About the Book
WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2021
'Riveting, appalling, addictive' - Megan Nolan
England, 1643. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation. In Manningtree, depleted of men since the Civil War began, the women are left to their own devices and Rebecca West chafes against the drudgery of her days. But when Matthew Hopkins arrives, asking bladed questions and casting damning accusations, mistrust and unease seep into the lives of the women. Caught between betrayal and persecution, what must Rebecca West do to survive?
'Deft and witty... dazzling and precise' - New Statesman
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 :
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
Glimmers with darkness and glints with fear... Vivid and original
Not just the best debut novel I've read in years, it's the best historical novel I've read since Wolf Hall
Deft and witty... dazzling and precise
Brims with language of arresting loveliness
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
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
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
Exploring male oppression and misogyny trussed up as religious fervour, Blakemore's brilliantly written story is both fascinating and compelling
[Blakemore] gives a voice to the women who were silenced and slaughtered... [A] bold and poetic debut
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
Blakemore has previously published two collections of poetry and it shows; the way in which she makes this award-winning tale of witch trials in 17th-century Essex sing with vivid and sensual language is remarkable... [Blakemore's] deft commentary on the patriarchy, balancing wit and anger, fear and suspicion... makes this debut such a joy... Full of relevance for our times
