The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson

In the days of my youth Hammer Films were all the rage.   As soon as the names Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee appeared one knew that the next hour and a half would be devoted to pleasurable fear.   Now the Hammer brand has been resurected and along with the films a series of paperbacks has been launched and very cleverly leading writers from many genres have been invited to contribute.

Jeanette Winterson has written a very entertaining piece about one of the seventeenth century's most famous witch trials, the Pendle witches.   King James the First had a horror of witchcraft that went beyond anything seen before in England and he used his authority to promote witchfinding throughout the Realm.   He was also ready to conflate Catholicism with witchcraft and as Lancashire was known as a stronghold of the Old Religion it was here that his officers were most tenacious.

Alice Nutter, a wealthy woman who had made a fortune in the dye trade in London, was also known to be an associate of the late Dr John Dee astrologer to Queen Elizabeth.   Dee had a reputation as a magician which rubbed off on any of his associates.   Two women are languishing in Lancaster Castle accused of witchcraft and their friends are convinced that Alice Nutter has learned enough magic from Dee to effect their escape.   They embroil Alice in their schemes and all end up accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death.

The whole thing is very reminiscent of todays trial by television or tabloid with no word or deed of the accused that cannot be twisted to prove guilt.    At least these days it is only ones character that is murdered.