The Manningtree Witches: 'the best historical novel... since Wolf Hall'

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Set in the 1640, during England's Civil War, A.K. Blakemore's The Manningtree Witches is, without a doubt, the most perceptive, most beautifully written novel exploring witch trials that I've read. While not a huge genre, there definitely is a core body of witch trial novels and Blakemore's novel rises above all of them. O’Donnell, Paraic (12 March 2021). "The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore review – a darkly witty debut". the Guardian . Retrieved 1 September 2022.

England, 1643. Puritanical fervor has gripped the nation. And in Manningtree, a town depleted of men since the wars began, the hot terror of damnation burns in the hearts of women left to their own devices. Collitt, Andrea (17 April 2009). "Manningtree: Threat to Mayor". Harwich and Manningtree Standard. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011.It is 1643 in Essex, England. The civil war is raging between the Puritans and Royalists. The time is rife with superstition and fear. Neighbor turns against neighbor. Scapegoats for life’s tragedies are hunted and persecuted. This is the setting for The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore, a blending of fact with fiction of the Puritan witch trials in which several women were executed for witchcraft in 1645 in the village of Manningtree. The protagonist is Rebecca West, the 19-year-old daughter of Beldam West, the ostensible ring-leader of the witches. Puritans sought to reform themselves by purifying from their churches the last vestiges of Roman Catholic teaching and practice. It was a movement that gained popular strength in the early 1600s, especially in East Anglia. Blakemore has previously published two collections of poetry and it shows; the way in which she makes this award-winning tale of witch trials in 17th-century Essex sing with vivid and sensual language is remarkable. Her narrator, 19-year-old Rebecca West, becomes one of the accused and it’s her deft commentary on the patriarchy, balancing wit and anger, fear and suspicion, which makes this debut such a joy. With this historical novel full of relevance for our times, Blakemore makes it clear that the witch hunt isn’t a thing of the past. The City of Mist This was a book I have been wanting to read since my friends in the Mookse group tipped it for some of last year's prize lists - it also won the Desmond Elliott Prize for first novels. It is not Blakemore's first book, because she was already a published poet. We can however imagine that this path was regularly walked by some of the accused women, like Anne Leech who lived at Mistley and her daughter Helen Clark from Manningtree. They would have been familiar with this way; in good times treading it between the villages to visit each other, and later during the dark days of the witch trials, perhaps fleeing along it for their lives.

The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore is narrated by Sofia Zervudachi. It is 1643 and to be frank, not the greatest time period for women. England is currently in the midst of a Civil War and then there is the rise of the Puritans. Rebecca West lives in Manningtree. She is poor and unmarried. Her mother, Beldam West is a widow and is quite feared in the community. However, fear is everywhere these days. Rebecca West has eyes for the clerk, John Edes. He teaches her about the bible, and how to read and write. She can’t help but have a little hope that one day he may turn his eyes on her. But then a man named, Matthew Hopkins comes to town. He makes it his business to know what is going on in town and if there is anything suspicious happening. Suddenly, a child succumbs to raging fits. He mentions the devil and familiars. Accusations are made and one wrong turn can send a woman to the gallows. An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.What do you think the challenges and opportunities of writing about well-known historical events might be for the writer of fiction? In times of social, economic and religious strife within misogynistic societies women are much more likely to be unfairly persecuted and suffer at the hands of authoritarian men. One historical example where this was made blatantly obvious was in the mid-17th century witch trials in England – especially during the civil war and Puritan era. There's a blood-curdling sensational aura to the witch hunts that occurred as they are endemically associated with hysteria, the occult and horrific means of state-sanctioned punishment. But A.K. Blakemore brings an insightful and refreshing lyrical realism to her fictional depiction of a period in East Anglia and the Home Counties when hundreds of women (and men) were condemned by a charismatic and pious man named Matthew Hopkins who proclaimed himself to be a Witchfinder General. Thankfully this opportunistic charlatan isn't at the centre of the novel and Blakemore focuses instead on the much more interesting perspectives of a group of women who were often persecuted because they were convenient scapegoats or simply didn't conform to the accepted norms of the time living more on the fringes of society. The time it took me to read this book is no reflection on how much I liked it, it’s just that other books got in the way. Known as Old Knobbley, this ancient, gnarled oak tree is thought to be around 800 years old. Over the centuries it has born witness to wars, famines, even a mini Ice Age as well, of course, as the 17th century witch hunts.

The Ascension By John Constable RA (1776–1837)". Dedham and Ardleigh Parishes . Retrieved 23 July 2023.Shakespeare's Manningtree to celebrate bard's anniversary". Harwich and Manningtree Standard . Retrieved 17 November 2021.

The outline of the story that follows is in some ways terribly familiar – not least to anyone who, like me, studied Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” for A-Level: arguments, allegations, hysterical reactions, accusations, arrests, confessions – forced or tactically volunteered, recantations, trials, and executions. And of course it was Hopkins actions and treatises which partly inspired the Salem trials. Never before had so many innocent women been executed for the crime of witchcraft, a crime that they – or at least, most – did not commit. The entrenched misogeny of the 17th Century, particulalry in Puritan culture, played a lead part in these women’s murders. In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers – the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes. But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins takes over the Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins. When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge. The characters seem to have changing personalities, in particular Rebecca’s. One time she’s well-read, strong and independent and the next she’s ignorant, foolish and naive. And that was not because of some scheme of hers as we follow her story in first person narration, so we very well know her thoughts and intentions.

Manningtree features in Ronald Bassett's 1966 novel Witchfinder General and in A.K. Blakemore's 2021 novel The Manningtree Witches.