HOW TO KILL A WITCH

A Guide For The Patriarchy

Claire Mitchell, Zoe Venditozzi

$34.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

MONORAY
13 May 2025

History; Witchcraft; Feminism & feminist theory

'The Witches of Scotland... profile persecuted women from the burning times. Their tales are woven by archivists, historians and writers - and by Venditozzi and Mitchell themselves, two of Scotland's most vivid storytellers.' THE TIMES

'Fascinating and illuminating, this book tempers the justifiable rage with sharp and funny pinpricks to the pompous.'

VAL MCDERMID, author of Past Lying

'A dignified, defiant memorial to thousands of ordinary women branded as witches and, all too often, put to death.' MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin Of All Witches

'Brilliant, witty, searing, and necessary, this is a book to share and treasure.' CJ COOKE, author of The Lighthouse Witches

'Utterly absorbing and drags you in immediately.' JENNY COLGAN, author of The Bookshop on the Corner

'Terrifying, fascinating and important' SARA SHERIDAN, author of Where Are The Women and The Fair Botanists

'A unique, angry, surprisingly funny tour of what Scottish witch trial history means today' MARION GIBSON author of Witchcraft A History in 13 Trials

As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch.

Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and with many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning.

Inspired to correct this historic injustice, campaigners and writers Claire Mitchell, KC, and Zoe Venditozzi, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree.

In order to understand why it happened, they have broken down the entire horrifying

process, step-by-step, from identification of individuals, to their accusation, 'pricking', torture, confessions,

execution and beyond.

With characteristically sharp wit and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the persecutors, often men, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women, and how this legally sanctioned victimisation proliferated in Scotland and around the world.

With testimony from a small army of experts, pen portraits of the women accused, trial transcripts, witness accounts and the documents that set the legal grounds for the hunts, How to Kill A Witch builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping us comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raises the serious question - could it ever happen again?

By: Claire Mitchell, Zoe Venditozzi
Imprint: MONORAY
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
ISBN: 9781800961890
ISBN 10: 1800961898
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 13 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell, KC Leading human rights lawyer CLAIRE MITCHELL, KC, and writer, ZOE VENDITOZZI formed the WITCHES OF SCOTLAND campaign with the aim of shining a light on the historic injustice of the Witch Trials. As a result, on International Women's Day, 2022, the First Minister of Scotland, at issued a formal state apology - the first time in 300 years there had been any formal recognition of those who were most wrongly accused. Through their tireless campaigning, regular public appearances, and highly entertaining podcast, also called THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND, this pair of 'quarrelsome dames' are currently working to build a lasting memorial to the murdered women, and campaign to draw attention to the continued persecution of women as witches around the world today. In 2022, Claire and Zoe were made Doctors of Laws by the University of Dundee in 2022 in recognition of their work. Claire lives in Montrose and Edinburgh and Zoe lives in Fife. Claire Mitchell (Author) Leading human rights lawyer CLAIRE MITCHELL, KC, and writer, ZOE VENDITOZZI formed the WITCHES OF SCOTLAND campaign with the aim of shining a light on the historic injustice of the Witch Trials. As a result, on International Women's Day, 2022, the First Minister of Scotland, at issued a formal state apology - the first time in 300 years there had been any formal recognition of those who were most wrongly accused. Through their tireless campaigning, regular public appearances, and highly entertaining podcast, also called THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND, this pair of 'quarrelsome dames' are currently working to build a lasting memorial to the murdered women, and campaign to draw attention to the continued persecution of women as witches around the world today. In 2022, Claire and Zoe were made Doctors of Laws by the University of Dundee in 2022 in recognition of their work. Claire lives in Edinburgh and Zoe lives in Fife.

Reviews for HOW TO KILL A WITCH: A Guide For The Patriarchy

Terrifying, fascinating and important -- Sara Sheridan * author of Where Are The Women and The Fair Botanists. * 'A dignified, defiant memorial to thousands of ordinary women branded as witches and, all too often, put to death. Told with imagination and empathy, the stories in this book expose the tragedy of their lives, as well as the subordination, paranoia and cruelty responsible. Serious and angry, but so completely accessible, How To Kill A Witch is a work of real historical investigation and a fierce warning for our times.' -- Malcolm Gaskill * author of The Ruin Of All Witches *