I’d like to say when the children were born, but I was also terrified and exhausted. So, I think it would have to be later, in 2017, when my wife and I finally got round to getting married. All my closest family and dearest friends were there. I walked out of the registry office to thunderous applause, thinking that in that moment I couldn’t be any happier.

Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil. In 1967 on the Chantry estate in Ipswich. When I was three, we moved to Gillingham, Kent, so that’s where I spent my youth. A contextually rich history of the first witch panic during a tumultuous time in Massachusetts in 1651.The Wolfson History Prize revealed its shortlist for 2022 in April, showcasing the best historical non-fiction titles from the previous year including Malcom Gaskill’s The Ruin of All Witches, a dark, fascinating, real-life tale of witch-hunting in colonial New England. A leading expert in the history of witchcraft, Gaskill is Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia and the author of Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy and Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans. We chat to him about the Wolfson History Prize, the gender-politics of his new book and what we can learn from witch-hunting today. A riveting micro-history, brilliantly set within the broader social and cultural history of witchcraft. Drawing on previously neglected source material, this book is elegantly written and full of intelligent analysis. Mandy Downing has been named Curtin University’s first dean of Indigenous futures in the Faculty of Humanities. She has held a variety of research management and institutional governance roles during a decade at the Perth institution.

Funder reveals how O’Shaughnessy Blair self-effacingly supported Orwell intellectually, emotionally, medically and financially ... why didn’t Orwell do the same for his wife in her equally serious time of need?’ Recommended Reads about Race, Racism, and Demarginalizing History - Necessary Non-fiction You Should Read for Life-changing Insights and Impact This was a fascinating look at, not just witchcraft and the trial of the Parsons, but of life in general for migrants in mid 17th century New England, with a wealth of interesting information about their daily lives.It provides insight into another age, a vividly painted portrait of a small community. The research needed to bring together this fascinating story must have been phenomenal, providing a truly compelling read.In the stark, harsh and unforgiving climate of New England, colonists sought to build a new life for themselves away from the religious persecution and dogmatic rule of Old England. Through the gripping micro-history of a family tragedy, we glimpse an entire society caught in agonized transition between supernatural obsessions and the age of enlightenment. We see, in short, the birth of the modern world. About This Edition ISBN:

The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World is a historical account — a piece of nonfiction written with the fluidity and narrative heft of a novel — about a small New England town in the 1600s. Gaskill never belittles the experiences of those immersed in witchcraft or passes it off as mere hysteria or hyperbole. Instead, he grounds the strange events and occurrences in the context of the times and expertly dissects the causes and implications of witchcraft. Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home > October reads wrapped up with The ruin of all witches and it was definitely a read that will linger with me for a long time. A fine achievement. Gaskill has scoured the archives for every scrap of surviving evidence and presented his findings in an intelligent, meticulously documented, and highly readable way . . . As persuasive an account of the whole grisly episode as we are ever likely to get. -- Keith Thomas - New York Review of BooksThis is a non fictional account of witchcraft, and of one case in particular, in mid 17th century New England, in a remote community in Massachusetts. LoveReading exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives.