In March 2021, I was gifted a copy of The Manningtree Witches, a debut historical fiction novel from Amy Blakemore. The novel relies on historical characters and records, and focuses on the first victims of the massive witch hunts that took place in Essex during the English Civil War.
A.K. Blakemore's debut is a riveting, unsettling story of menace, corruption, and murder. The Manningtree Witches ventures into dark places, for sure, but it is also such a powerful story told with wit and rich detail. Unputdownable.
Having enjoyed the novel so much, I was thrilled when Tandem Collective got in touch to ask if several influencers would like to talk about the book a little more with the author herself. I was keen to take part and Amy Blakemore was kind enough to answer a few questions, which I've featured below to share with you..
A.K. Blakemore's debut is a riveting, unsettling story of menace, corruption, and murder. The Manningtree Witches ventures into dark places, for sure, but it is also such a powerful story told with wit and rich detail. Unputdownable.
Having enjoyed the novel so much, I was thrilled when Tandem Collective got in touch to ask if several influencers would like to talk about the book a little more with the author herself. I was keen to take part and Amy Blakemore was kind enough to answer a few questions, which I've featured below to share with you..
As a poet, what drew you to writing a novel? Was it something you always knew you’d want to do?
Blakemore: It was something I definitely always wanted to do! But I think I got very bogged down during past attempts with my own perfectionism and wanting to write a sort of ‘big ideas’ book - The Manningtree Witches, it sounds weird because the subject matter is so dark, but writing it felt like play! I had a lot of fun. I think having a beginning, middle and end set out for me with the history let me really go to town.
Do you see the book as a feminist novel?
Blakemore: Do I see the book as a feminist novel - that’s a hard one. I’m a die hard feminist, obviously, and I did want to centre the histories of forgotten women, which is a feminist impulse, for sure - but I think I struggle with terminology like ‘feminist novel’ sometimes because I think it can be like... ‘I’ve written a feminist novel, now I don’t have to engage with actual politics’, if that makes sense?
...So it is a novel by a feminist and hopefully that appeals to other feminists, would maybe be my preferred way of talking about it! And i really hope it opens up new dimensions of thinking for readers and introduces them to new aspects of women’s overlooked history.
What drew you particularly to the telling of Rebecca West’s stories. Amongst all the accounts of accused witchcraft and execution out there, what was it about hers that made you want to tell it most?
Blakemore: So when I was reading the accounts of the trials and the confession, the mother-daughter relationship between Rebecca and Anne really jumped out at me. Imagining these two single women, obviously strong personalities, living together and at each other’s throats - there was a dynamic there I wanted to explore. And also, the fact Rebecca does essentially *betray* the other women, as far as we can tell - I was drawn to the fact she wasn’t, in some ways, a ‘hero’ - she’s flawed and frightened and opened to manipulation.
I think lots of historical fiction is about women whose lives are very exceptional - and obviously in some ways Rebecca as I’ve written her is exceptional, but the textures of more ordinary lives and women are worthy of literature to! So, I was attracted to her... ordinariness, in many ways.
What made you use real people as characters, as opposed to fictional ones within the historical setting? Did the fact that they were real people impact how you went about writing them?
Blakemore: I guess because there so much there already in the testimony I could use. They were these skeletons I just had to add the meat to! A lot of the time the testimony and accounts of the trials threw up ideas for twists or hidden dynamics - like there’s a lot there, but also glaring gaps I wanted to fill.
So, like John Edes really *did* testify against Rebecca, and said she had told him she had ‘Congress with the devil’, but the record doesn’t show if Edes said, *when or how or why* she told him this… which I thought was weird, obviously - and that’s where the idea for their entanglement came from.
I love the Beldam West! She reminds me of my own neurotic nan. She really did kill her neighbour’s pig in revenge for an argument once which is... obviously insane, but what a babe. (I’m a vegetarian.) Reading the testimony about her, you get the sense of this absolutely larger than life character - hard as nails, but also with a massive spirit and sense of solidarity about her... she took care of her neighbours, she loved her friends, but she took no bullshit.
What was the biggest rabbit hole you fell into while researching?
Blakemore: The biggest rabbit hole I fell into while researching... hmm. Okay, so 17th century insults are amazing: ‘Arse worm’, ‘hill digger’ and so on! It was very fun to be able to write these saucy characters jabbing at each other verbally with such rich nastiness.
I thought it was just amazing the way in which you played with language. It felt so lyrical and yet not hard to read as a novel. As if it had a tune while I read it. Was that intended?
Blakemore: ‘A tune’ - that’s a lovely thing to hear, thank you! I guess maybe coming from poetry rhythm and aesthetics in language are something you’re quite attuned to? So not intentional, but maybe a quirk in the way I write!
During your research I assume you visited Manningtree, is there any evidence there of the history?
Blakemore: My dad lives in Manningtree! So I know it very well, I’m up every Christmas. Manningtree is very pretty! The Red Lion pub is still there, just across from where the women were hung.
Is there a bookshop in Manningtree? It’d be very fitting to see your book on sale there!
Blakemore: There aren’t any bookshops there unfortunately :( but my dad’s trying to get the health food store to stock it - he’s my biggest advocate.
Can we talk about Hopkins? He's such a complex villain.
Blakemore: He’s an absolutely fascinating character, historically. One thing that surprised me in my research was how young he was when he died - like, younger than I am now. For some reason I always thought of him as old (Vincent Price played him in the terrible Witchfinder film.)
I pictured him as a much older man until his real age was revealed in the book.
Blakemore: I guess there’s something to him of like - that pretentious, sanctimonious guy you hate at university.
Which character was the most enjoyable to write about?
Blakemore: I actually think Hopkins was probably my favourite character to write? Surprisingly.
I found him very creepy.
Blakemore: But also, I think in a way he’s very pitiable, yes - like it was harder to be a woman living under the yoke of Puritanism, but it can’t have been easy for anyone. we now have understandings of things like religious indoctrination, which I think definitely played a role in all this. You didn’t really have much choice but to embrace dogma and repression and horror. And Hopkins was a serial killer, essentially, but he was shaped by his world.
So does Hopkins fit the profile of a psychopath?
Blakemore: I’m always a bit reluctant to apply psychological labels to anyone from afar - because perfectly ‘sane’ people do terrible, terrible things in the service of institutions and power. I think it is hard to say because he is such a product of his times too. From our modern point of view, a lot of people in history could be seen as such… as we see now with the re-evaluation of historical figures now with Churchill etc. I find it so fascinating because - we’ll never know!
But I think you can’t underestimate how massively god and the devil inhabited the minds of people in the 17th century. They believed the world would soon end, hell and eternal damnation were very real in their minds. So… if Hopkins was really the die-hard Puritan he made himself out to be - then what he was doing was totally right and pure to his mind.
Interestingly, Hopkins was considered a horrible torturer by many even in his own time. His career ended very suddenly, essentially because ‘learned men in London’ started to hear about what he was doing, and thought it was hideous. So even at the time he had detractors.
Do you believe in witchcraft?
Blakemore: Ooh - that’s hard. I’m not sure I believe in individuals having ‘supernatural’ power in the sense they believed in the 17th century, and certainly I don’t believe in the devil, but I think there are lots of things that are essentially ‘magic’, and people practice them, like music, art, etc.
There’s a really amazing definition of a witch from my friend Rebecca Tamás. I can’t find it! But what she says, essentially, is that a witch or wizard is anyone ‘who changes the world, materially’ through their own action. And that could mean a lot of things!
I’ve always been a bit wary of the idea you need to be ‘special’ somehow to make a difference or change the world, like in Harry Potter. I prefer to think of ‘witchcraft’, or that kind of power, as something we all have access to, if we want it. No muggles!
What are you working on next? I know The Manningtree Witches has only just been released, but I’m already eager for more! Can we expect another novel from you?
Blakemore: On my next novel! yes - hopefully, I have an idea germinating now. Just in the research stages, so not for a long, long time, but I’m excited by it!
Unfortunately, I need to go abroad for fairly essential research, though, without giving too much away... so who knows when that will be possible due to Covid-19.
Oh wow! I hope you get to go there safely very soon.
Blakemore: I’d be happy just with the pub at this point to be honest. Soon!
Thank you Amy for your time, and of course your beautiful novel. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next!