Published 22nd April 2021 by Windmill.
From the cover of the book:
When it is no longer safe to be a witch, they call themselves cunning.
1620s Lancashire. Away from the village lies a small hamlet, abandoned since the Plague, where only one family dwells amongst its ruins. Young Sarah Haworth, her mother, brother and little sister Annie are a family of outcasts by day and the recipients of visitors by night. They are cunning folk: the villagers will always need them, quick with a healing balm or more, should the need arise. They can keep secrets too, because no one would believe them anyway.
When Sarah spies a young man taming a wild horse, she risks being caught to watch him calm the animal. And when Daniel sees Sarah he does not just see a strange, dirty thing, he sees her for who she really is: a strong creature about to come into her own. But can something as fragile as love blossom between these two in such a place as this?
When a new magistrate arrives to investigate the strange ends that keep befalling the villagers, he has his eye on one family alone. And a torch in his hand.
Cunning Women is the powerful reckoning of a young woman with her wildness, a heartbreaking tale of young love and a shattering story of the intolerance that reigned during the long shadow of the Pendle Witch Trials, when those who did not conform found persecution at every door.
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Cunning Women is the story of star-crossed lovers Sarah Haworth and Daniel Taylor who fall in love after finding an unexpected connection with each other, despite the obstacles that divide them. One is the son of the only farmer in the village, expected to take on his father's mantle as what passes for local gentry, and the other a girl living on the fringes of the community with her mother and younger siblings, oppressed by poverty and her heritage as the child of a cunning woman. In the age of James I's obsession with eradicating witchcraft and religious dissenters from his realm, and especially in the aftermath of the Pendle Witch Trials, this is a dangerous time to not only be suspected of being a witch, but also to be associated with anyone accused of practicing the dark arts - even if the villagers are happy to secretly consult a cunning woman in times of need. Sarah and James are walking a dangerous path in trying to be together, and it is hard to see how the course of true love can ever run smooth.
When a scandal precipitates the arrival of a new magistrate in the village, it is not long before he has his beady eye on the Haworth family as the root of all evil hereabouts, and his zealous bigotry encourages the kind of self-serving talk and finger pointing that bodes ill for the family.
I do not think I have ever read anything inspired by the Pendle Witch Trials quite like this book. While passion and witchcraft lie at the heart of the tale, essentially this is a book about hard choices limited by expectation and circumstance, and it brings in all kinds of rich themes around love, loss, yearning, intolerance, power, betrayal, revenge, cruelty and kindness in unexpected places, set against the backdrop of suspicion and fear that characterised this period of history.
Elizabeth Lee plays with the threads of the story in a way that is completely unexpected, and although we have cunning women here they are not the ones we normally read about in a witchy yarn. So much of their life is dictated by the crushing poverty the hand of fate has dealt them, but you are never quite sure where the line between cunning and witchcraft lies, and at times, they seem to be perpetuating the myth that witches are marked and chosen to follow a dark path against their own wishes.
There is a lot in this book that is difficult to read, with plenty of violent scenes that pack a powerful punch, and at all times you are waiting for the inevitable hammer to fall. The characters are beautifully drawn, and so well filled out that you understand what drives them to think and act as they do, even if you desperately want to stop them from behaving in ways you know will break your heart. Sarah is my pick of the bunch for her sheer courage, torn as she is between what she desires and the weight of what appears to be her incontrovertible destiny, but the most tragic character here is Sarah's brother John, I think, who is forever in some kind of wretched limbo.
This is an impressive book and I could not tear my eyes from the page, even at the most distressing moments, as Lee carried me along with her bittersweet, sweeping tale. This is historical fiction at it's all encompassing best, working in themes that have intriguing parallels today in terms of prejudice and human frailty. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Cunning Women is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer in hardcover, e-book and audio formats.
Thank you to Isabelle Ralphs of Penguin Random House for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Elizabeth Lee won the Curtis Brown Creative Marian Keyes Scholarship, and her work has been selected for the Womentoring Project and Penguin’s WriteNow Live. She lives in Warwickshire.
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