It's a rainy spring-time coming up to Witch Baby Daisy's second birthday. Her nursery class are putting on a musical performance helped by the older children including big sister Lily. Meanwhile Mum is trying to potty train Daisy unaware that as soon as she succeeds Daisy will be reclaimed by the witches who live on the hill who've only been waiting for their little protegee to be out of nappies before they take her 'home'. Happily Daisy is so rubbish at toilet training that Lily persuades Mum to drop the idea & the day is saved! The concert is a great success despite Daisy turning Lily's bagpipes into a spider & the witches are distracted by spells for romance. This is another charming brilliantly plotted & gorgeously illustrated gem of a book by this outstandingly talented author/illustrator. ...

When Paul arrives in 17th century London he expects to be thrown into a life or death struggle for the three gates that imprison the ancient King Lud. But the battle doesnt come. Instead Paul roams alone learning how to survive in a city where all the talk is of the savage civil war that rages beyond its ramparts. Somewhere underground Lud is waiting in his crypt preparing to rise again. War fear & want are his tools. But Paul too has his own weapons & is gaining strength & losing inhibitions about using it. Meanwhile beyond the city innocent women are being killed for it is so easy to claim that they are witches. One woman
- whether innocent or guilty
- possesses the only power available that can help Paul in his quest.

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When Mary sees her grandmother accused of witchcraft & hanged for the crime she is silently hurried to safety by an unknown woman. The woman gives her tools to keep the record of her days
- paper & ink. Mary is taken to a boat in Plymouth & from there sails to the New World where she hopes to make a new life among the pilgrims. But old superstitions die hard & soon Mary finds that she like her grandmother is the victim of ignorance & stupidity & once more she faces important choices to ensure her survival. With a vividly evoked environment & characters skilfully & patiently drawn this is a powerful literary achievement by Celia Rees that is utterly engrossing from start to finish.
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A chilling haunting ghost story that delves into the dark past of the 16th century Essex witch trials. Sadie Asquith has been fascinated by the dark past of Essex's witch hunts for as long as she can remember. & for good reason: between 1560 & 1680 over 500 women were tried for witchcraft in the county of Essex. But as she researches a book on the subject Sadie experiences strange ghostly visions. She hears noises at night a sobbing sound that follows her & black moths appear from nowhere. It's as if by digging up the truth about the witch hunts she has opened an unearthly connection to the women treated so cruelly & killed centuries before. & something else in the modern world is after her too: Sadie is sure she's being followed her flat is burgled & she finds clues that reveal her own past isn't all that she believed. Can she find peace for the witches of Essex's history & can she find a safe path for herself? For fans of Christopher Ransom & Susan Hill. So scary you'll sleep with the lights on... ...

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 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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In the dragons keep... Joarr Enge never believed in the legendary powers of the chalice & he certainly wasnt going to let the captivating witch whod robbed him escape. Now after a century Joarr has commandeered Ammas body & blocked her magic. She will remain bound to him until he finds the chalice. Amma had risked everything to uncover the secrets of her past
- even the rage of her powerful & mysterious lover. But Joarrs passionate fire tempted her to dream of a future with him. Could their magic unite two separate worlds for the most precious thing of all...their son?
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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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