‘In drawing on the real 17th-century witch hunts in East Anglia, Meyer has penned an astonishingly absorbing debut novel.’ i
An immersive and moving novel inspired by true events, Margaret Meyer’s magnificent first novel The Witching Tide breathes new life into British history.
Martha is a midwife, healer and servant and has lived in Cleftwater, East Anglia for decades. Everyone knows her but no one has ever heard her speak. One autumn morning in 1645, the peaceful atmosphere of the village is shattered by a sinister arrival and Martha becomes a silent witness to a witch-hunt. A trusted member of the community, she is enlisted to search the bodies of the accused women.
Martha wants to help her friends, but she also harbours a dark secret that could cost her her 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 . . .
Margaret Meyer’s The Witching Tide is a story of loyalty and betrayal, fear and obsession, the impact of misogyny and the power of resistance.
