Explore books about witchcraft in the UK and Ireland, including witch trials, accusations, folk magic, historical belief and supernatural tradition. The collection ranges from local histories to wider studies of witchcraft and its place in British and Irish culture.
22 books found
Cover unavailableTales of the Polden Hills
This revised edition of Frances Harriott Wood’s collection presents seven tales from Somerset’s Polden Hills, with additional material by MJ Wayland. Ghosts, witchcraft, omens and unusual dreams feature in accounts associated with Street House, Ivythorn…
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Cover unavailableThe Book of English Magic
The Book of English Magic surveys England’s magical history from prehistoric times to the 21st century, tracing how different traditions developed, overlapped and survived. Its subjects include Druidry, witchcraft, alchemy, astrology, runes, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and…
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Cover unavailableThe Encyclopedia of the Occult
Lewis Spence’s reference work gathers information on occult sciences, magic, demonology, spiritism, mysticism and metaphysics. Its entries range across astrology, alchemy, witchcraft, clairvoyance, ghosts, secret societies and accounts of psychic phenomena, alongside figures associated with…
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Cover unavailableThe Fylde Witch
Chris Newton retells the legends of Meg Shelton, the Witch of Woodplumpton, as a dark fairy tale rooted in Lancashire folklore. Following her from youth to old age, the novel brings together shapeshifting, boggarts and…
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Cover unavailableThe Ghost Hunter Chronicles: The Witches of Pendle
A new family moving into a house in Pendle discovers a witch’s bottle containing curses, releasing the reported spirits of people accused during the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials. Their arrival brings a modern haunting into…
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Cover unavailableThe God of the Witches
Margaret Murray presents witchcraft as the surviving trace of an organised pre-Christian religion in Western Europe. Her argument centres on the Horned God, whom she identifies behind figures and traditions recorded across European history, and…
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Cover unavailableThe Great Scottish Witch-Hunt
The Great Scottish Witch-Hunt examines the most intense phase of Scotland’s witch persecutions, focusing on the years 1658–1662. Maxwell-Stuart considers how accusations brought women and men before the authorities, with some condemned to strangulation or…
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Cover unavailableThe Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys
The Lore of the Land surveys England’s legends county by county, bringing together stories attached to villages, towns, landmarks and historic buildings. Its subjects include hauntings, highwaymen, family curses, lovers’ leaps, buried treasure and graves…
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Cover unavailableThe Magic Arts in Celtic Britain
Lewis Spence’s study examines magical beliefs and practices associated with Celtic Britain, beginning with the nature of Celtic magic and the disputed origins of Druidism. It considers spells, charms and magical books, alongside the role…
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Cover unavailableThe Meaning of Witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft presents Gerald Gardner’s account of witchcraft as a surviving religious tradition, drawing on his stated experiences as a practising witch. He discusses the witch cult in Britain, proposed Stone Age origins,…
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Cover unavailableThe Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic
The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic traces changing ideas about magic and witchcraft from the ancient world to the 21st century. Edited by Owen Davies, it brings together chapters on ancient and medieval…
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Cover unavailableThe Paranormal Files
Cases that resist easy classification are the focus of this volume in Mike Covell’s investigation series. Subjects include witchcraft, superstition, psychic claims and the Satanic Panic, alongside an episode in which the River Hull changed…
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Cover unavailableThe Ruin of All Witches
The Ruin of All Witches reconstructs a witch-hunting episode in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1651, where illness, failing livestock, spoiled food and missing property fuel suspicion. Reports of fits, disturbing dreams, visions and children’s deaths deepen…
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Cover unavailableThe Snow Witch
A woman fleeing a traumatic past arrives in Portsmouth as an extraordinary snowstorm cuts the city off. Encounters with its residents offer the possibility of belonging, while an obsessive man threatens her precarious new life.…
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Cover unavailableThe Story of Witches: Folklore, History and Superstition
The Story of Witches traces changing ideas about witches through myth, legend, fairy tale, history and superstition. Willow Winsham begins with figures and motifs including Hekate, Baba Yaga, shape-shifting hares and the witches of Macbeth,…
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Cover unavailableThe Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft
The Triumph of the Moon traces the development of modern pagan witchcraft, examining how a religion that emerged in England drew upon older ideas about paganism, magic, folklore and ritual. Ronald Hutton places its formation…
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Cover unavailableThe Visions of Isobel Gowdie
Emma Wilby examines Isobel Gowdie’s 1662 confessions at Auldearn, placing one of Scotland’s most vivid witchcraft testimonies within its legal, religious and folkloric setting. The study asks how much of the recorded material reflects Gowdie’s…
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Cover unavailableThe Weird Tales of Dorothy K. Haynes
Dorothy K. Haynes’ Scottish supernatural fiction brings together cruel childhoods, fairy folklore and witchcraft. Edited by Craig Lamont, with a foreword by Johnny Mains, this British Library collection includes rare and previously unpublished stories, with…
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Cover unavailableThe Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations
Diane Purkiss examines how the figure of the witch has been interpreted from early modern England to the 20th century. The book considers the writing of witchcraft history, the myth of the ‘Burning Times’ and…
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Cover unavailableThe Witch-Cult in Western Europe
Margaret Murray’s 1921 study presents the theory that the people accused of witchcraft in Britain were members of an organised, pre-Christian religion. Rather than surveying every European tradition, it concentrates on British records and attempts…
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Cover unavailableThe Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present
Ronald Hutton traces beliefs about witchcraft from the ancient world through medieval Europe, the early modern witch trials and modern interpretations. Rather than treating the witch as a fixed figure, he examines how ideas about…
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The Witches of St Osyth: Persecution, Murder and Betrayal in Elizabethan England
Marion Gibson reconstructs the witchcraft accusations that divided St Osyth and neighbouring Essex communities in 1581–82. Sixteen women and one man were accused of sorcery, while Ursley Kempe and Elizabeth Bennett were taken to Chelmsford…
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