Mist Over Pendle

Mist Over Pendle was nothing like I had imagined it to be, and was probably all the better for it.

The story is set in 1611-12, against a background of the events leading up to the famous Pendle Witch Trials; using what was known of the trials, from Thomas Potts' contemporary account in The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches, and of social mores at the time, Robert Neill presents a fictional imagining of the events leading up to the final committal for trial. A book centring on witchcraft was, I assumed, going to be quite dark, a little gothic maybe; but if an interest in witchcraft and the occult is what brings you to this book, you may be disappointed. Because what Neill has done s produce a light, and highly readable, impression of how show more much of the concern over witchcraft was born out of hysteria and lack of knowledge.

Margery Whittaker, a lively, intelligent young girl brought up in, but longing to rebel from, a stern Puritan household, becomes a concern to her elder brothers and sisters when their mother dies. Anxious for Margery to be away from potential trouble and distractions, they decide to send her to a distant cousin, one of the landed gentry with an estate near in Pendle, and a Justice of the Peace, by the name of Roger Nowell. Luckily for Margery, it turns out that she was cut from the same cloth as her cousin, and a strong bond builds between the two.

While able to write, Roger is not a wordsmith, so Margery takes up the quill and acts as clerk at the weekly magistrate hearings. Through this, and her increasing familiarity with the people living in the area, she becomes aware of the undercurrent of concern over witchcraft.

Rather than having his characters immediately assume witchcraft, author Neill demonstrates that witchcraft could be, and was blamed, for deaths that may have been chance or likely to happen anyway; and that some of what was considered witchcraft was more down to good knowledge and application of the properties of plants. The "witches" are committed for trial, and witchcraft is really only cited by Roger Nowell, when it becomes clear that a lady of means is using the coven to do her bidding.

In Margery, Neill has created a wonderful, lively, intelligent central character; the sardonic cousin Roger is also beautifully drawn, as is the relationship between the two cousins.

The book is a gentle read, and at times it does feel that things are moving a little slowly, but on the whole I found it and excellent read, full of evocative images of the landscape and weather. show less

3.5 ★