The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories

Manchester ; New York: Manchester University Press ; New York: Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2002. Quarto in yellow-green glossy illus wraps;, xiv, 226 pages, illus, index, notes. Near fine(+) with faint wear. Tight and clean. Paperback. ISBN: 1417574771; 9781417574773

Contents: Introduction: the Lancashire witches in historical context /; James Sharpe --; Potts, plots and politics: James I's Daemonologie and The wonderfull discoverie of witches /; Stephen Pumfrey --; Thomas Pott's 'dusty memory': reconstructing justice in The wonderfull discoverie of witches /; Marion Gibson --; 'Those to whom evil is done': family dynamics in the Pendle witch trials /; Jonathan Lumby --; Witchcraft, economy and society in the forest of Pendle /; John Swain --; The Reformation in the parish of Whalley /; Michael Mullett --; Beyond Pendle: the 'lost' Lancashire witches /; Kirsteen Macpherson Bardell --; The pilots thumb: Macbeth and the Jesuits /; Richard Wilson --; Sexual and spiritual politics in the events of 1633-34 and The late Lancashire witches /; Alison Findlay --; The 'Lancashire novelist' and the Lancashire witches /; Jeffrey Richards --; Wicca, paganism and history; contemporary witchcraft and the Lancashire witches /; Joanne Pearson

This is a study of England's biggest and best-known witch trial which took place in 1612, when ten witches were arraigned and hung in the village of Pendle in Lancashire. The book has essays by experts in history and English literature/Renaissance studies, with summaries to explain key points.