The First Witches

Fascinating, unsettling, and deeply humane, The First Witches asks not simply who the earliest medieval witches were, but how the idea of the witch itself emerged. The book centres on – but roams far beyond – the charged world of fourteenth-century Kilkenny, where local rivalries, religious fears, and political power struggles converged in the prosecution of Alicia Kyteler and her family. Brilliantly researched and compellingly told, the book reconstructs a remarkable human story while illuminating a decisive turning point in the history of the witch. Chilling and thrilling in equal measure.

Erin Goeres, author of Nineteen Days in Autumn

This is a wonderfully vivid contextualisation of what was already one of the most sensational legal cases of the Middle Ages. Not only does it provide a better understanding of the trial concerned, but one of the whole subject of the opening of large-scale European witch-hunting, and with it a wonderful introduction to the late medieval inquisitorial mind.

Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch

Deeply researched and eye-opening. Anthony Bale brings us into a world where magic, religion and superstition were inseparable from power, injustice and fear. What emerges so powerfully is that witch hunts were never simply about belief: they were also about conflict, authority and who was vulnerable enough to be caught in the middle. And when that person was a woman, the consequences could be deadly. Compelling, unsettling and beautifully researched.

Estelle Paranque, author of Blood, Fire and Gold