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They could not be sounded because of the thing in her throat – a thick, throbbing form that stole her voice and used her breath for its own. Martha’s mutism (caused by a childhood illness) takes away her physical ability to speak up for herself or for any other woman and leaves her vulnerable to both ignorant and willful misinterpretation to those who would only see what they wish to see. Initially because of the fact that the women victims weren’t named, but everybody else was: the jailer, the judge, the juryman, the woman who ran the pub opposite Moot Hall, the guy who made the nooses. That could not be sounded because of the thing in her throat—a thick, throbbing form that stole her voice and used her breath for its own.
The witch won’t die’: Margaret Meyer on writing The Witching ‘The witch won’t die’: Margaret Meyer on writing The Witching
Martha is aware that her muteness potentially reduces her agency because she’s not able to speak to defend herself or correct assumptions. More nuanced and emotionally engaging is Demon’s fierce attachment to his home ground, a place where he is known and supported, tested to the breaking point as the opiate epidemic engulfs it. In late-18th- and early-19th-century England, Sally Clitheroe must struggle with personal tragedy in a time of great societal upheaval. I've just read enough about the misery and injustice of the witch trials already and was not in the mood to read another 300 pages of it. There was a heated seven-way bidding war in the UK for Margaret Meyer’s first novel The Witching Tide, which is a transportive reading experience set in the dark heart of the witch trials that took place in East Anglia, 1645-47.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. And how do you hold onto your own sense of integrity when truth and lies have become indistinguishable, and common sense and reason abandoned? Firmly entrenched in real history, The Witching Tide is inevitably an emotional and intensely immersive reading experience, and all set against the collision of superstition and religion, the folklore and intrinsic rural ways of 17th century English life, and the atmospheric tides and moods of the East Anglian coast. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer, and servant, has lived peacefully for more than four decades in her beloved coastal village of Cleftwater. Soon, everything is being laid at various women’s feet - dead babies, bad winter weather, illnesses, sunken ships, dead animals.
The Witching Tide: A Novel by Margaret Meyer, Hardcover The Witching Tide: A Novel by Margaret Meyer, Hardcover
The premise of the tale surrounding witchcraft in the 1600’s is right up my alley, I had incredibly high hopes for this work. The chaos, the twisted logic made me wonder if it was possible these historical events actually happened; the essential truths of human nature as seen in these characters made me worry they could happen again. In the time this book is set, disability can be a death sentence for one of a hundred reasons, and Meyer really shows . I got a job here at the Museum of London, a social history museum, and eventually met a colleague who eventually became my husband. The Aldeburgh harbour was beginning to silt up because of drift in the oceans (the sea washes silt) and ultimately actually blocked the river Alde.The women are tortured to extract confessions: deprived of sleep, starved, dehydrated, and led on enforced continuous walks through the night leaving a trail of bloody footprints. Raised in New Zealand, she moved to the UK for work and then settled here after meeting her husband. Overall, this story captures the injustice and savagery of witch trials in a compelling prose and the creation of interesting characters. The problem with being trapped in her silence was that we were also trapped within her repetitive thoughts and worries.
The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer | Waterstones The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer | Waterstones
MM : Well I wrote the book as part of an MA at the University of East Anglia which is quite a famous degree. The town thinks itself insulated from the darkness sweeping England, until the witch hunter arrives and begins arresting women all thought innocent of evil. It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society. I don’t just mean witch trials, I’m thinking of all the books about, for example, Pat Barker’s book about the siege of Troy, and Natalie Haynes’ retellings.Among the few cherished keepsakes she has from her mother is a small wax doll—a poppet—which acts as a talisman and comfort and, ultimately, source of mystical power for the beleaguered Martha. To read this book is to step inside time, to feel the bite of the sea air, to walk in the grime alongside Martha as she fights the tide of unspeakable cruelty and suspicion. One of Kingsolver’s major themes, hit a little too insistently, is the contempt felt by participants in the modern capitalist economy for those rooted in older ways of life. Any blemishes found were judged to be evil and any type mole was believed to be what the devils imps would feed from. Mam had taught how a left eye was the witching eye, able to see things not readily visible but present nonetheless.
The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer | Goodreads The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer | Goodreads
When Wellington confronts Bonaparte at Waterloo, the carnage is horrific as cannonballs rip bodies to shreds. Margaret Meyer evokes the uncanniness, the appalling cruelties of the witch trials in a way that is also thoroughly humane and shining.Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer, and servant, has lived peacefully for more than four decades in her beloved seaside village of Cleftwater. Women who were found guilty of being witches were hanged at sites around the county but often their names and burial places were not recorded. This proves a disaster in this kind of situation where everyone is on edge and scared for their lives. It is, not unexpectedly, a feminist novel, but it is Meyer’s need to ensure we don’t miss this fact that proves the book’s greatest weakness.
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