a stripped-down Christianity wholly determined by literal readings of the Bible. Arguments over religion erupted in violence. Seventeenth-century England was a world turned upside down. I wouldn’t recommend this book but the storytelling is good and the insight into male power is fascinating if not all that original.If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores. The inconsistency of the language is frustrating and I actually don’t think it gave anything to the book. The pace of this book was incredibly slow especially at the start but does pick up towards the end. There is no doubt that extensive research has been completed to write this book and for that Blakemore must be commended. I think this book would have been much better if there had been a much closer focus on this relationship and it’s development under such pressures.

The language lapses so it is more understandable and we get a proper insight into the characters particularly the development of Rebecca and her daughters relationship. I found the middle of the book the best part for me. There is also the other occasion of the liaison in the woods which is strange.

Then all of a sudden in the next part of the book the women are arrested for witchcraft out of nowhere by a character that until that point had been perfectly amicable. The relationships are confusing and nothing is explained and the author takes for granted why those characters act in a certain way.

In the first third of the book there are many characters to take in and the old language is particularly strong (I would recommend having Google on hand to clarify many of the words) and nothing happens. This takes away from the authenticity without giving any likes to the characters. Blakemore goes from uses worked such as “retinue” and “quagmire” to lapsing into modern phrases like “for shits and giggles”. The language is written in old English to give the narrative authenticity which whilst it achieves this, it hugely limits the likability and proximity of the characters. This was very nearly a DNF for me in the first 100 pages.

The manningtree witches book review