Históricamente conocida por ser una joven acusada de brujería en Escocia, tras horribles torturas que la obligaron a confesar y señalar a otras personas que también fueron procesadas de estos cargos. Women from nothing can give birth to life and are so much more related to nature than men because of this.

Tough and calm, electrifying and intent, it is an intelligent and deeply literary novel which deals its hope and hopelessness simultaneously with a humaneness, both urgent and timeless, rooted in real narrative subtlety. As the time approaches dawn, Geillis tells Iris about how she came to be imprisoned, and offers a ‘visceral description of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition. Intenta usar una historia de viajes en el tiempo y presuntas brujas para lanzar un mensaje feminista, pero le falta fuerza. This is the second in the (so far) very impressive Darkland Tales series from Polygon, for which modern Scottish authors offer retelling of the country’s history and legend.While this resonates, and I remained intrigued at the time, on reflection I find it a little counterproductive. Fagan brings a terrible beauty to a brutal world – the description of Edinburgh High Street’s cobbles being just one example which, once read, is never to be forgot – and the magical and the realism are always in perfect balance. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. Geillis Duncan and all of the other countless women who were killed just for being women should not be forgotten. Iris answers Geillis about the present: “no it’s mostly just men doing what they feel entitled to do, certain women’s deaths seem like they are almost, well, expected.

Condemned to death for witchcraft, she is set to hang in the morning when she is visited by Iris who has traveled across the Ether from the present day to comfort Geillis in her final moments. The writing was fantastic quite lyrical and poetic at points and it was amazing to see how much of a solid connection was crafted between these two women within a short number of pages, not only did this book manage to tell the story of Geillis and Iris but also the experience of so many women. Jenni was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists after the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon, which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize.Her location is again Edinburgh’s Old Town, but this time in 1590, set around the North Berwick Witch Trials. A pamphlet that was produced at the time of the North Berwick witch trials was titled Newes from Scotland and James used this pamphlet to conclude his work Daemonologie (1597) which was published again when he ascended the English throne in 1603.