Witchfinders: a Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy

By the spring of 1645, two and a half years of war had exacted a terrible toll upon England. People lived in fear as disease and poverty spread, and the nation grew ever more divided. To this turbulent world came omens of the Apocalypse, when finally Christ would defeat the devil. Visions appeared in the sky, monstrous births were reported, and witches and idolators were detected in every shire. In a remote corner of Essex, two obscure gentlemen, seething at the evil in their midst, began to examine poor women suspected of witchcraft. It was the start of the most brutal and tragic witch-hunt in English history.

Witchfinders is a spellbinding study of that witch-hunt - its causes, contours and consequences. Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne extended their campaign into Suffolk and across East Anglia, resulting in scores of executions. Driven by godly zeal, they exploited the anxiety and lawlessness of the times, interrogating terrified prisoners until they confessed to consorting with Satan and his demonic spirits. But a year on, not everyone shared the enthusiasm of the folk who invited the witchfinders into their communities. For Hopkins and Stearne, time was already running out.

Malcolm Gaskill vividly retells the story of 'the Witchfinder General', recreating some of the darkest days in England's past. He reminds us that hostility and fanaticism are an essential part of human nature, and demonstrates how the urge to persecute made witchfinders not just of Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne, but of the hundreds of ordinary men and women who helped and hailed them.

Click here for US edition >

REVIEWS OF UK EDITION

'A wonderfully detailed, well-written and judicious account of a tragic yet fascinating episode in our social and religious history'.
Saul David, Daily Telegraph

'Gaskill tells the story of the witch-hunt in full and accurate detail, for the first time, and with uncommon skill . . . Better than anyone before, he demonstrates that the Civil War was England's experience of the horrors that have beset parts of the Continent until the 1990s . . . His book is both a solid contribution to knowledge and a splendid example of history as gripping literature'.
Ronald Hutton, Independent

'Gaskill's stories of accusers and accused give the ordinary reader a visceral sense of mid- seventeenth-century England. A good biographer might do the same; but, as a good historian, Gaskill also tries to explain . . . In this satisfyingly complex but unmodish account, Gaskill follows in the footsteps of Keith Thomas's masterpiece Religion and the Decline of Magic, while offering a broader explanatory framework'.
Selina O'Grady, Literary Review

'Malcolm Gaskill's brilliant new study rewrites the history of the 1640s witch-craze . . . In the vivid three-dimensionality of its dramatis personae, the eloquence of its writing, and the richness of its evocations of vanished worlds of landscape and belief, Gaskill has produced a book that is more than an equal of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Montaillou. In summoning up this lost world of Stuart England, Gaskill displays a masterly wizardry all his own'.
John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph

'Book of the Week . . . The incessant peculiarity of the accusations could easily make the stories told in this book seem quaint rather than horrific. But Gaskill avoids this trap by describing each case in a vivid manner, making one aware at all times of the human tragedy. His description of a hanging, for instance could leave no reader unmoved.'
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

'A serious and scholarly account of the most chilling witch-hunt in English history . . . This is not a light read, but it is fascinating. Gaskill presents a compassionate, measured view dispelling several myths along the way.'
Marianne Brace, Independent on Sunday

'[Gaskill] is a very lucid and humane writer, very good at setting the social context, helping you to understand how the phenomenon of witchfinders came out of the dislocation of civil war.'
Hilary Mantel, Independent on Sunday

'Gaskill vividly shows how the barbarity and fanaticism of civil war could spill over into the administration of justice . . . He never talks down to us or his characters. He thinks our ancestors were mostly decent and intelligent people who could sink to the worst credulity at times of crisis. He writes with sympathy, respect and deep human understanding.'
John Guy, Sunday Times

'A must . . . a lucid companion piece to the classic horror movie Witchfinder General.'
Guardian

'The detailed archival work, much of it in previously neglected sources, is impeccable.'
Clive Holmes, Times Literary Supplement

'Malcolm Gaskill patiently untangles the history of East Anglian witchcraft . . . Perhaps in the end it is the historical [Matthew] Hopkins's unknowability that makes his story important: while he projected evil on to silly, hopeless individuals, there were scores of host communities who projected power, authority and an almost supernatural ability on to him. And that, as Gaskill ends by reminding us, can happen anywhere, any time.'
Kathryn Hughes, Guardian

'An engrossing account . . . Gaskill's hideously readable study is striking in the sense it gives of the living texture of the time, the state of moral confusion and superstitious paranoia in which so many wandered, as the medieval gave way to the early modern.'
Michael Kerrigan, Scotsman

'A fascinating new book on England's witchfinders.'
Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail

'This is a terrible tale marvellously told . . . ultimately the tragedy in the title of this astonishing book is the belief in witches, not the killing of them . . . Being a great writer, Malcolm Gaskill holds all this in the context of 1645-7, so that we see ourselves and our England then - our God, too. This is how history should be shown.'
Ronald Blythe, The Oldie

'Gaskill investigates this extraordinary story in great detail . . . a most worthwhile study.'
James Munson, Contemporary Review

'A chilling history of the witch-trials that gripped mid-seventeenth-century England'.
History Today

'This gripping book tells who said what about whom, why disturbed people were coerced into incriminating themselves, how local grudges were paid off, and how the legal system was subverted by mass hysteria.'
Jonathan Clark, Church Times

'A timely warning for for those that think that witch trials are a matter of history.'
John Cooper, The Times Media Review

'Gaskill offers a powerful picture of how fanaticism, fear and ignorance can wreak havoc on society.'
Lucinda Byatt, Historical Novels Review

'A completely readable, narrative non-fiction book on a gripping subject.'
Suffolk Journal

'Riveting.'
Claire Simpson, Books in the Media

'Gaskill paints a vivid picture of ignorance, poverty and superstition . . . fascinating and well-written . . . a riveting subject, engagingly told, and worth a read.'
Anna Arco, Catholic Herald

'Malcolm Gaskill's meticulous research coupled with his vivid prose brings the horror to life even at this distance of time.'
Lizzie Cook, Medway Messenger

'Malcolm Gaskill brings to life a well documented but still alien area of English history . . . the paranoia expressed is strangely and frighteningly modern.'
Hayley Goodwin, Manchester Student Direct

'A fascinating book . . . The full horror of this dark episode in English history is told in compelling detail.'
Paul Kirkley, Cambridge Evening News

'This is an extraordinary book about an extraordinary time in English history'.
Terry Sutton, Dover Express & Folkestone Herald

'Malcolm Gaskill has given [Matthew] Hopkins and his era meticulous study.'
Alan Brown, Colchester Evening Gazette