Appetite Book Club and Essex Book Festival are very excited to host this online event with debut author A.K. Blakemore. In The Manningtree Witches fear and destruction take root in the lives of the local women when the Witchfinder General comes to town in this dark and thrilling debut. A.K Blakemore gives a striking account of the everyday mechanics of misogyny, power and privilege—and a masterfully crafted, ferociously compelling story.

The Manningtree Witches is published on 4th March in hardback.

A.K. Blakemore to discuss the book further on 24th March, 8pm.

For more information about this event please email [email protected]

The Manningtree Witches

England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages.

Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow. In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers – the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued.

The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust and betrayal ran amok as the power of men went unchecked and the integrity of women went undefended. It is a visceral, thrilling book that announces a bold new talent

About the author

A.K.Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and the White Review, among others.

Follow A.K. Blakemore on twitter: @akblakemore

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