Pauline shares some of the highlights from our April and May Story Cafes…
Wendy introduced Anabel, who was leading this Story Cafe telling of Scotland’s persecution of witches, the attempt to right the wrongs committed and what it means to be a witch today.
Anabel explained that while the persecution of witches was a Europe-wide phenomenon, in Scotland between the passing of the 1563 Witchcraft Act and 1736, more than 5 times as many witches per capita were executed than in the rest of Europe, spurred on by James VI who published Daemonoligie in 1597. Most of them were women – deemed ‘weaker’ than men and therefore more likely to fall for the wiles of the devil. In 2022 First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, issued an apology in the Scottish Parliament and a Witchcraft (Pardons) Bill is proposed. Although there are some local memorials, there is no national monument.
Anabel’s interest was sparked by an Aye Write event last year which featured Witches of Scotland and Hex by Jenni Fagan. Anabel read an early chapter of Hex where Geiilis Duncan, a victim of the North Berwick trials, due to be executed the next day, is visited in her cell by Iris, who has travelled from the future to support her in her last hours. It is a strange but compelling story and we hear of the torture and abuse which made women confess to witchcraft and name others allegedly involved. In the discussion that followed we agreed that, when times are hard, blame is projected on those who are considered “others”.
We Are All Witches by Mairi Kidd is a combination of fiction and non-fiction, and Anabel read the story of Margaret Aitken who, when she was suspected of witchcraft in Fife in 1591, turned accuser convincing those questioning her that she could identify witches by a mark in their eyes. She was executed when exposed as a fraud.
After hearing and discussing such serious issues it was good to finish on a lighter note with Wendy reading from A Spell in the Wild by Alice Tarbuck. I loved her gentle evocative style in describing her encounter with a fox and the reaction of a colleague when she asked if anyone else had experienced something similar, “It’s because you’re a witch” – the first time she was called one! To identify as a witch is now a proud self-definition. So what does witchcraft mean today? I’ll read Alice’s book to find out.
There was display of titles available for loan in addition to the above, including The Manningtree witches by A.K. Blakemore; Now she is witch by Kirsty Logan; The lighthouse witches by C. J. Cooke; Warriors, witches, women : mythology’s fiercest females by Kate Hodge; and Ashes and stones : a Scottish journey in search of witches and witness by Allyson Shaw.
Witches also feature in several of GWL’s Heritage Walks
African Writers Trust Story Cafe – 3rd May
This Zoom Story Cafe with the African Writers Trust in Kampala is part of this year’s Open the Door Festival. The Trust supports connections between writers in Africa and the Diaspora. Their anthology Threads and Faces: stories on identity and belonging features new work by emerging writers with a focus on the personal and memoir. Those attending listened to readings from the anthology and also heard from Goretti Kyomuhendo of the African Writers Trust. I was sorry to miss this event, an example of GWL’s growing international links. However, Wendy tells me that it went really well, and they welcomed four authors across three different time zones!
Threads and Faces is available for loan from GWL
This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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