Ashes and Stones: A Scottish Journey in Search of Witches and Witness

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The memory of those who died, the fragments of their lives that I’ve written about, so I can envision them there by the loch in better times. Overall, this book provides a poignant look at a ‘fashionable’ subject matter which includes moments in Scottish history. Although it may have been written with a specific target audience in mind, anyone interested in history, social justice, or the experiences of women throughout history would find it to be a valuable read. I would like to thank #NetGalley and #hodderandstoughton for the opportunity of reading this advanced copy of #AshesandStones in exchange for my own honest review. As the author visits each area to learn more about the women she has researched, you really feel her connection with the areas and their stories. She gives these women their voices all these years later, and hearing about their treatment and trials was truly astonishing. I always am fascinated by the stories of witch trials from all over the world, and focussing on the Scottish ones was a brilliant way to get a sense of the history and poor treatment that was the norm for so long. And by naming the women, it made it even more powerful as you really got a sense of the character and the insanity of the whole movement.

A little girl stopped and asked her mother what I was doing. Her mother said: “She’s come to remember people who died.” For a moment, we were united through time and space in this place – the mother and daughter, Helen and Joanet, and me.

Throughout the recorded history of Britain, belief in earthbound spirits presiding over nature, the home and human destiny has been a feature of successive cultures. From the localised deities of Britannia to the Anglo-Saxons’ elves and the fairies of late medieval England, Britain’s godlings have populated a shadowy, secretive realm of ritual and belief running parallel to authorised religion. Francis Young traces Britain’s ‘small gods’ to a popular religiosity influenced classical learning. It offers an exciting new way of grasping the island’s most mysterious mythical inhabitants. Charlotte Humphery, senior commissioning editor at Sceptre, who is working with Toon’s authors while she is on parental leave, said: “ Ashes and Stones is a beautiful exploration of a dark history that is often forgotten or trivialised. Thousands of women were murdered by state forces during the witch hunts and Allyson Shaw revives some of these women – through historical records, physical presence and informed imagination – with tenderness and compassion. Brooklyn Museum’s Copy Machine Manifesto: artists make zines, running from 17th November 2023 to 31 March, 2024 will include my zines from the 1990s made in collaboration with artist Laura Splan.

Allyson Shaw, from the US but part of the Scottish diaspora manages to weave together a beautiful narrative by mixing the search for heritage, both in blood and bond, with the painful memories of the treatment of women in the past. Rather than following the typical narrative of sensationalising the reasons why the women accused of witchcraft were accused, she instead focuses on the circumstances surrounding it. Much of witchcraft popular writing tends towards a want to theorise that maybe these women were witches, or had done something to make others think they really were. As a historian who studied witchcraft as part of her course, it was wonderful to see Shaw mention several of the witchcraft scholars that I was familiar with and had read throughout my studies. My conclusions from the course were similar to Shaw: these women weren't witches in any way. They were just women. Ashes and Stones is beautifully written look at the treatment of women accused of witchcraft in Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries, woven alongside the memoir of the author and how the lives of the women feel reflected in their own life.I do question some of the angles that are taken. I resent any mention of granddaughters of witches who couldn’t be burnt and unfortunately it occurs here more than once, a twee soundbite that presumes guilt and does nothing for the narrative. Shaw tends to the over-sentimental too frequently for my liking, a notably grating example being when she ‘senses’ the eye colour of an accused woman at a memorial. I also have minor disagreements with some of her interpretations of primary sources, which I think is a valid criticism even in a work that does not purport to be for an academic purpose. One is a journey to find the Scottish Witches who were accused, convicted and killed in staggering numbers and who are now mostly forgotten or even worse, remembered for the wrong reasons, their history dismissively mis-told. A beautifully written personal account of the discovery of late antiquity by one of the world's most influential and distinguished historians Ashes & Stones is the powerful and moving story of the witches’ monuments of Scotland and some of the women whose lives were cruelly erased by the horrific persecution of the accused. Also a travelogue and personal memoir, Ashes and Stones is beautifully written in the description of Scotland’s wild lands and urban landscapes, and intertwined with Allyson’s personal journey with health issues. Allyson reveals well researched, compelling historical details of the Scottish witch trials, and the beliefs and practices that led to nearly 4,000 accusations of witchcraft. In a seventeenth-century societal system that accepted patriarchal ideas about religion and the supernatural the accused were almost always women. Accusations could arise from neighbourly quarrels to the blurring of lines between folk healing and witchcraft with dire and terrifying consequences for those who had to endure torture designed to ensure a confession. Ashes & Stones is both a memorial to the horrors of past injustices and a call to the woman, and men, of today to remember those who were so cruelly wronged and accused and killed without recourse.

This was a truly eye opening book of research into the many years of Scottish witch trials and the horrendous treatment dished out to so many, over so many years. My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton Sceptre for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Ashes & Stones’ by Allyson Shaw. I complemented my reading with its unabridged audiobook edition, narrated by Lucy Paterson. Ashes and Stones is a moving and personal journey, along rugged coasts and through remote villages and modern cities, in search of the traces of those accused of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland.But, for me, what really set Ashes and Stones apart was the way it was written. Without wishing to spoil it, the author herself had an extremely compelling reason not only to write the book, but to include within it, a memoir of why she has chosen to do this. This lends added poignancy to each piece of information she uncovers and each grave she stands overs. It's a beautifully written, impeccably researched tome. Not only has the author done her reading - often painstakingly untangling old Scots language, but she has also stood on every spot, comparing accounts from then to what is to be found now. The result is a unique addition to the canon, and one which will readers will be turning to in centuries to come. Shaw writes of the sense of displacement she felt living in the USA that drew her to emigrate to Britain, eventually settling in Scotland. I’ve just begun researching accused witches in Shetland and Orkney. In the coming year, I’ll explore the islands through the eyes of these women.