The King’s Witches by Kate Foster

Our top reviewer, Sophie Nock, shares her review of this book.

A tale of duty, fear and motherhood, The King’s Witches follows three very different women as they struggle to survive in Scotland at the beginning of the witch hunt era. Showing the change in King James VI on his discovery of the European witchcraft crisis, Kate Foster beautifully simulates the environment of 1590 and the rapid spread of suspicion at this time. The folklore around witches and the gradual descent of each character’s situation bring the real-life experiences of women in the face of a monarch’s fear into sharp focus, as their attempts to free themselves become more desperate.

The historical accuracy of aspects of the novel are coupled with imagined characters and events to create a descriptive exploration of life in 16th Century Scotland, in which it is never quite clear if witchcraft is just make-believe or if the powers of the “cunning women” are real. The constant fear of the “Divvil” and obsessions with godliness bring back a time when evil could be warded off with prayer, and protection from a witch might be found in an amulet or “charme” of the very kind a witch would make. The struggles of each character to choose between her duty and desires in an increasingly superstitious and hypocritical society creates a gripping read, as the origins of the witch trials are explored through the distinct voices of women both real and imagined, traversing cell, courtroom and the king’s own bed chamber. The fear and suspicion that lies within every page of The King’s Witches bring to life the beginning of a period of mass murder through the eyes of women close to the king who began it, who in saving themselves perhaps worsened what was to come.