The Witches of Pollok

By Anne Downie
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Anne Downie is the author of many successful plays, Parking Lot in Pittsburgh, The Female of the Species, The White Bird Passes and The Yellow on the Broom and an award winning actress on both stage and film.

This is a gripping tale of witchcraft based on a true story set in seventeenth century Scotland on Pollok estate. There is a central character – a young girl, Janet Douglas (whose background is a mystery) who cannot speak initially but who does find her voice to accuse others of witchcraft, which was thought to have caused the horrific, untreatable illness afflicting Sir George Maxwell of Pollok. Counter accusations fly to and fro. Margaret Maxwell, Sir George's daughter, persuades her father to take the girl into his employ but is torn between her concern for her father and her growing suspicion that her new found acquaintance may not be what she seems. She enters her father's library to try and find answers in the pages of James I's book on the supernatural but she is too late to save the five tenants who are tortured, tried and burnt at the stake. The malevolent Janet Douglas disappears amidst the ensuing conflagration ... and turns up again deported to the colonies to possibly start another episode of mayhem ...

"The Witches of Pollok by Anne Downie is The Crucible transported to Glasgow and Paisley. At a time when the British government stands accused of complicity in torture, and has been whipping up hysteria around outsiders, this novel reminds us of an earlier period of paralysis and fear, when Scotland was a far less open place than it is today, a cauldron of prejudice and spite, where accusations of sorcery carried the threat of death. The Witches of Pollok is a vivid historical fiction that gives a gruesome insight into a world that is not as distant as we would like to think. Religious bigotry and intolerance of others, from snooping and sniping to terror and torture, remain part of a conflicted political culture, and the poor and voiceless are still its primary victims. The Witches of Pollok may be set in the seventeenth century, in a world drawn with vigour and energy that makes it an irresistible read, haunting and harrowing as the fires of hell, but it’s a cautionary tale for today. It would be flippant to call it a ‘pot-boiler’, but lovers of historical romance will find as much to intrigue them here as admirers of literary fiction with a contemporary message."
Willy Maley, Professor of Renaissance Studies, University of Glasgow

Title	Price	ISBN	Publication Date
The Witches of Pollok	£6.99	978-1-906220-36-5	7th October 2010