On 20 August 1612, ten people from Pendle were executed before a vast crowd at Lancaster’s Gallows Hill. The condemned and their associates had endured six months of accusations, imprisonment and torture; their treatment was such that one of the group died in Lancaster Castle’s dungeons, while awaiting trial.
Today, a thriving tourism industry exists in and around Pendle, the former home of the so-called witches, yet virtually everything we know about the case originates from a single source: Thomas Potts’
Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches, hurriedly published in 1613 and distinctly skewed in favour of the prosecution. Until now…
Sunday Times bestselling author Carol Ann Lee brings an entirely fresh perspective to the story by approaching it as true crime. Having worked in the genre for more than a decade, her research leads to revelatory discoveries, transforming our knowledge of those shadowy figures behind ill-famed names, and the terrible events that befell them.
After four centuries of superstition and surmise, the two central, warring families – each headed by a fiercely independent widow working as ‘cunning women’ – emerge fully formed, as the book uncovers the reality of their lives and their alleged crimes before exploring the trial and executions.
Along the way, we uncover the truth behind some of the story’s most enduring mysteries: the legend of Malkin Tower and the final resting place of the Pendle witches.
This is a ground-breaking book that will take the reader on a spellbinding journey into the dark heart of England’s largest and most notorious witch trial.
About the author
Born in Yorkshire in 1969, Carol Ann Lee spent her childhood in Cornwall and now lives in York. She has written on subjects as wide-ranging as Anne Frank and Ruth Ellis, and specialises in true crime. Her book on Myra Hindley, One of Your Own, is the definitive study of both Hindley and the Moors Murders case. Lynda La Plante chose Somebody’s Mother, Somebody’s Daughter, Carol’s 2019 book on the victims and survivors of the Yorkshire Ripper, as her ‘Book of the Year’ in the Christmas edition of The Big Issue. The Murders at White House Farm, Carol’s 2015 book, was optioned for television by New Pictures, and aired on ITV1.
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