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.
77 books found
Cover unavailableA Bewitched Land: Ireland's Witches
Bob Curran examines Ireland’s relatively few witchcraft prosecutions alongside the stories of people branded witches, sorcerers or wise women. The book recounts four notable cases, including Dame Alice Kyteler’s 14th-century Kilkenny proceedings, the Islandmagee accusations,…
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Cover unavailableA People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Nineteenth-Century Somerset
A People Bewitched examines belief in witchcraft and magic across 19th-century Somerset, where accusations could attach blame for illness, death and misfortune affecting people and animals. Davies presents these beliefs as part of local social…
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Cover unavailableAccused: British Witches throughout History
Accused: British Witches throughout History presents the stories of 11 women accused of witchcraft across the British Isles. Willow Winsham traces these cases from 14th-century Ireland to 20th-century Hampshire, asking why accusations arose, who pursued…
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Cover unavailableAn Abundance of Witches
An Abundance of Witches examines the great Scottish witch-hunt, concentrating on the intense outbreak of persecution between 1658 and 1662. P. G. Maxwell-Stuart places these events within a Scotland shaped by political upheaval, religious conviction…
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Cover unavailableAtlas of Paranormal Places
Atlas of Paranormal Places surveys more than 50 locations linked to ghost stories, witchcraft, sacred traditions, unexplained events and cryptid lore. Its worldwide selection ranges from the Chase Vault in Barbados and Charleville Castle in…
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Cover unavailableBeyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe
This edited collection examines how witchcraft and magic persisted in European society during the Enlightenment, when intellectual and legal attitudes were changing. Its essays consider beliefs and responses among both educated authorities and ordinary communities,…
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Cover unavailableCunning Folk and Familiar Spirits
Emma Wilby examines familiar spirits in early modern Britain, considering the accounts associated with both helpful cunning folk and people accused of witchcraft. The book traces how magical practitioners were said to meet spirit allies,…
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Cover unavailableCunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic
Cunning Folk examines the practical magic used across medieval and early modern Europe, where cunning folk offered help with problems ranging from lost property to illness. Tabitha Stanmore presents these practitioners as working figures within…
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Cover unavailableCures and Curses
Cures and Curses examines disability in folklore and folk tales, bringing disabled characters from the margins to the centre of traditional storytelling. Its collection includes accounts shaped by curses that need breaking, punishments inflicted on…
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Cover unavailableCursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times
Cursed Britain examines how witchcraft, curses and black magic persisted in Britain after the decline of formal witch trials. Thomas Waters follows beliefs and accusations from the 19th century into the 20th century and the…
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Cover unavailableDeeper into the Occult
Deeper into the Occult examines reported occult phenomena through case histories and questions about how such claims might be understood. Peter Underwood discusses haunted music, vampires, superstitions, and the practices of dowsing and divining, alongside…
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Cover unavailableDevon's Forgotten Witches
Devon’s Forgotten Witches examines accusations of witchcraft recorded in the county between 1860 and 1910, drawing on newspaper reports and archive material. Tracey and Mark Norman bring together cases involving ordinary people whose lives were…
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Cover unavailableEngland's Witchcraft Trials
England’s Witchcraft Trials examines the history of witchcraft prosecutions in England through the records left by courts, parishes and local authorities. Willow Winsham uses trial transcripts alongside contemporary pamphlets, recognising that these published accounts could…
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Essex Witches
Essex Witches examines witchcraft accusations and trials in the county between 1560 and 1680, when fear of sorcery shaped local communities and court proceedings. Peter C. Brown records that 317 women and 23 men were…
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Cover unavailableExorcism!
Peter Underwood examines exorcism as a ritual intended to drive out spirits or demons, tracing its use across people, places, animals and objects. The book considers both the ceremony’s long-standing religious associations and the myths…
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Cover unavailableGrimoires: A History of Magic Books
Grimoires: A History of Magic Books traces the history of books of spells from ancient and medieval sources to their modern afterlives. Owen Davies examines charms, remedies, divination, spirit contact, treasure-seeking and the darker traditions…
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Cover unavailableInto the Occult
Into the Occult surveys a broad range of occult and psychical subjects, from astrology, graphology and palmistry to Tarot, phrenology, clairvoyance and telepathy. Peter Underwood also considers the role of mediums, the meaning attributed to…
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Cover unavailableInvoking the Akelarre: Voices of the Accused in the Basque Witch-Craze 1609–1614
Invoking the Akelarre examines the witchcraft prosecutions that swept through the French and Spanish Basque Country between 1609 and 1614. Emma Wilby works through trial records describing akelarre gatherings, harmful magic, black masses, cannibalistic feasts…
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Cover unavailableLove Spells and Lost Treasure: Service Magic in England from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era
Tabitha Stanmore examines practical magic in England between the 14th and 17th centuries, focusing on spells performed for useful purposes and often for payment. Drawing on many hundreds of recorded instances alongside imaginative and didactic…
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Cover unavailableMagic: A Very Short Introduction
Owen Davies examines magic as both an idea and a practice, tracing how it has been defined, debated and used across cultures and historical periods. The book considers supernatural belief, religious miracles, illusion, superstition and…
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Magick
Historian Thomas Waters surveys the many forms of magic that have coexisted in Britain and beyond, from everyday charms and local cunning folk to ceremonial magic, political ritual and modern occult practice. The book is…
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Cover unavailableMurder, Magic, Madness: The Victorian Trials of Dove and the Wizard
Owen Davies examines the 1856 poisoning case of William Dove, a young tenant farmer who was tried and executed for murdering his wife, Harriet. The book follows Dove’s association with Henry Harrison, the so-called Leeds…
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Cover unavailableMysteries of Portsmouth
Portsmouth’s reported ghosts, UFO sightings, witchcraft stories and older legends are brought together in this illustrated local history. Matt Wingett considers newspaper accounts and inherited tales involving figures such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Helen…
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Cover unavailableMysterious Northumberland
Mysterious Northumberland gathers reports, traditions and stories linked to the county’s supernatural and unexplained lore. Rupert Matthews covers ghosts, witchcraft, big-cat sightings, folklore and accounts of the little people, arranging the material by subject while…
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Cover unavailableOccult London
Occult London traces the capital’s occult traditions from the Elizabethan period to the present day, bringing together magic, Kabbalah, secret organisations, urban legends and forgotten locations. Merlin Coverley discusses figures including Dr John Dee, Simon…
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Cover unavailableOf Doves and Ravens: The Witches and Wisefolk of Wales and the Borders
Of Doves and Ravens gathers the folklore of witches, wisefolk, charmers, conjurors and other magical practitioners associated with Wales and the Borders. Arranged in encyclopaedia format, it moves from Anglesey and North Wales through Mid…
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Cover unavailableOf Toads and Hares: The Witches and Wisewomen of England
Of Toads and Hares gathers English tales about witches, wisewomen and the local traditions surrounding them, arranged as a county-by-county survey. Benjamin Stimpson draws together regional legends in which magical practitioners were said to shapeshift…
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Cover unavailablePale Hecate's Team
Pale Hecate's Team examines beliefs about witchcraft and magic in England during Shakespeare's lifetime and the generations that followed. Katharine Briggs considers the inheritance of witchcraft ideas, English witch belief and the arguments surrounding them,…
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Cover unavailableParanormal Cumbria
Paranormal Cumbria examines reported mysteries from across the county, arranged by theme rather than locality. Geoff Holder revisits the Croglin Vampire and Renwick Cockatrice, considers witchcraft and folk magic from the 17th century onwards, and…
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Cover unavailableParanormal Dundee
Paranormal Dundee gathers reports, legends and historical oddities from Dundee and Angus, ranging from witchcraft and UFO sightings to alleged Big Cats. Geoff Holder also examines darker Gothic material, including a man who claimed to…
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Cover unavailableParanormal Glasgow
Paranormal Glasgow gathers reported hauntings, strange experiences and supernatural traditions associated with Scotland’s largest city. Geoff Holder covers contemporary ghosts and historical hauntings alongside UFO sightings, big-cat reports, time slips, spontaneous human combustion, bizarre beliefs…
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Cover unavailableParanormal Kent
Paranormal Kent gathers reports and traditions connected with the county, ranging from ghost stories and phantom hitchhikers to sightings of big cats, UFOs, monsters and fairies. Neil Arnold also considers accounts of dragons, serpents, hellhounds…
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Cover unavailableParanormal Perthshire
Paranormal Perthshire gathers reports of unexplained events and enduring supernatural traditions from across Perthshire. Geoff Holder examines claims of big cats and UFOs, alongside local stories involving fairies, ghosts, witches and other strange occurrences. The…
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Cover unavailablePopular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History
Owen Davies examines the role of cunning-folk in English history, presenting them as local practitioners consulted about everyday problems rather than as remote, scholarly magicians. Their reported services included finding lost objects, countering suspected spells,…
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Cover unavailablePossessed By the Devil
Possessed By the Devil examines the Islandmagee witch trials in County Antrim in 1711, when eight women were accused of bewitching and demonically possessing Mary Dunbar. Her testimony helped drive a prosecution shaped by local…
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Cover unavailablePossession, Puritanism and Print
Marion Gibson examines the Elizabethan controversy surrounding John Darrell, a Puritan preacher accused in 1598 of conducting fraudulent exorcisms. The case sits within a wider study of reported demonic possession, religious authority and the printed…
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Cover unavailableRediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft
Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft examines how accounts of Renaissance witchcraft entered literature and continued to shape later ideas about witches. Marion Gibson considers the North Berwick trials, Matthew Hopkins and the literary treatment of witchcraft in…
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Cover unavailableRoyal Witches
Royal Witches examines the lives of Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Woodville, four powerful women caught in the political struggles of medieval England. Their stories encompass royal marriage, dynastic rivalry,…
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Cover unavailableShadow of Pendle: A Collection of Short Stories and Verse
This anthology brings together new fiction and poetry inspired by the Pendle witches and their continuing place in Lancashire’s imagination. Edited by Barry McCann and David Saunderson, it approaches the subject through a range of…
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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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