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. The Dead Queen of Bohemia documents the progression of a voice and a life written over the last twenty years.

Its bearing Witness to the death of Geilles Duncan who was hanged as a witch at the tender age of 15 in 1591 and also to all other women who were and still are being persecuted just for being a women. And if we think of the way our children can also be conditioned to think in this way then consider the tale of Hansel and Gretel or the Slavic tale of Baba Yaga. Seaton had enabled Geillis to be tortured in a room she had previously cleaned for him and she says of her torturers, ‘ So much fun laying into a girl, right? Will men stand shoulder to shoulder with women in supporting their demands for the murdering of their sisters to stop?

I truly believe she has a special way of telling a story and making you feel part of it and of something bigger at the same time. Iris, however, insists that she is marginalised, fat-shamed, worn down by the modern day’s relaxation with rape and so that’s it, she’s off! Set on the 4th of December 1591, Hex weaves together a present day protagonist with a woman accused of witchcraft in Edinburgh. Their relationship becomes one of love and understanding, but also anger and sorrow, as they learn more about each other’s lives. It opens with Jenni's most recent work and includes her previous two collections, both now out of print.

It is only recently that I learned how extensive the witch trials in Scotland were, which is pretty shocking, so I was very interested to see how this story which is inspired by the North Berwick witch trials, would unfold. An infamous madam, a spy, a famous Beat poet, a coal miner who fears daylight, a psychic: these are some of the residents whose lives are plagued by the building's troubled history in disparate, sometimes chilling ways. I was expecting more of a story but it seems it was more written to make a point about perceptions of women in society. The book has its moments of lyricism and joy with recollections of days by the sea shore, frustrated by hopes of a simple life. How can she lie rotting in her flat unnoticed whilst directly outside thousands of tourists are queuing daily to see the Edinburgh Tattoo?

No me ha gustado mucho el estilo, pero si esto son cosas que a ti no te importan te animo a leer el libro. Hex is inspired by the North Berwick witch trials, it is set in 1591 and focuses on Geillis Duncan, a fifteen-year-old girl who was convicted as a witch and hanged on the 4th of December of the same year. Está es una historia desgarradora, triste y lamentablemente real que la autora toma, aborda y en base a ella crea un acontecimiento ficticio dónde dos "brujas" se conectan, una es Duncan, en su celda, y la otra es un Iris del siglo XXI que la acompaña en sus últimos momentos de una forma muy particular. This is a deeply contemplative read about misogyny and the power structures that work to silence and strip away women’s power. Queda claro cómo fue el ataque que sufrió, el cual es totalmente injustificable, pero se da a entender que fue algo que se gestó con anterioridad a raíz de una serie de sucesos.

Inspired by the North Berwick witch trials, the author masterfully demonstrates how the injustices women faced at the hands of men are still occurring today but in a different form, by telling us Geillis’ story.

Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day. James set sail from Leith to fetch Anne personally – although he had a retinue of some 300 men with him. Jenni Fagan is an author whose work I have enjoyed so much up until now that I no longer read the blurbs of her novels; rather, I just sink into the unknown, feeling sure that I will like what I find. Separated by centuries they may be, these women present a sad realisation that there is still much to connect their situations. We all know the witch trials and subsequent burnings or hangings were unjust and absurd because we know that witches and witchcraft in the mystical sense do not exist.

We witness Geillis’s last night on earth through Iris’s eyes and we come to know about her arrest, the barbaric torture she had to experience, her trial, and at last her death. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. I agree with you that the slippage between witches are real/witches are a social construct used to oppress people is a bit of a problem – I feel like it turns up in other novels on this topic as well. The blazingly original author of Luckenbooth delivers another ferociously intelligent and mesmerising tour de force featuring a condemned sixteenth-century witch and a mysterious visitor from the future who dangles the tantalising prospect of escape.The reason for being here is certainly something that many men have thought about – most of our greatest philosophers have been men who attempted to answer this question. Much of the short book is a feminist outcry about the treatment of women by men, which is of course, perfectly justified and true, but I would have liked to have learned more of the historical context around witch trials in Scotland and so on. En más de una ocasión, me dio la sensación de que la autora daba por hecho que teníamos que saber ciertos detalles de antemano. As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace - and the tantalising prospect of escape.