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‘Stylish and raw . . . seizes the reader’s sympathy and does not let go’
Anne Enright, Booker Prize-winning author of The Gathering
East Anglia, 1645. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer and servant, has lived for more than four decades in her beloved coastal village of Cleftwater. Everyone knows Martha, but no one has ever heard her speak.
One Autumn morning, the peaceful atmosphere of Cleftwater is shattered by a sinister arrival and Martha becomes a silent witness to a witch-hunt. As a trusted member of the community, she is enlisted to search the bodies of the accused women. But whilst Martha wants to help her friends, she also harbours a dark secret that could cost her own freedom. In desperation, she revives a wax witching doll that she inherited from her mother, in the hope that it will bring protection. But the doll’s true powers are unknowable, the tide is turning, and time is running out . . .
An immersive and deeply moving novel inspired by true events, The Witching Tide breathes new life into history whilst holding up a mirror to the world we live in now. A story of loyalty and betrayal, fear and obsession, the impact of misogyny and the power of resistance, it is a magnificent debut from a striking new literary voice.
‘Utterly haunting and entirely riveting . . . sent shivers down my spine and brought me to tears’
Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne
‘A superb writer . . . I loved it’
Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
Anne Enright, Booker Prize-winning author of The Gathering
East Anglia, 1645. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer and servant, has lived for more than four decades in her beloved coastal village of Cleftwater. Everyone knows Martha, but no one has ever heard her speak.
One Autumn morning, the peaceful atmosphere of Cleftwater is shattered by a sinister arrival and Martha becomes a silent witness to a witch-hunt. As a trusted member of the community, she is enlisted to search the bodies of the accused women. But whilst Martha wants to help her friends, she also harbours a dark secret that could cost her own freedom. In desperation, she revives a wax witching doll that she inherited from her mother, in the hope that it will bring protection. But the doll’s true powers are unknowable, the tide is turning, and time is running out . . .
An immersive and deeply moving novel inspired by true events, The Witching Tide breathes new life into history whilst holding up a mirror to the world we live in now. A story of loyalty and betrayal, fear and obsession, the impact of misogyny and the power of resistance, it is a magnificent debut from a striking new literary voice.
‘Utterly haunting and entirely riveting . . . sent shivers down my spine and brought me to tears’
Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne
‘A superb writer . . . I loved it’
Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
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Reviews
A visceral, atmospheric addition to the witch genre
The Witching Tide is one of those rare novels that pulled me in and wouldn't let go. With diamond-cut prose, Meyer makes 17th century witch hunts feel vivid, new, and highly relevant to the current moment. The chaos, the twisted logic made me wonder if it was possible these historical events actually happened; the essential truths of human nature as seen in these characters made me worry they could happen again
An emotional and intensely immersive reading experience . . . haunting, harrowing and unflinching
One of this year's notable debuts
Mesmerising and beautiful
Utterly haunting and entirely riveting; this is an unflinching account of the horrors of witch trials, told in a mesmerising voice from an extraordinarily talented author. It sent shivers down my spine and brought me to tears
I absolutely devoured The Witching Tide. Margaret Meyer evokes the uncanniness, the appalling cruelties of the witch trials in a way that is also thoroughly humane and shining. To read this book is to step inside time, to feel the bite of the sea air, to walk in the grime alongside Martha as she fights the tide of unspeakable cruelty and suspicion. It is a powerful, riveting read, each sentence pristine and haunting, and I can't wait to read what Margaret Meyer writes next
A timely, visceral novel that hurls the reader into a claustrophobic rural community riddled with suspicion, fear and recrimination. Margaret Meyer expertly creates an atmosphere of creeping dread, where no one is safe, and women find themselves punished for their own misfortunes and those of their erstwhile friends and neighbours
The Witching Tide is a beautiful, haunting and utterly transporting novel that takes the reader back to a terrifyingly real witching England: a paranoiac society where women's lives are decided by gossip and grudges. Told from the perspective of a silent woman whose inner voice insistently pulls the reader along, The Witching Tide is atmospheric, moving and lyrical
A beautiful, haunting and utterly transporting novel that takes the reader back to a terrifyingly real witching England: a paranoid society where women's lives are decided by gossip and grudges. Told from the perspective of a silent woman whose inner voice insistently pulls the reader along, The Witching Tide is atmospheric, moving and lyrical
Bleak, beautiful and enraging, it's a haunting story of persecution and the abuse of power
The Witching Tide casts a spell that carries readers back to 17th century days of actual witch hunts, when fearmongers spread rumour and false accusations to wield power over women. In bewitching language, Margaret Meyer paints a portrait of a brave midwife determined to outwit the zealots who threaten her, and defeat a contagion of hysteria and violence
Bewitching . . . one to watch
Admirably effective in thrusting readers into the midst of a community split by the accusation that it harbours witches
A superb writer. The world Margaret Meyer conjures in The Witching Tide is elegant and haunting, utterly beguiling and so convincing of time and place. I was moved and gripped by Martha's plight, captivated by the gleaming details of the prose and horrified at the wider picture they revealed. As with all great historical fiction, The Witching Tide gives voice to the unspoken and brings light to dark places, drawing to the surface those stories that need to be told and need us to listen. I loved it
Both thematically and in the power of its storytelling, The Witching Tide puts me in mind of the very best of Hilary Mantel. But this is very much its own thing - a stunning novel