Book Review: The Familiars by Stacey Halls
The 1612 Pendle witch trials in Lancashire began when the peddler, John Law, refused to sell his pins to Alizon Device. Following the encounter, Law was stricken with a sickness […]
Category Archives: Reviews
The Devil in the Wilderness: ‘The Witch’ (2015) Revisited
New England, 1630. A man we know only as William is exiled from his palisaded colony for challenging its religious orthodoxy, and heads off into the wilderness in a rickety […]
ESSWE Workshop Report: Magical Traditions and Medieval Religions of the Book
On Thursday 7th July the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) ran a one-day thesis workshop at the Warburg Institute, London, for current and prospective Masters and PhD […]
Witches, Revenants, and Demonic Hedgehogs: Review of Supernatural Spaces Workshop
Last week Malcolm and I were fortunate enough to be invited to the ‘Supernatural Spaces in the Early Modern World’ workshop. Organised by Jenny Spinks, lecturer in early modern history […]
Burn the Witch
A few days ago a friend told me that Radiohead had released a new song, ‘Burn the Witch’, accompanied by an intriguing stop-motion video. ‘Seems they’re moving into your territory’, […]
Review of Ronald Hutton’s ‘Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts’
Back in 1987, archaeologist Ralph Merrifield asserted that magic and ritual ‘can be studied objectively like any other human behaviour, and archaeology can make a major contribution towards its investigation’ […]
Magic in Manchester: An Exhibition at the John Rylands Library
Yesterday I was treated to a tour of the ‘Magic, Witches & Devils in the Early Modern World’ exhibition, curated by Jennifer Spinks and Sasha Handley. It’s held at the […]
