Feb 12, 2024
Charlie and Stacey Thomas (The Revels) discuss English Civil War era witch hunting which includes the methods, the propaganda, and the awful theatre of it all. We also discuss Stacey's inclusion of actual witches in her narrative, and Stacey's recommendations of Wolf Hall and A Little Life.
Witchfinder General
James VI/I's Daemonologie
Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
Hanya Yanagihara's A Little
Life
Bridget Collins' The Binding
Stacey's episode on Witches Of
Scotland
I spoke to Amita Parikh in episode 72
Where to find Stacey online
Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:20 What made you want to tell this story of
a man who is a witch, and his role in the judgement of witches?
02:23 Stacey's interest in James I and his
favouritism of different male courtiers
04:22 The theatrical elements of the book
05:58 The torture of the accused 'witches' that
led to fantasy stories being created
08:51 The influence of the printing press and
propaganda pamphlets on the public's thoughts about accused
women
10:02 About knot magic
12:09 The importance of having actual witches in
the book and the impact of religion
14:32 Stacey's interest in taxidermy and
Althamia's experience
16:41 Althamia's impact on the novel
17:54 The themes of grief and guilt in the
book
20:51 Castor and Pollux
22:20 The writing style and narrative voice, and
Stacey recommends Wolf Hall and A Little Life
25:24 All about Will and how he fits into the
story
30:44 Is John Rush a witch?... And the fact he's
left at large at the end
34:40 The initial execution scene did not
originally happen...
35:57 Althamia says "Happy endings are beyond most
people" and talks of proper endings - how does Stacey see The
Revels in that sense?
39:15 Modern day apologies for witch hunters by
the church
42:02 What Stacey's working on now (this turns
into a lengthy discussion on debutantes and their publicity
machines
With thanks to Jawnson.