The Manningtree Witches

England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow. In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers - the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes. But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins, a mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, takes over The Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins. When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge. The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust and betrayal ran amok as the power of men went unchecked and the integrity of women went undefended. It is a visceral, thrilling book that announces a bold new talent.

About the Author :
A. K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others.

Review :
Dark, original, unsettling, and crackling with fierce and visceral life, The Manningtree Witches heralds the birth of an utterly vital new voice in fiction. AK Blakemore makes the past breathe, and allows it, with dazzling candour, to speak hotly to the complicated reality of our own moment I loved this riveting, appalling, addictive debut. Blakemore captures the shame of poverty and social neglect unforgettably, and the alluring threat of women left alone together, in a novel which vividly immerses the reader in the world of those who history has tried to render mute A.K. Blakemore's debut is a riveting, unsettling story of menace, corruption, and muck, rendered in limber, evocative prose that delights and surprises at every turn. Its heroine wants too much, and too often, and the wrong thing-which is quite a bit more dangerous than usual, considering this is 17th century England and the Witchfinder General has just come to town. Based on actual events, but told in a deliciously brazen voice, this novel reads like Fleabag meets Hilary Mantel: bawdy, bewitching, weird, and wise. I loved every minute, and even when I was horrified, I didn't want to look away A major debut The Manningtree Witches is an absorbing novel, with a narrator fizzing with humour and resistance. Rebecca West pulls you into a world of wry wit and casual violence, to the uncompromising drumbeat of unfolding cause and effect. But this book is tenderly luminous in the attention it offers to love, desperate sadness, and a will to live as strong as the tide... A huge achievement in storytelling, made with a poet's command of words A powerful debut... [Blakemore's] prose has a richness that adds extra depth [Blakemore] gives a voice to the women who were silenced and slaughtered... [A] bold and poetic debut Exploring male oppression and misogyny trussed up as religious fervour, Blakemore's brilliantly written story is both fascinating and compelling Poet A K Blakemore's visceral debut glimmers with darkness and glints with fear... [She] brilliantly describes the uneasiness of this world Brims with language of arresting loveliness... The Manningtree Witches ventures into dark places, to be sure, but it carries a jewelled dagger... The persecutors in this tale are given close scrutiny, but the book belongs to the persecuted. And on these pages, in all their ordinary glory, those women are at last allowed to live [A] bleakly gorgeous reimagining... [Blakemore] has alchemy in her fingertips... Her prose has the animating tactility of Hilary Mantel's historical fiction: she lingers with almost wanton sensuality on the taste, touch, colour and smell of life in a terrorised 17th-century English village A striking reflection on Puritanical patriarchy and the occult, The Manningtree Witches taps into contemporary feminism while remaining true to its Early Stuart setting. A novel where the devil is - literally and figuratively - in the details The Manningtree Witches is a deft, witty debut novel... amid the dust and gloom, we are right there with the witches, facing down the men who'd see them hanged for nothing A striking debut [...] an amazingly fresh historical novel and a timeless meditation on the male abuse of power Blakemore's visceral debut glimmers with darkness... a horrifying story told with dark elegance Blakemore has alchemy at her fingertips, lingering with almost wanton sensuality on the taste, touch, colour and smell of life in a terrorised Essex village A. K. Blakemore is the one-in-a-million writer who is interested in witchcraft because it is macabre and scary, the place into which women have historically pushed their darkest and innermost desires... well researched and ambitious...At times, the language is almost cloying, but it knows itself and uses that power to help the reader to feel as trapped, frightened and bewildered as Rebecca Earthy and exuberant AK Blakemore is a highly talented prose-smith and writes so savagely well about a culture in thrall to righteous conviction rather than the facts that this inglorious period in English history could almost be our own