I was interested to learn that most of the characters in the book are based on real people, including Fleetwood Shuttleworth herself, the ‘witches’ and the men responsible for arresting them and arranging the trials. As I’ve said, I’ve read other books on similar subjects – for example, Beth Underdown’s The Witchfinder’s Sister, Katherine Howe’s The Lost Book of Salem and Helen Steadman’s Widdershins – but this is the first one I’ve read specifically focusing on the Pendle Witch Trials. I think The Foundling is the better of Stacey Halls’ two novels, but I did still enjoy this one.
Fleetwood vows to do whatever she can to help her friend, but will she be able to save her before it’s too late? 1612, however, is a dangerous time for women who are seen as ‘different’ in any way, and when a group of suspected witches are arrested Alice is one of those accused.
Just having Alice around makes her feel better and she is sure that this time she will give birth to the son and heir Richard so desperately wants.
Alice seems to know a lot about herbs and remedies and what is needed to bring about a healthy birth, so Fleetwood asks her to join the household at Gawthorpe Hall until the child is born. This is her fourth pregnancy and all of her previous three have ended in a miscarriage – and, more worrying still, she has discovered that Richard has been hiding a letter from a doctor warning that if his wife became pregnant again neither she nor the baby would survive.Ī chance meeting in the woods one day with Alice Gray, a young midwife, gives Fleetwood new hope. Fleetwood is seventeen years old, in love with her husband, Richard, and pregnant with his child this should be a happy time for her, but instead Fleetwood is filled with dread. The novel is set in 1612, in Lancashire in the northwest of England, and is narrated by Fleetwood Shuttleworth, mistress of Gawthorpe Hall. It didn’t sound as original as The Foundling – The Familiars is about the Pendle Witch Trials and I’ve read quite a few other books about witches – but I hoped it would still be interesting. After enjoying Stacey Halls’ The Foundling earlier this year, I decided to read her previous book, The Familiars.
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