Signing event to be held for acclaimed witch trial book

A CHANCE to meet the women who have been campaigning for justice for Scotland’s “witches” is on offer this coming weekend.

At a free event in Glasgow, leading human rights lawyer Claire Mitchell, KC, and writer Zoe Venditozzi will be signing copies of their ground-breaking book which details the suffering of the women caught up in the country’s notorious witch hunts.

Founders of the Witches of Scotland campaign, which sparked the historic state apology to those wrongly accused of witchcraft, Mitchell and Venditozzi (pictured below) point out that there is currently a rise worldwide in witchcraft accusations.

Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi“We’ve written this book to remember the history of women accused as witches and to highlight that where there is unchecked patriarchal power it ends very badly for women,” they said.

“With a rise worldwide in witchcraft accusations, rolling back on women’s rights and persecution of other minority and vulnerable groups, there are more red flags than all the Handmaid’s gowns stitched together. Now is the time to reflect on our history, so that we don’t repeat it. Again.”

Between 1563 and 1736, nearly 4000 people – mostly women – were accused of witchcraft in Scotland. Of those, about 2500 were executed in a system that combined suspicion, misogyny, and state violence.

The book, How To Kill A Witch: A Guide For The Patriarchy, exposes how the law, church, and society conspired to create a machinery of fear that destroyed countless lives.

Drawing from real trial records, confessions and expert analysis, How To Kill A Witch is a dark, often witty, and sharply relevant reminder of how easily societies can justify cruelty, especially toward women.

With testimony from a small army of experts including Marion Gibson, Malcolm Gaskill and Liv Helene Willumsen, plus pen portraits of the women accused and the men who were involved in the process, confessions, witness accounts, and the documents that set the legal grounds for the hunts, How To Kill A Witch builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping readers to comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raise the serious question – could it ever happen again?

The answer, sadly, is yes, and the final chapters deal with the rise of witchcraft accusations and addresses how wrong you might be if you think “it could never happen here”.

The book has been lauded by leading Tartan Noir author Val McDermid who said: “Fascinating and illuminating, this book tempers the justifiable rage with sharp and funny pinpricks to the pompous.”

The event is at the Kelvin Rooms, Otago Street, Glasgow, on May 31 from 2.30pm-4.30pm. kelvinapothecary.com/pages/workshops-events