[Ad-gifted] Its approaching the scary season and today is the perfect example of wanting to cosy up inside with a pumpkin spice late (even though I’ve never had one!) and a good witchy themed book, as the rain is currently hammering down and the wind is blowing all the crisp leaves from the trees!
If that sounds like the perfect afternoon for you then you might just find our eery book Contagious Enemies : The Aberdeen Witch Trials by Dee Lawlor – published by The History Press, the book for you.
The witches and sorcerers were often accused of being connected to the devil/satanist behaviour which – at the time, justified the ill-treatment and most often death of the people involved. It was a dark time in history that spanned a few centuries. It seems that in 1596 James VI became obsessed with the notion of witches and felt the urgency to hunt them. In doing so he made the culture of the time fear witches in a way that appeared completely unfounded.
What I thought of Contagious Enemies : The Aberdeen Witch Trials?
The book gives a brief history of the time leading up to the Aberdeen witch trials n the 16th Century, that forms the premiss of this book. Lawlor appears to be no expert in the field of witchcraft or this particular time in history but clearly found an interest in her discovery which led to her to do lots of thorough digging around the subject and gather it all together creating this thrilling factual book of the time.
The book has an interesting start and you can tell that this must have taken time to compile together. I hadn’t realised the depth to which, witches were so hated at the time. I hadn’t realised that laws had been put in place years before these trials came about giving government officials of the time such unseemly powers over the people they deemed to be witches.
The trials are gruelling and each few pages goes through the details of particular people who were on trail at the time. I found it at times hard to read, due to the graphic nature of the consequences they faced. It’s unbelievable to think that these peple, who appeared more iften than not to be helping others were accused of causing death or ailment to others in their village. And the consequence of these strange happenings was automatically accredited to being a witch,
It highlights how precarious times can be, even now things are bubbling away that could change the course of the future. However, back then it was scary to think that these laws came into power so quickly but lasted centuries and took a lot of reform for them to be finally seen as unfair and unjust, and then ultimately changed. By which point many people had already lost their lives in horrific ways.
One clear point that is made close to the end of the book, is the link between the witches who were executed and their biological sex. It appears to have been a hunt against women and this is evidenced by the fact that 75-80% of the deaths were female. Lawlor points out there are still now such stereotypes around witches – that they are crazy ugly women up to no good, especially in films and stories.
However, when it comes to many portrayals of wizards, as men, Lawlor points out how they are wise and revered. We will never truly know the real reason they insisted on these hunts and executions but we can only know how unjust it was and hopefully to not repeat it in the future.
The book isn’t for the faint hearted and is very detailed. I particularly liked how Lawlor didn’t remove some of the old wording from the trial texts and how there are translations in the book to help with the definitions and understandings. Its the perfect book for the season, but also its a great book to reflect upon. So, if you want to read about the Aberdeen witch trials in Dee Lawlors book, Contagious Enemies – The Aberdeen Witch Trials see below for where to buy it.
Where can I buy the book Contagious Enemies : The Aberdeen Witch Trials?
You can find the book for sale at The History Press.
How much does the book cost?
It costs £16.99 in the paperback edition.
About the book
Publisher : The History Press
Number of pages : 186 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1837051335
Format : Paperback
About the Author
Dee Lawlor is an author and a communications professional with broad experience across content creation, editorial, technical writing, marketing, project management and public engagement. She enjoys finding the right ways to communicate ideas to different audiences, from developing content strategies and marketing campaigns to creating technical documentation, websites, publications and customer-facing materials.
Her career has included freelance writing and editing, science and technical communication and leading a communications and marketing team. Her second book is Contagious Enemies – The Aberdeen Witch Trials, which follows her earlier exploration of Scotsferatu: The Vampire in Scottish Culture and Folklore.
Review by : Lex Ward
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*We were sent a copy of the book for the feature. All opinions are our own
