Lively & readable. It is written in a style as personal & attractive as any I have encountered... It has just the right balance of magisterial detachment & personal insight. Ronald Hutton University of Bristol Tens of thousands of people were persecuted & put to death as witches between 1400 & 1700 the great age of witch hunts. Why did the witch hunts arise flourish & decline during this period? What purpose did the persecutions serve? Who was accused & what was the role of magic in the hunts? This important reassessment of witch panics & persecutions in Europeand colonial America both challenges & enhances existing interpretations of the phenomenon. Locating its origins 400 years earlier in the growing perception of threats to Western Christendom Robert Thurston outlines the development of a persecuting society in which campaigns against scapegoats such as heretics Jews lepers & homosexuals set the scene for the later witch hunts. He examines the creation of the witch stereotype & looks at how the early trials & hunts evolved with the shift from accusatory to inquisitorial court procedures & reliance upon confessions leading to the increasing use of torture. ...

Anna still finds it hard to believe that Seth loves her & has vowed to suppress her powers no matter what. But magic
- like love
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Anna Winterson doesnt know shes a witch & would probably mock you for believing in magic but after moving to the small town of Winter with her father she learns more than she ever wanted to about power. When Anna meets Seth she is smitten but when she enchants him to love her she unwittingly amplifies a deadly conflict between two witch clans & splits her own heart in two. She wants to love Seth to let him love her
- but if it is her magic thats controlling his passion then she is as monstrous as the witch clan who are trying to use her amazing powers for their own gain. When love is tangled up in magic how can you be sure whats real?
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From one of the world's best loved storytellers Paulo Coelho comes a riveting novel tracing the mysterious life & disappearance of Athena dubbed 'the Witch of Portobello' which was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller in hardback. This is the story of Athena or Sherine to give her the name she was baptised with. Her life is pieced together through a series of recorded interviews with those people who knew her well or hardly at all
- parents colleagues teachers friends acquaintances her ex-husb&. The novel unravels Athena's mysterious beginnings via an orphanage in Romania to a childhood in Beirut. When war breaks out her adoptive family move with her to London where a dramatic turn of events occurs... Athena who has been dubbed 'the Witch of Portobello' for her seeming powers of prophecy disappears dramatically leaving those who knew her to solve the mystery of her life & abrupt departure. Like The Alchemist The Witch of Portobello is the kind of story that will transform the way readers think about love passion joy & sacrifice.
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It's not easy being the only day girl at Turlingham Academy: Sophie misses out on all the midnight feasts & late night gossip. & when new girl Katy turns up it feels like she's bewitching all of Sophie's friends! Katy's no witch but there is a witch at Turlingham. Katy comes from a long line of witch hunters whose job is to stop evil magic. Sophie is going to help her
- anything to get Katy out of her life & get things back to normal. But what she discovers means nothing will ever be normal again!
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Glorious new rejacket of a Diana Wynne Jones favourite featuring Chrestomanci -- now a book with extra bits! SOMEONE IN THIS CLASS IS A WITCH When the note written in ordinary ballpoint turns up in the homework books Mr Crossley is marking he is very upset. For this is Larwood House a school for witch-orphans where witchcraft is utterly forbidden. & yet magic keeps breaking out all over the place
- like measles! The last thing they need is a visit from the Divisional Inquisitor. If only Chrestomanci could come & sort out all the trouble.
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Following Wards of Faerie & Bloodfire Quest this is the final novel in a powerful new trilogy from bestselling master of fantasy Terry Brooks. Set in Brooks's original Shannara world this spellbinding series will delight both seasoned fans & those discovering Shannara for the first time. For centuries the Four Lands enjoyed freedom & peace protected by a magical barrier from the dark dimension known as the Forbidding. But now the unthinkable is happening: the ancient wards securing the border have begun to erode
- & the monstrous creatures imprisoned there are poised to spill forth seeking their revenge. Young Elf Arling Elessedil possesses the means to close the breach but her efforts may be doomed when she is taken captive. The only hope lies with her determined sister Aphen who bears the Elfstones & commands their magic. Now the fate of their world rests upon her shoulders.. . Praise for TERRY BROOKS: ' If you haven't read Terry Brooks you haven't read fantasy' Christopher Paolini 'I can't even begin to count how many of Terry Brooks's books I've read (and re-read) over the years' Patrick Rothfuss 'I would not be writing epic fantasy today if not for Shannara' Peter V. Brett 'A master of the craft.. .required reading' Brent Weeks
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Look out! The witchs children are coming & that means TROUBLE! Out in the park one windy day they try out their magic: Gemmas turned into a frog the ice cream van into a coach the squirrels into footmen. But then the witchs children dont know how to break the spells! How will they return everything to normal? Get Mum to sort it out of course! Ages 3+. ...

Wilf wants to be a witchs dog. His friends dont think he can as witches dont usually have dogs as pets
- they have cats spiders
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Wilf the Witchs dog is having a difficult day. Its Weenies birthday & everything is going wrong. A box of tricks has gone missing at Weenies school concert & it looks like Sly Cat & Tricky Toad have been up to some nasty tricks of their own. But with a little bit of magic & some help from his friends Wilf gives Weenie the best birthday suprise ever... ...