The Witching Tide: The powerful and gripping debut novel for readers of Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel

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Witches appear to be very “in” these days, among a certain type of woman – a woman, on paper, not unlike myself; those attempting to learn that being “mad” or “occasionally irrational” or “a bit difficult” could, with the right marketing and a few crystals, be reshaped into a positive. And so it might appear, at first glance, that Margaret Meyer’s is merely a brazen attempt to capitalise on this trend (women being, as we all know, by far the largest market for novels). But such cynicism would prove ill-found. A timely, visceral novel that hurls the reader into a community riddled with suspicion, fear and recrimination. Margaret Meyer expertly creates an atmosphere of creeping dread, where no one is safe, and women find themselves punished for their own misfortunes and those of their erstwhile friends and neighbors.” — Natalie Haynes, author of A Thousand Ships CM: One of the things I admired in your novel is the way you show the transference of that archetype through a group of women. In the witch trials there was this idea of contagion: the fear of the coven. But the central figure is Martha Hallybread who is an ingenious protagonist because she is literally unable to speak. How did you come to her? An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.

The Witching Tide: A Novel by Margaret Meyer, Hardcover The Witching Tide: A Novel by Margaret Meyer, Hardcover

CM: The poppet is such a disrupter in the book and I wondered when it arrived in the process of writing this story? The other thing from perhaps a more feminist perspective is that the witch has always represented an affront to patriarchy. The witch won’t die: the archetype just won’t lie down. I think there’s a strong parallel between this figure and what is happening right around the world. We’re all watching an erosion of women’s rights in one form or another and the witch kind of symbolises all of that. She pops up again, in different centuries in different guises. East Anglia, 1645. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer and servant, has lived for more than four decades in her beloved coastal village of Cleftwater. Everyone knows Martha, but no one has ever heard her speak.This isn't really a book to dip in and out of - it's one that you need a good half hour at least to totally lose yourself in. And then, you'll rush your way to the end to see what happens (all the while praying for a happy ending you have about 2% faith will happen). Meyer is a superb writer. The world she conjures here is elegant and haunting, utterly beguiling and convincing of time and place. I was gripped by Martha’s plight, captivated by the gleaming details of the prose and horrified at the wider picture they revealed. As with all great historical fiction, The Witching Tide gives voice to the unspoken and brings light to dark places, drawing to the surface those stories that need to be told and need us to listen.”— Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters From the Publisher You deny you’re a witch? You’re a witch. You admit you’re a witch? You burn. But at least God will forgive you for telling the truth. Ahhhh. Martha is marginalised by her muteness. She communicates solely by ‘shaping’: hand gestures and signs, understandable to those who know her, but baffling to strangers. Her hands ‘must talk for her’. Italicised text has been substituted for dialogue, so the reader is always aware of what Martha struggles to communicate.

The Witching Tide Margaret Meyer on her debut novel, The Witching Tide

The Witching Tide is one of now many books depicting witch hunts and trials, and yet I always find something that individualizes the story and makes it different to the rest. As usual with this type of historical novel, fact and fiction are blended, and for every witch hunt novel I read, I discover new methods of torture and new prejudices against women. I read widely around witch hunting in general, and on this particular witch hunt. The other book that was very influential is something called The Midwives Book , which was written by a lady called Jane Sharp in the 1670s so it was contemporaneous with Martha [who is a midwife in the novel]. Ah, I loved this book so much. There’s something about the events of this time that both fascinate and repulse me. I love to read about the day-to-day life of this time; it appeals to me and is one of things I love most about historical fiction. The addition of the East Anglian witch hunt gives a haunting look at the murders that occurred puts a tarnish on the time and reflects the fault in human nature for what it was. The ignorance and fear that could be evoked in the simplest of things – a birth mark, a misspoken word, or a bitter vendetta – each leading to something horrific, that of being labeled a witch. A death sentence in these times.It’s easy to empathize with Martha, especially since we get a front seat view to her innermost thoughts. She finds joy in caring for Kit, her employer, who she has raised since she was a baby, and kind of views as her own family. Working as a midwife and healer, she interacts with basically everyone in the village. There’s a sense of foreshadowing throughout the story, probably because I already know how witch trials went. But Martha and her friend deliver a baby with a cleft palate, which was a fatal deformity at that time, and she humanely kills the baby to stop it from suffering. But shortly after this, the witch finder arrives looking for trouble, and won’t stop looking until he finds it.

The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer - Fantastic Fiction The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer - Fantastic Fiction

Her cheek throbbed. She found she could not look at him. Life with Kit had gone along of its own accord, she had lived it more or less content, had never thought to question it. Or be questioned, in her turn. Meyer is a formidable storyteller; her sharp descriptive powers offer readers an immersive experience... The Witching Tide is the remarkable story of the women who survived cruel, unjust imprisonment and went on to reclaim their rightful place in a community forever diminished by the hanging of so many innocent women. It is also a forceful interrogation of what happens when pious paranoia, stoked by ignorance, engulfs men already drunk on their own power.” — Shelf Awareness, starred review Have you ever read a book and been blown away by how incredibly it was written, and then realized afterwards that it is a debut and been even more impressed? That is exactly what happened to me with this book. Autumn is the perfect time to start reading darker themed books, and especially those pertaining to witches, so this was the right time for this one. All it takes is one bad apple to spread his evil and poof the whole village is frightened and in an uproar.MM: Yes, poppet is a term of endearment. I’m slightly playing with that as well. In fact, the original working title of the book was The Celftwater Poppets: you know that idea of the little poppet darling women. It’s demeaning. It’s impossible to picture the world without the figure of the witch. She enters our imaginations early, through children’s books, TV and film. Slippery to define but commanding in her presence, the witch has long been a fascination for storytellers. And perhaps more so now than ever. In the past few years there’s been a flourishing of witch-related conversation. Across publishing there are history books covering the witch trials across Britain, Europe and America; there is a constant slough of fiction for children and above; there’s a new BBC podcast called WITCH which explores the history of the devastatingly violent witch trials before asking what it means to be a witch today. Despite what the synopsis claims, there are no hints of Margaret Atwood here. Yes, the story is devastating, but how could it not be? This does not mean it does anything beyond the superficial. For a historical lesson, this could be a win, but as a novel, it will not be memorable for me.